Are you using your email effectively?

For the majority of people, emailing comes as naturally to them as breathing, however not everyone is using their email in the most effective way possible. Check out Grant McGregor’s top tips below on how to use your email effectively in the work place.

Aim for Inbox Zero

Rather than leaving your inbox full of hundreds of read and unread emails, why not aim for inbox zero? An empty inbox is a happy inbox after all! Although you probably won’t have time to empty your inbox every day at work, try setting yourself an hour or so a week to organise your emails into folders and delete anything you don’t need.

Leaving your inbox filled with hundreds of emails and you are bound to miss something important at some point.

Make sure your email is filtered for spam.

It’s a must for any email today to have some sort of anti-spam filter that can reduce unwanted email to a minimum. Just remember that not all ‘unwanted email’ is spam though… You may have subscribed to something using your email address – in which case, consider whether you still want this email. See "unsubscribe" below. If, however, you are receiving obvious spam email then use either an on-server anti-spam software application or, better still, get a perimeter anti-spam service in place.

Change your social media settings

If you are super popular on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, it is likely that you will get a number of notification emails on a daily basis. Do you even really need these emails? It’s unlikely. So instead of letting them clog up your email inbox, consider switching off the email notifications.

Unsubscribe

It only takes two seconds to unsubscribe to those e-newsletters you no longer bother reading and it will save no end of space in your email inbox!

Create a ‘reply by x folder’

Many people find it beneficial to create a routine to manage their emailing. For example, they will only reply to their emails on certain days of the week (unless of course the matter is really urgent). To make it easier for you to stick to your routine, organise your emails into different folders. For example you could have a ‘reply by Tuesday’ folder or a ‘must reply by tomorrow’ folder for more urgent matters.

Archive emails centrally

Today it is essential to keep any business emails you send on record and the best way to do this is through email archiving. Many businesses find it effective to archive emails in a central location. This prevents old emails from taking up too much storage space on employees’ individual computers.

Don’t over-check your inbox

Whilst email allows individuals to send information quickly and effectively, it can also be a big distraction in the work place. People have a tendency to over-check their inboxes, which can result in wasted time and poor levels of productivity.

Use your email more effectively by only checking your email at certain points in the day. Blocking off sections of time dedicated to checking and replying to emails will prevent you from getting distracted from your other core business tasks.

Setting up security measures

We use email so much that opening emails and downloading the attachments almost becomes an automatic process. The problem is that not all attachments are safe to download; there is always a risk of malware and viruses. In order to use your email effectively, always use a virus scanner to check any email attachments before you download them. You can even set up your anti virus scanners to automatically scan emails for you.

Create an email policy

One of the best ways to make sure that employees are using their emails effectively in the work place is to create an email policy. The policy should set out what employees should use their emails for, your rules regarding the retention and discarding of business emails and how employees can prevent viruses and malware infiltrating their computers. Creating a strict email policy is the best way to increase efficiency and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Conclusion

Email communication can be incredibly beneficial to businesses of all sizes, providing it is used effectively. For more information on email archiving, anti-spam solutions and other email security solutions, get in touch with Grant McGregor today.