Managing Emails At Work: Some Useful Tips

Emails are something that everyone who works in an office will have to work through. Some people will only have to deal with a handful of emails a day, but busier people can find themselves managing emails that number into the hundreds.

Receiving large amounts can feel like an incredibly daunting task when you open your inbox up in the morning. But there are some handy tips that will make managing your emails easier than ever, helping to improve your work life and reduce any inbox related stress. It could also result in a more organised you!

Be Careful Who You Send Emails To

Sending emails out to hundreds of people will invariably result in hundreds of reply emails, and even more chain email replies going down the line. So it’s important to realise who you want to see the emails and who you want to reply.

This means that you have to be clear with who you are sending the email to. If you want the person to reply to the email, then send it directly ‘To’ them. This will ensure that the recipient is aware that they are the main reason the email is being sent, and so they are expected to reply. If you include everyone in your ‘to’ line, then everyone will assume you want a reply and will result in you getting more emails than you intended.

If you want others to see the email but don’t necessarily need them to reply, then be sure to use the ‘carbon copy (cc)’ option. This will allow you to send out the email and ensure it is seen by all the relevant parties while being aware that they are not the intended recipient. This should hopefully help to cut down on any replies you may receive.

This also means that you should only ‘cc’ or ‘blind carbon copy (bcc)’ function for those who definitely need the email. If you are trying to cut down on the number of emails you receive, you should also be respectful of others inboxes and try to cut down on the amount of emails they receive.

Always Respond to Your Emails

As discussed before, those are in the ‘to’ line and often expected to respond. So if you find yourself included in an email this way, make sure to respond! This could often be an important issue that the sender will need a response to. If you do not respond, there is a chance that they could re-send the email out, further clogging your box up.

By responding when expected, you will cut the chance of this happening. It is also important to be as succinct at possible in your emails and replies. By ensuring that the recipient is fully aware of what you meant, it will reduce the chance of a reply email arriving asking you to clarify what you meant. This will allow both you and the receiver to focus on your work or other emails.

Organise Your Email For Easier Management

This could be done in a multitude of ways, including creating folders for specific people or simply folders that will designate the importance of an email. For example, any emails that you need to respond to quickly or emails that are deemed important could be stored in an ‘Important’ or ‘Respond’ folder.

Any emails in this folder should be given the highest priority and completed as soon as possible. For any non-important emails, separate folders could be created such as ‘Not Important’ or ‘Low Priority’. This is ideal for emails that do not require immediate replies – instead they could wait a day or two.

Having folders for certain people would also be a great benefit as it will have the added bonus of keeping your email inbox clean and tidy. You can create ‘rules’ to move emails from certain people into certain folders, making email management quick and simple. It can also be used to remove any newsletters or promotional emails into certain folders so you do not have to deal with them.

Do You Organise Your Emails at Work?

These are just a few simple ways to manage your inbox more efficiently as well as making your working life a little bit easier. Do you do anything to organise your emails at work? We’d like to hear about it!