Email can be a massive asset, speeding up communication and making message access easy. In today’s age, the volume of emails can quickly become overwhelming and reduce productivity. The spam folder can be a fantastic tool to help us reduce the messages we don’t want, we’ve also got a few tips to help.
Here’s the facts.
According to research by Shift, Americans averaged over 5 hours a day checking email accounts!
The National Institute of Health cites a report where an physician received thousands of emails, all from internal sources and not companies.
The same article found that spam filters missed 20% of spam in 2015.
Email overwhelm tip: Zero-inbox and to-do list style.
According to research, the most effective email strategies are those where emails aren’t cleaned up or are setting their email inbox like a to-do list. These strategies allowed for higher performance and were less stressful on the mind. Rather than worrying about email filing systems and having multiple inboxes, using these strategies can help you get back to being productive faster.
Email overwhelm tip: limiting email time.
Losing several hours a day to emails and checking for new ones limits that time we could be using for relaxing or deep work. Instead set a schedule when you will check in on email and then close the window. For example you could set a schedule of 15 minutes to check and reply to emails at 9:30, 12:30, and 3:00.
Email overwhelm tip: autoresponders.
Autoresponders can be for more than just an out of office alert. If you consistently have the same questions asked to you over and over this is a great place for an autoresponder. If your organization uses a sharepoint site, then add a page with common questions and answers that others who message you can find! Not only can this eliminate the time it takes to respond and explain, but it can eliminate that person having to come back again later if they have the same question.
