How to Manage Your Inbox

Our emails have become a very important part of our personal and business lives. It's an extremely useful communication tool as it's Less intrusive than a phone call,convenient and fast. It empowers entrepreneurs to run their businesses from just about anywhere on the globe provided they have an internet connection.

Email inboxes however tend to snowball into massive numbers of unread messages and spam if not managed properly and this can have you missing very important missives and feeling overwhelmed.

However, there are ways to manage your email so that you're more productive. In this article, we'll explore strategies for doing this, so that you can get on with the real work at hand.

Sort and Filter Emails

Imagine your inbox as hard copy files, now think about the importance of accurately filling your documents and how efficient it makes you.

That's how we need to view sorting out our email inboxes. I like to call this " Detoxing your inbox" 😊

Sort and filter all existing emails into folders and sub-folders. Take your time to carefully review emails before deleting them as you’ll most likely want to retain messages related to key aspects of your business. Correspondence between clients, colleagues and employees can help clarify any miscommunications.

This would not only make it easier to locate important emails, it would make your inbox tidy and less stressful to look at.

You can create parent folders such as the following: clients, projects and suppliers and then use sub-folders to file emails relating to specific suppliers or customers.

Also, ensure that the subject line clearly describes what is in the folder and is search-friendly.

Unsubscribe from unwanted promotional emails.

It's time to unsubscribe from all those unwanted emails and yes there could be a great number of them but if you are going to maintain a tidy inbox then it must be done.

Newsletters and advertisements can overwhelm your inbox and bury important messages.

Unsubscribe from receiving messages from specific senders if you no longer want to receive their missives or don't have the time to read them.

To make the unsubscribe process quick and painless, search your inbox for the term “unsubscribe." Review the search results and determine whose emails you would continue to welcome and the missives you would prefer to live without.

Finally Take Action Immediately.

The fastest way to detoxing your inbox is to do so right away. The idea is to not procrastinate but file or sort on the go.

When you check your messages, browse the inbox for emails that can be immediately deleted such as spam or promotional emails. Then select messages that don’t require a response and delete or archive them. Once you’ve pared down the number of messages in your inbox, you’ll be able to better evaluate which ones are the most critical.

Don’t let important emails sit in your inbox for days. Unless you’re on vacation, respond within 48 hours. Reply to the sender as soon as you’ve read his or her message.

You can set templates to make responding to emails on the go easier. Just make sure to proof-read each time before clicking the send button.

If you’re unable to respond immediately, communicate to the sender that you received the message and will be in touch shortly. Set a deadline and follow up and this would ensure that with time you also achieve 'inbox zero'.

On average, half of a person's work day is spent in their inbox.If you are able to manage your inbox yourself that wold be amazing for you or your business but imagine being a business owner without the luxury of spending this amount of time on emails,a lot of things would suffer.

To name a few, your customer service, business partners or potential customers may end up unhappy with how promptly you respond to their emails.

This is where hiring a Virtual Assistant like salma-va would be profitable to yourself and your business.Contact us today to 07955703405 or info@salam-va.co.uk to get a personalized quote on how we can support your business.

Heba Salma is a skilled administrative support professional and founder of Salma-VA, a virtual assistance firm. With solid administrative support experience from working with top executives, She decided to start her firm to support small business owners and provide a helpful, friendly service that makes all the difference. When not immersed in the small business world, Salma loves trying new recipes and spending time with her lovely family.

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