One of the challenges of my new position has been juggling email overload. For anyone who understands this struggle, I have composed a list of some super simple practices that have helped me.
- Take time to unsubscribe to marketing emails you are no longer interested in receiving.
- Know what is better communicated face-to-face or through a phone call.
- Create organized folders by topic to save emails you may want to refer to later. Take time to carefully plan your folder structure. Schedule time daily to practice using it and give yourself a celebratory fist bump when you have cleared your inbox.
- Give yourself a break from your email by setting aside periods of time throughout your work day to check and resist the urge to peek all day long.
- If you can respond quickly, do so immediately. If not, use the “flag” feature and try to respond within 24 hours.
- And most of all, use Reply All sparingly.
Our district email defaults to a “Reply All” setting. To learn how to fix this, take less than ONE minute and watch this video. It will show you how to change your default settings to “Reply.”
Let's learn from each other. Share below you own email management tips.
I definitely love the flag option, but right now, I am obsessed with the pin option. With it, I can pin important emails to the top of my inbox to act as a constant reminder of a deadline, task or follow up I might need!
ReplyDeleteI "pin" too! Put it to the top to make sure you get it done. My only struggle is the "pins" don't show up on my phone email.
DeleteThat is a great tip Alli! Since this post, I have create three new folders that I visit everyday. Action 1, Action 2, and Awaiting Teacher Response. Having them all start with As keeps them at the top of my folder list and avoids email burial. I'm working on getting to the point where every email that comes in gets immediately filed or deleted!
ReplyDeleteI like being able to categorize emails and calendar events. In the classroom, it was great to be able to mark when an email came from Parents, Learners, Admin, etc. Now that I'm split between two campuses, it makes it easier for me to sort through all of the different communication coming my way!
ReplyDeleteI like being able to create inbox rules. I use them to filter emails from different campuses. I also use it to filter my blog subscriptions to their own box so those emails do not clutter my inbox.
ReplyDelete