You may recognize it, such a full unstructured mailbox. You want to find something quickly or simply keep a better overview. These 5 tips will put you back in charge of your mailbox.
1. Process emails consistently
Processing emails consistently after they arrive in your inbox keeps you organized. So that can also mean parking emails first to process later. In Outlook, you do this by right-clicking on a message and choosing “follow up. You may also want to forward, archive or keep them in a specific folder, such as a special action folder. You can use Categories, flags, reminders or colors for this.
2. Stop CC’ing
You probably know them: colleagues who CC’d endlessly. This way of communicating certainly does not improve productivity. Establishing a common email etiquette helps with this. In it you indicate when you do and do not use this feature: resulting in a emptier mailbox.
3. Get someone’s attention with @mentions
If you want to send an e-mail message or meeting invitation to one or more people, you can type the @ symbol in the e-mail itself, followed by the name(s) of the contacts in question. The listed contact will then be automatically added to the mailing list of the email message, or meeting invitation. Want to know more? Then also watch this video.
4. Start chatting
By chatting internally and also sharing files through that program, you ensure a less full and organized mailbox. This will cost you less time. Microsoft Teams, for example, is a secure, easy way to chat and share files. Those files are also stored centrally in Teams, so that no longer needs to be done via email. In addition, you can also easily Video Meetings in Microsoft Teams, you can read more about it on our website.
5. Manage your time
Make sure you only check your mailbox at a few set times. Turning off your notifications makes this a lot easier. If you check your mail keep the rule: if you can do it in 2 minutes, do it. This keeps your inbox organized.
