5 Easy Ways to Eliminate Email Overload

Here are five (5) easy ways to eliminate email overload

1. Set your “send and receive” to only twice a day. If you’re like me, you need to access your email to work, whether it’s sending tasks to others or looking up communications relevant to a project you’re working on. Problem is, it’s EXTREMELY tempting to go down the email rabbit hole when you open it up, because there’s ALWAYS some new email there tempting you to open it. If you set the “send and receive” to only exchange a few designated times per day, you’ll eliminate the temptation of NEW emails popping up.
2. Unsubscribe from anything that’s not necessary. Over time, your email clutters up like a junk drawer and will cause you to take several minutes a day to process through all the spam to get important emails. Therefore, take a little time every month to just unsubscribe from anything that really isn’t necessary, including social media notifications. (Do you REALLY need to be instantly notified every time someone comments on Facebook?) This will really help eliminate email overload.
3. Turn off notifications. If a neighbor was ringing your doorbell every time they had a random question, you’d disable your doorbell. So why are you letting yourself be constantly distracted with a “ding” or a pop-up when an email arrives? It’s not like you aren’t going to go and check it. And if there IS a critical communication you need to be aware of, have that person contact you via phone; if it’s THAT important, it will warrant a phone call.
4. Set up rules to presort emails. Doing this organizes your inbox into groups of messages so you can focus on clearing and answering all the emails related to one subject, making you far more productive.
5. Delete, delete, delete! Once you’ve answered an email, DELETE it! If it’s critical, file it. Here’s another tip: Sort your messages by the “From” address. Often looking at your inbox this way will allow you to quickly erase emails that are related, answered and DONE.