It’s official:

Email is running our business lives.

According to the McKinsey Global Institute, we spend, on average, 13 hours per workweek reading, deleting, sorting and sending emails. That’s over a quarter of a typical 40-hour week! Honestly, it’s a wonder we get anything accomplished in the office.

The key to greater workplace productivity? Conquer your inbox. Here’s how:

Stop the flood.

How many unwanted emails do you delete every time you check your inbox? Stop the barrage by conducting a simple search in your email program for the term “unsubscribe.” This pulls all the messages you receive from recurring senders. Scan the results and unsubscribe from senders who clog your inbox with irrelevant, unsolicited emails that waste your time.

Don’t check your email first thing.

Nope, that’s not a typo. While this may sound counterintuitive – even counterproductive – there’s sound logic behind tabling your first email check of the day (at least for a bit). When you plunge headfirst into your inbox without a clear plan for the day, you are automatically forced into “reactive mode:”

• addressing yesterday’s fires;
• responding to others’ requests; and
• potentially shifting your priorities and derailing your workday.

Email is important, but checking it shouldn’t be the first item on your To-Do list. Keep control of your day by establishing your priorities first, and then adjusting them based on what you find in your inbox.

Check your email at regularly scheduled intervals.

If you drop everything to immediately answer incoming messages, you get off task and undermine your productivity. It’s way smarter to “batch” your email-checking activities, instead. Decide how often to check your email, whether it’s once an hour, every 15 minutes, or whatever works for your schedule. Then, only check messages at those pre-determined intervals.

Implement the “OHIO” rule: Only Handle It Once.

Immediately take care of the issue you find in each email. If that’s not possible, forward it to someone else to handle, file it to an appropriate folder, or schedule it for a later time.

Use built-in productivity tools.

For all those emails you have to “get to later,” don’t just flag them. Learn and use the productivity tools your email program contains to organize, prioritize and tame an otherwise unruly inbox. For example, Outlook allows you to color-code flagged items, create “rules” for incoming emails, and even setup a filing system for important emails that you need to save.

Conquering your inbox is one great way to improve productivity, but sometimes you need extra help to get things done. Exact Staff is here for you!

As a leading national staffing firm, we provide a full complement of staffing and placement services to improve focus. Eliminate busywork. Save time and money. And relieve administrative burdens that slow you down. Give us a call to find out what we can do for you.