Ten tips on how to handle email more efficiently
When I wrote my prior post about how to work more productively, I wrote an entire section on email productivity hacks. There were so many email tips that I decided to give them their own dedicated post here.
When I worked at the White House, I had to learn techniques to process up to 1,000 emails a day. The high volume of email made the White House the only workplace where I had to suspend my usual practice of maintaining Inbox Zero. I have used both Outlook and Gmail at work. Each has different tricks and features you can use to improve your email organization and management. Here are the ones that I use every day.
Leverage email filters to filter your work for you. I use Gmail filters to automatically add labels, archive messages I don’t need to read, mark items as read, and pre-sort emails into what I need to read now and what I can read later. For example, I automatically add a label to updates for enforcement cases I’m working on, which saves me the time to manually organize and sort that message. I automatically add a label for emails from certain people. One U.S. Coast Guard contact only emails me about the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. I add an NPAFC email to all emails received from him, which saves me time organizing emails related to that body. Emails from news outlets, forums, the Department of Commerce library, and other entities that never send me anything time-sensitive get automatically marked as read and smacked with a label titled “Read Later.”
Use the Snooze feature. If the mere sight of non-urgent emails in your inbox distracts you, you can use Gmail’s Snooze feature to push the emails out of your inbox and have them re-delivered to you at a day and time you choose. I use the Snooze feature a lot to maintain Inbox Zero when there are emails I am scheduling myself to act on at a later date or time.
Use Priority Inbox and Conditional Formatting. I enable Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature to batch those emails together into a single grouping in my inbox, to be read later in the day. By having Gmail automatically mark these unimportant messages as Read, I avoid breaking concentration from another task to tend to an email notification about a message I didn’t need to see right away. In Outlook, conditional formatting helped me quickly focus on emails from senior political appointees that required an immediate response. Category color labels helped me track which emails were urgent and which ones could wait.
Set up custom keyboard shortcuts in Gmail. Shout-out to my dear friend Joseph Peha for sharing this super useful hack with me. I type faster than I mouse, so I use keyboard shortcuts when reviewing emails to quickly process emails. With one keyboard click, I can add a label, add an email to my task list, delete it, or archive it. I repeat these actions hundreds of times a day. By saving a few seconds every time I do that task, I can get through more emails in less time.
Create contact groups. If you frequently email the same people, creating a Contact group will make it faster for you to email them, and will avoid the chance that you accidentally leave someone off. Instead of manually typing their names every time, you just type the group name. I’m the Executive Director for a Scrabble nonprofit, and I frequently email the Board of Directors. It’s much faster for me to type Board in the To: line than to type out each name of each member of our board.
Create email templates. There are a few nearly identical emails that I send over and over again at work. One is an email asking our administrative assistant to mail a civil penalty notice to respondents who have violated federal marine resource laws. I use an email template that inserts that text for me so I don’t have to write out the same directions week after week. When I settle a case, I have a template for the settlement agreement email that I send to the other parties. These templates save time, and are worth setting up if you’re going to send the same email more than a few times. You can customize the text after adding the template language to your draft message.
Put frequently attached documents on your desktop. When I send that email template to our administrative assistant, I attach the same PDF of our regulations every time. Rather than waste several seconds digging it up from a buried folder, I leave a copy of that PDF on my desktop. It’s easy to find and attach quickly.
Create custom macros. One of the peculiar recurring emails I sent many times a day at the White House was a Reply All with Attachments. As you likely know, when you Reply All, the attachments on the original email get stripped from your reply. If you forward the email, the attachments are intact, but you then have to repopulate the recipients. I found code for an Outlook macro that let me add a button to the toolbar to Reply All with Attachments in one click. It saved me time several times a day. (I do still have the code for this macro for anyone who wants to try it.)
Don’t write, “Thanks!” or have the last word. I still remember how game-changing it was when a colleague told me that he generally doesn’t send “Thanks!” emails. After he told me that, I searched my Sent folder. I was dismayed to see what a high percentage of the emails I sent each day said nothing but, “Thanks!” Most of the time, those emails are not necessary. Yes, it’s kind to thank people. Every time you send that email, though, you’re using your time, and you’re taking up the recipient’s time to open and read your note. That may seem trivial, but when you consider how many times a day you send and receive that email, it adds up. I have stopped sending those emails. I tell colleagues that I greatly appreciate their help, and will not be sending emails saying nothing but “Thanks!”
Similarly, if I have nothing substantive to add to an email chain, I don’t respond. I let the other person have the last word. It helps me avoid email responses volleying back and forth with “Thanks!” and “You’re welcome.” If you don’t need to confirm that something “Sounds good,” then don’t send that email. Leave the email chain alone and move on. You’re saving both yourself and the other person valuable time.
Let someone else respond first. If you receive an email that is sent to a group of people, wait before responding. If someone else can and does answer first, that saves you time. I’m not advising you to push your work onto others or avoid work that’s properly yours to handle. If you’re the person who is most knowledgeable about the topic, then by all means, respond. If everyone is equally able to respond, then waiting a bit before you respond can give someone else who may be less busy the chance to respond first. That overall is a win for your organization because the person with the most time available is the one who devoted their time to responding. Meanwhile, you were able to handle other work that advanced your organization’s mission. It’s a win-win for everyone.
These practices help me make the most of my limited time each day. I’d love to hear what you do to make email work for you.