E-mail has already become a common working tool, effective work with e-mail is, however, still not so common as you think. Just consider how often you let e-mail to disturb you from an unfinished work or how many times per hour you check your mailbox to see if a message did not come by chance. That certainly reflects on your productivity in a negative way. What to do with it? In addition to securing your mailbox using a quality anitispam filter, keep the following recommendations.
Teach your colleagues and friends to send less e-mails
Teach them to send you only brief messages that are necessary for you. Sending e-mail is too easy not to know what is and is not desirable.
Check e-mail at a defined time, no more than two or three times a day
More frequent mail checking during the day is inefficient because it disturbs from the started work. Therefore, process your e-mails at doses two or three times a day.
Deal with each e-mail only once
Learn not to leave a message in your inbox to deal with it later. You surly know yourself that this procedure leads only to repeated postponements. For each message, so, decide how to deal with it after the first reading - either delete it, answer it or move it to one of your topically labeled folders for future processing. Your goal should be an empty inbox.
Keep it brief
Go straight to the point. Try to limit your e-mails to a maximum length of three sentences.
Choose appropriate subjects
Do not reply to earlier e-mails with messages on a completely different topic. Rather adjust subject lines to match the reality.
Filter e-mails
If you receive regular newsletters or other messages that interest you but do not want to deal with them immediately, filter them automatically into folders and read them later.
Do not check e-mail as the first thing in the morning
When you start with e-mail, you will have to address others' demands instead of choosing your own priorities. Learn to start each day with the most difficult task you have to meet.
Do not check e-mail on mobile devices
Reading e-mails on mobile devices will force you to answer but writing e-mails on these devices takes much longer than on a computer. If it is not an urgent matter or you just do not have a time gap in your work schedule, process e-mails on PC.
Estimate recipients' responses to your messages
Write clear so that the recipients of your messages clearly understand what you want. That will allow you to anticipate their questions and answer them in advance.
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