Escape Email Overload with These Simple Tips

Every day, we face the same battle with email overload. Our "Procrastinator Me" and "Productivity Me" are fighting for our attention, then the guilt settles in as we stare at overflowing emails filling up our inbox throughout the day.

Should I reply to this email now or after I read about Leonardo DiCaprio's new hairstyle?

Why Is It So Stressful to Manage Emails?

According to The Radicati Group, Inc., people receive an average of 96 emails a day! Along with so many emails received and about 30 sent, the level of stress increases. As Joanne Cantor, Ph.D., was quoted by Huffington Post:

"Being overwhelmed by email interferes with your brain's ability to think and hampers your creativity, as well as increasing stress."

She also said

"The sound of the new email ping from your phone or computer can actually raise your heart rate and blood pressure. But that's not all; being interrupted by the new email takes our attention away from the task at hand: the work we're actually doing. It takes time to get focused again after checking your inbox, extending the time it takes to actually get stuff done."

The term "Inbox Zero," introduced by Merlin Mann in 2006, has become somewhat of a mail irvana to most of us, and we only continue to see more and more emails coming through.

How can we shut up our Procrastinator Me and start cleaning up and reaching Inbox Zero every day?

Several resources suggest setting yourself a specific time to check email or creating folders and setting filters, etc.

What Is Email Overload?

Email overload is what you get from mismanagement of your email account. It's a new time of stress caused by a disorganized inbox, an onslaught of emails received, and the constant distractions brought on by a rush of notifications.

Can you deal with it?

How Do You Handle Email Overload? 4 Tips to Reduce Email Stress

Turn off notifications

A favorite and the easiest step of all of them! There is no need for you to set yourself a time to check your emails if you get distracted by the notifications that keep popping up in some corner of your screen.

According to emailoverloadsolutions.com, research has found that the average time to recover from an email interruption is approximately 65 seconds. For someone receiving 100 emails a day, approximately two hours a day is lost in recovery time alone.

Do it — switch them off now. You don't want so much time wasted.

Use In-Line Reply

When you send emails, it already takes a lot of time to think of the best way to structure a reply that requires you to answer more than three questions, as you want to keep it as clear and understandable as possible for everyone involved.

There is a variety of In-Line Reply add-ons and other options to make sure you answered all the questions. But most of them can get pretty messy and very confusing.

Mailbird, an email client for Windows, seems to have solved that problem. By just clicking "Enter" in the part of the text you want to comment on, the user name appears, and the comment can easily be added in the color chosen in the main settings. This simple yet great feature makes it so much easier for both sender and recipient.

Limit the length of your email

Get to the point — but without forgetting your email etiquette! You will do yourself and the recipient a huge favor if you send out emails that are straightforward, well-structured, and as short as possible yet informative.

Avoid personal chats in emails, as these messages just unnecessarily fill up your inbox. Always remember the recipient is probably trying to reach Inbox Zero as well and wants to get through your email as fast as possible.

Use multiple accounts

Using multiple accounts can actually be seen as a different way of creating folders. It is very supportive in terms of prioritizing your tasks, as it allows you to keep a better overview of what the emails are related to and their level of priority. Good email clients, like Mailbird for Windows or Sparrow for Mac, are great for managing multiple accounts.

Are You Going to Stop Procrastinating?

It simply comes down to what you are most comfortable working with and finding out what systems or features you find most useful to kick your Procrastinator Me's ass.