Non-obvious, but working way to reduce the time of working with mail
Productivity / / December 23, 2019
John Smith (Jon Smith), engaged in technical support MailChimp, by trial and error led to yourself the perfect formula for mail. First he nasozdavali many folders, and then deleted every one, but none of these approaches did not work. And then he came to quite a different system.
Despite the fact that the responses to the letters occupy almost the central place in his work, he was able to reduce the time spent on various activities with e-mail, up to six hours a day. He found that, even when the mailbox was breaking from emails, a couple of simple steps can dramatically change the situation.
What is not worth wasting time
As John says, he first tried to classify the letters and create all kinds of folders: for messages from Chief, for information on the various projects, messages, for which it was necessary to take any action and so Further. He believed that it should help him to save time. But in fact, he began to spend more time trying to remember a classification system and less - on the work itself.
John SmithFor example, I received a message from the head of the project he was working on, and this message is also required me to take certain actions. In what folder should it be placed? And what were the chances that I'll remember where to look for it later letter?
So John decided to get rid of all the folders, and mail it reigns complete chaos. The absence of the system was too complicated system better. Then John decided to again revise its approach to working with the mail. He decided to sort the letters are not on the subject, and on the type of action, which they demanded to take. And here's how to do it.
Keep it simple
Simply place in the folder "Inbox" only those messages that you need to answer. The most important of them, if you can not deal with them immediately, marked as unread.
It may seem counterintuitive to you, because most burning cases should be performed as quickly as possible. It is, and sometimes really have the need to immediately respond to such reports. But marking unread important messages, you will not lose them in a lump. Also, since you do not need to move the letters: they remain in the folder "Inbox" and will draw attention to themselves until you're up to you reach them.
John SmithI try to do so in my mailbox does not accumulate more than 60-70 messages at a time. This is exactly the number of letters, which I can safely handle in one sitting.
Create for yourself a permanent schedule with mail
Every morning John allocates hour trying to clean up the mailbox. As already mentioned, it is often left urgent messages "unread." John quickly scans newsletters and internal company messages and responds to the maximum number non-emergency Posts with which he can handle within the hour.
When the hour allocated for Started with EmailComing to an end, John Smith does not close the mailbox, but it pays far less attention. As soon as new messages arrive, he quickly scans the content and sender names, to give them a certain priority. If a message can be answered without stopping for a long time from other affairs, John does. But he begins to engage in post again.
Toward the end of the day, John allocates another 30 minutes trying to dedicate them exclusively work with mail. At this time he is engaged in the letters, which require him to any action: to give approval, write a detailed response or to take any decision. That's when he pays attention to messages that are marked unread.
John SmithI could spend a lot more time to work with e-mail, but these temporary restrictions are helping me to concentrate better and be more productive.
Classify emails according to the type of response
For some messages, John still create a separate folder. Certain letters that he does not mark unread, it distributes all in two directions. Posts that require any action or response from a colleague (not necessarily urgent), John put the folder "Make". It is designed for emails, which can be sorted out in the next day or later in the week.
Even less urgent letters John moves to a folder, "Read." In addition, it uses a special filter that automatically put the newsletter in this folder. To install the filter, you need to spend only a couple of minutes, but this simple action later will save you a lot of time and effort.
If you use this method, you will get three active folder, which differ in the degree of urgency of responding to messages "inbox" with unread messages, "Make" and "Read".
Archive messages
For everything else, John Smith uses the message archiving feature. This helps him clean up the mailbox and head from unnecessary tasks.
John SmithAs soon as I read the message and take appropriate action, be it a company or a news dispatch, which I signed, I archives the.
If the message contains important information that John would like to save for the future, it marks an asterisk archived message, so it can be found more quickly.
Be especially careful when you decide to delete the message
John rarely use function to delete messages. It's a lesson he drew from real practice. Once John deleted the message from a colleague containing the information at that time he did not consider it important. Already after the employee has left the company, John needed the information from that letter. Then he realized that he was in hardcover.
John SmithAfter that I began to remove only those letters that are not exactly useful to me in the future. No offense, dear colleagues, who sent me a lovely SIFCO with seals, but these are the messages and enter the "shopping cart."
To arrive at this system, John Smith tried many different approaches that have proved effective enough for him. He tested the methods used by other people, but soon realized that he needed to try something else. John came to the conclusion that any system works only when it fits well in terms of your particular job.
Try this method or seek something different. You may be able to find a way to spend to work with e-mail is even less time.