Email is key to communication in the business world. Yet, many employees struggle to manage their time when juggling work and an overflowing inbox.
This post will provide tips and best practices to help you manage your business emails while still working efficiently.
Out-of-Office Response: Set It So You Can Forget It
Set an out-of-office response if you're away from email for an extended period. Aside from disturbing your vacation, it sets an expectation on when others can expect to hear from you.
In the subject line, put a message like this: "I'll be away from email through August 8th." Then add a list of people who should know about your absence. If something urgent needs your attention, contact someone on the list, and they can pass along an urgent message.
One more tip: When you return from vacation or business travel, don't forget to make sure your out-of-office response is off.
Set Rules and Filters to Keep Yourself in Line
Consider using rules or filters to keep your email organized. For example, if you're constantly sending relevant attachments to a specific project, set up a rule in your email program so that these attachments automatically get filed in the project folder rather than cluttering up your inbox.
You can also sort your emails by sender or subject line to find what you need quickly. Use the search tool at the top of your inbox to find specific words or phrases within each message so that you don't have to scroll through every email.
One more tip: Add keywords like "unsubscribe," "manage preferences," and "notification preferences" to a rule, and any newsletter-like items can be easily filtered out to a separate folder.
Quiet Your Screen: Turn Off Notifications
When you get a new email, it's tempting to open it immediately, so you don't miss anything important. But responding to each notification as it comes in disrupts your workflow and can deprioritize your most critical tasks. Checking email at set times during the day—like before lunchtime or before you go home—enables you to focus on those higher-value tasks.
Unsubscribe, Unsubscribe, Unsubscribe
Unsubscribe from newsletters and mailing lists. Don't have time to read newsletters or other emails that aren't relevant to your job? Unsubscribe from them! Seeing emails pile up in your inbox can be stress-inducing, so you'll be relieved when you get rid of those extra messages cluttering your inbox.
Let Your Signature Do the Work
We all sign off our emails, but your pre-populated signature can help ease your workload. Adding in a link to your Calendly or other meeting scheduling tool will make appointment setting a breeze. If your organization has a support line, including that information is a gentle way to remind email recipients of the best contact practices. You can even add in your company motto to really personalize your signature.
Filter It: Use an advanced Spam filter
Chances are, your inbox already includes a spam filter. Spam filters are a security feature that filers and quarantines spam emails from a user's inbox. Since emails have become one of the primary ways cybercriminals contact their victims, spam filters are necessary.
The only problem is that the spam filter that comes with your email provider is insufficient for protecting you from many scams. That's where advanced spam filtering comes in.
Advanced spam filters block and quarantine annoying marketing emails, certain attachment types, and some forms of phishing and spearfishing. Advanced spam filters use AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) to make decisions based on your everyday behavior. And should your email server go down, an advanced spam filter can often spin up a temporary inbox allowing you to access your email and reduce your downtime.
How Anteris Can Help
Managing your business email more effectively is one way to make your work-life balance a little easier. At Anteris, our goal is to make technology freeing, not frustrating. We know that your email inbox can be one of the most frustrating parts of your job.
Like any other form of communication, email with intention makes it more efficient and an asset rather than a liability. It's not unlike trying to get through a crowded train station without getting kneed in the back by someone eager to keep going. Wait for that right opening, and don't be afraid to take it.
Email security is just one of the things we offer. Our solution includes advanced spam filtering and hourly data backups.
Let us make your technology freeing, not frustrating.
