Do you want to know how to better organize yourself in the office for mail and various mail management? Then read our recommendations below to be always “on the piece”, even when you manage a team of external collaborators, a varied range of customers and often work via mobile.
Mail management, (short) guide to the main clients
You’ve surely heard of (and probably also will use already) the client e-mail, often called email management. “A mail client is a program that allows you to manage the composition and organization of e-mail messages by the user of the service, as well as the reception and transmission to and from a mail server” (Wikipedia).
On your computer and on your smartphone you will surely have installed one of these email clients, in order not to have to open your internet browser every time and access your webmail box.
Among the most well-known clients you could use or have used one of these:
- Mozilla Thunderbird multi-platform
- Microsoft Outlook for Windows, macOS
- Mail for macOS, iOS and watchOS
- Outlook Express for Windows
- Windows Live Mail for Windows
- Evolution multi-platform
- Pegasus Mail Win32
- Lotus Notes
Obviously there are many others (eMClient, Touch Mail, Mailbird, etc.). But in general, these programs download incoming mail directly to your device and using them is good for at least two aspects (which we will deepen below):
- It allows you to establish well-defined moments of consultation (recommended choice to avoid unnecessary and constant distractions at work)
- It allows you to organize and classify your emails to manage them better.
Mail management (and mail in general): use labels and save time
There are two solutions with immediate beneficial effects that you can adopt for optimized and above all effective email management.
- Take some moments of the day ad hoc
Do not leave the client or browser with e-mail constantly open. Dedication, rather, of the moments of your workday designed specifically for mail handling. This will allow you to concentrate better on the tasks you are carrying out, without having a perennial source of distraction procured by the emails that arrive. You will also get rid of performance anxiety (if you receive a lot of emails) and that sense of in conclusion that sometimes accompanies the end of the working day
- Use folders, labels or tags
A quick and practical way to optimize the time spent on mail is to use folders, labels or tags (depending on the mail client you use). Classifying messages helps automation deliver each incoming email to the right folder, just like a postman. So, at a glance, helping yourself with the subject of each email, you should be able to have the situation under control immediately. Then start reading and responding, obviously respecting an order of priority and not the chronological order of arrival (but this is quite obvious!).
Divide your mailbox into folders (you can add more, in addition to those set by default). We recommend, in agreement, Marketing Strategist and LED Display entrepreneur, to have only two “personalized” folders:
- “Important” folder
- “To read” folder
Because the actions you can do when you open e-mail are basically only four:
- Delete emails that don’t interest you
- Process those that are urgent or that you can do in the current email management session
- Archive emails that do not require your direct intervention, but that you want to keep
- Insert in the “unread” folder those that require your intervention but it is not urgent
Email management: synchronize your devices to avoid confusion
The mail synchronization on different devices you use today is crucial. Since we all live our working day a little in the office and a little on the move, it is imperative that the devices are synchronized. Penalty the generation of an almost total confusion in email management.
To synchronize your mail on the various devices you use IMAP and not POP 3 when you complete the configuration on your device (after downloading the app of the client mail). If, on the other hand, you check your e-mails by accessing the webmail directly via a browser, you don’t have to do / set anything. But usually we all prefer to have a client e-mail to consult.
Using the IMAP protocol, the contents of the mailbox will be identical and synchronized on any device in real time. Just as the content of the sent mail will be identical. Basically, thanks to IMAP, all messages and folders belonging to the same account are synchronized with the server. So you don’t have to go and find out which message you sent / read with that particular device and update it by hand (operation impossible today!).
Usually the procedure to download a client to the device and set it for synchronization is a guided procedure. But now you know you have to fill in the IMAP protocol field and not POP3.
Handling emails correctly increases productivity
Did not you know? That’s it. The reception, reading and processing of all the emails we receive daily takes up precious time which, if not correctly set, affects the productivity of the individual and of the company in general.
Our little advice, in addition to those written above, is to not use only the e-mails for tasking employees, collaborators and customers of the projects. There are many tools for project management designed ad hoc. Using them will help your concentration and productivity and avoid monstrous traffic jams to manage.