4 Tips To Increase Productivity While Decreasing Your Email

Email provides all of us with many conveniences but it can also increase our burdens. The amount of emails we all receive can be daunting to say the least. The good news is there are several tips you can implement that will reduce your incoming email and also give you some time back to increase your productivity in other areas.

Technology provides all sorts of individuals, professionals as well as homebodies, ease of convenience. Almost everyone has a computer and uses email communication regularly.

Many people avoid telephones as much as possible unless they are texting or on social media. Practically no one today hand writes letters to friends, family, or colleagues. Email is a way of life and one of the most used methods to communicate with others.

While email provides quick communication it can also be burdensome with just the sheer volume of emails you receive on a  daily or hourly basis. There are 4 tips to employ that will reduce your incoming email and allow vital time to be productive for more pressing matters.

1. Review your current list of senders and communication. 

In some cases, email is not the most appropriate form of communication. For example, it is best that important business decisions are discussed in person or at least over the phone. In order to brainstorm effectively and efficiently individuals should be face to face (that could be physically or virtually). It is also a better idea to wish mom a happy birthday in person or over the phone rather than sending an impersonal email wish.

2. Design templates that may be used instead of creating new emails each time for many types of communication.

A template should be created to encompass a general idea which is consistently being emailed. These can be saved to the computer and tailored slightly to meet requirements. It may not seem that this would save much time; however, if the same email is sent six times each day multiply that by the amount of time saved from each email. This method can actually save hours and hours when added up at the end of each year. Do you really like typing the same thing over and over again?

 3. Write concise emails.

It is important to be detailed, specific, and short when creating emails. Most people today do not open all of their emails. A great many that are actually opened are not read completely through.

It is a good idea to review the email and try to think ahead and anticipate what questions the recipient may have. This can prevent unnecessary back and forth emails.

When writing emails only provide relevant information and do not add empty words or phrases. Providing this information ahead of time saves the sender and recipient a great deal of time. Adding a relevant and succinct subject line is also extremely helpful and improves the chances of the email being opened and read.

4. Manage your emails.

There are a number of useful features that are provided by email account programs. One of these is the ability to block annoying and irrelevant email that is simply a waste of valuable time. Emails that are not useful should be eliminated as soon as possible.

It may seem to require a lot of time to follow a link and unsubscribe from email subscriptions; however, in the long run this task will actually save time. In the case of email subscriptions as well as some in office newsletters it is possible to manage email preferences. Follow the link at the bottom of those emails and choose exactly when and how often to receive those particular emails.

Many agree that more time is generally spent deleting emails than actually reading them. There are many steps that only require a few minutes of time that will eliminate, or at the very least reduce, this type of email. It may seem simpler to delete these annoying communications, but in reality much more time is saved by removing them altogether.

By unsubscribing from unwanted emails or just changing the frequency of your email subscriptions you can significantly reduce the amount of emails filling your inbox on a regular basis.

What steps do you take to decrease the amount of email you receive? Please take a moment to share your knowledge.