How to Manage Your E-mail Effectively

Flag New Messages to Read Later
It is easy to become so consumed with checking email that it takes longer than necessary. Email message notifications can become a distraction from more important tasks, especially for men and women who work at home. Instead of reading every single message in your inbox, check the most important ones and flag any remaining new emails. Schedule a time at the end of your day to go back and read these flagged emails. Flagging messages that do not need immediate attention is one way to manage your email effectively.

Hire a Virtual Assistant
Small business owners may face a lot of responsibility trying to keep up with personal and business email messages. If you own or manage a small business, try hiring a virtual assistant who can help sort through and reply to company email messages. This can free up some extra time for business owners to focus on marketing their company to prospective clients and following up on previously completed work. It can also provide busy workers extra downtime to spend with family and friends. Virtual assistants can be found by posting job listings on freelance and employment websites or through agencies that specialize in these positions.

Schedule an Hour each Week to Delete Ignored Messages
There is a difference between spam and unwanted messages that are ignored. Spam is usually email that you can easily spot with advertisements for inappropriate products or services. Unwanted messages are a combination of emails that you get from subscribed newsletters, store discount programs and online message boards. Places where you shop may even send you emails about special events and news. These messages are sometimes ignored when men and women are in a hurry. They sit in your email inbox and accumulate until you notice a very high message count.

The solution is to schedule one hour or more each week to sort through and remove email messages that you ignored. Some men and women try to remove them every day but that practice does not work for everyone. Deleting unwanted messages automatically is not always an effective way to manage your email. The task can take up to ten minutes if there are numerous promotional or newsletter messages in your inbox. The basic task of checking email can then take up to 15 or 20 minutes when you delete ignored messages and then check important listings. That takes a lot of time away from completing other work at a job or household duties. Newsletters, discount sales and other emails can also be sent to a specific folder if your email service allows this in the settings.