Sometimes the amount of time that your email inbox eats up seems unbelievable. One minute you’re opening up an email from your Direct Debit collection company, and the next you’re fielding endless emails from your colleagues about an upcoming night of bowling. Before you know it, it’s lunchtime and you’re dangerously off-schedule.
If you’re one of the millions of white collar workers worldwide who find that email seriously affects their productivity, never fear! We’ve put together 5 great tips to help you beat your inbox blues and become more productive at work – and in life – as a result….
1. No more notifications
Email comes through all day, every day. There’s no stopping it. What you can stop is the intrusion it makes into your daily tasks and the impact this has on your concentration. Turning off notifications will prevent email from becoming distracting right at that crucial moment. Make sure you turn notifications off on your smartphone too!
2. Handle the spam
Decluttering your inbox may take time but it will save you valuable minutes and cumulative hours in the long run. Unsubscribe from anything you do not read and, if there’s no unsubscribe option, make sure you mark any repeat offenders as spam so that you never have to go through and delete the blighters ever again. This tip will also help you find important email faster as it will not be cluttered up by offers and additional nonsense.
3. Work against the clock
Give yourself a set period of time in which to deal with your emails. Make sure it’s a challenging time period to ensure you really push yourself. With just 15 minutes to work through your emails you’ll find that you prioritize more effectively and spend the right time on the correspondence which really matters. And you’ll save yourself a whole lot of productive working time too!
4. Do it on the move
Whenever you can, reserve your daily email blitz for a time when you’re on the move – commuting or waiting for a meeting for example. This will ensure you’re filling your time productively and staying on top of email all at once.
5. Embrace apps
They might seem like an initial complication, but there are loads of brilliant apps out there designed to help you make your inbox better. Here are a few good options well worth checking out:
How much time do you waste tinkering with your inbox? Do you have any smart productivity tips to help make the process faster? Share your ideas with our readers below.
