Email is an essential tool for any web user but when your inbox goes arry, it’s up to you to take the bull by the horns and harness the chatter.
The problem being a blogger is receiving TOO many emails. The first trickle of messages from your readers is always welcome but when your inbox begins to fill with an unrelenting torrent from friends, family, spam, and others, it begins to vamp valuable time out of your day.
So what’s the best way to control your email inbox and get more done?
Set up spam filters
When you freely give out your email online it only takes a few mentions to begin receiving spam messages. Spam fills your inbox, wasting valuable time in your day.
The best practice to avoid filling your inbox with spam is to simply use your email sparingly throughout the web. Set up additional email accounts for websites and subscriptions that are irrelevant to your personal or business email.
Within most email clients, a spam filter is set as default. Play around with your email settings to further protect your privacy from spam messages by restricting which emails reach your inbox.
Develop a trusted list of emails that only go to your inbox while sending any spam messages to a black list.
Unsubscribe to irrelevant newsletters
That hot new product launch was well worth putting in your email at the time but do you really need to have dozens of companies and people sending you a daily tip or links to their blog which you already visit?
Begin unsubscribing to any newsletter that is no longer relevant or doesn’t provide you with valuable content.
Most newsletters use a one click unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email, a few seconds of your time removes these time wasters from your inbox.
Organize your email with labels and folders
Not all email is equal.
Some need to be responded in a hasty fashion while others can sit around until you feel the time to respond.
Use a thurough labeling system to tag your emails based on the priority and importance.
Once you’ve established your labeling system, begin dividing your emails into folders to further give you an effective email strategy.
Dedicate an “email time”
Instead of sparatically logging into your email to read and respond to people, set aside a portion of your day soley dedicated to your email.
When you work, your mind becomes laser focused; nothing is worse than breaking your concentration to read a few emails.
Develop a chedule to that gives you an appropriate amount of time to read and respond to your emails but don’t spend longer than you need to in your alloted time.
Keep it short
I’m sure you’ve received them: the long, dry emails to convey the same amount of information that could be said in a single sentence.
Answer your emails with short responses. People on the other end may be just as busy as you, don’t waste their time.
Do some spring cleaning
There is nothing more zen than having a clean inbox.
Some people let email pile up day after day and never deleting them. Ick!
Take some time while checking your email to parse any email that doesn’t need to stay in your inbox, try to reach that zenlike count of zero.
Take back your day
Keeping a clean inbox will help reduce wasted time throughout your day. Your time is best spent doing the essentials, not reading a chain letter.
An extra 5 minutes saved each day will be over 2 additional hours of your life you’ll have back by the end of the month.
How do you manage your email?
Image by LoopZilla
Hi Murry.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
It’s a love – hate relationship; you love email but if not managed as you prescribe it swamps your time.
Excellent advice!
I like your ethos:
“To share my knowledge and help you make a living online. Together we can do this, one step at a time…”
With that attitude; the sky’s the limit.
All the best.
Regards Rod
.-= Rod Saunders´s last blog ..Internet Marketing Strategies: How To Structure Your Sales Funnel? =-.
Thank you for the kind words Rod, it’s what inspires me to write
Hahah,reading this makes me laugh because I am probably th worst guy in terms of handling my email. Anyway I’d bookmark this post as I know I will use this as a reference
.-= Melvin´s last blog ..LogoBee Review – Another Logo Design Company =-.
Excellent Melvin, much appreciated.
Whenever you get around to doing so, I can guarantee there’s going to be this really nerdy zen feeling come over you. It’s an accomplishment to have a clean inbox haha.
Thanks Naija.
One of the things that sparked me to write this was the sudden flood of email I got from older email lists. They completely changed the theme of their emails which were completely irrelevant to the original information.
I’m sure many of us have subscriptions that we simply delete as soon as they come in. Just doing the extra bit of work to unsubscribe will save you a few seconds which compounds when you have dozens to sort through
huh.. ! Great post.
..dude i really sucks or may be lazy in terms of managing my email . !!
Anyways, thanks for sharing this great post bud. Good work;)
.-= Dev @ Blogging Tips´s last blog ..Why you need to take action: In order to make money online =-.
I’ve setup a spam filter in Gmail that sends all spam mails to the trash as soon as they arrive. That way I won’t keep seeing that annoying “SPAM:5678″ in the sidebar.
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi | Make Money Online´s last blog ..Top 10 Google Products Every Blogger Needs =-.