Open Thread: How Do You Handle Your Email?
Posted June 12, 2009 in Open Thread, Productivity 30 Comments »
How many hours per day do you spend reading, writing, or sorting through email? If you’re like most freelancers, I’ll bet it’s a huge amount of time. Most of us work primarily over the web, and those who don’t are still bound by the need to communicate via email.
From customer inquiries, to ongoing products, to just plain spam — the volume of email crossing the average freelance desk is considerable. What’s worse, most of that email needs a response. It’s no wonder there are so many resources and products dedicated to email productivity.
In this open thread, let’s examine the issue a little closer. By pooling our resources and knowledge we can probably help everyone save a bit of time or find a clever way to boost productivity. See if you can answer these questions in the comments:
- What platform do you use for email? e.g. Outlook, Gmail, Mail.app, etc.
- What productivity tools do you use? Filtering, folders, add-ons, etc.
- What is your favorite email productivity tip, tool, or resource?
About the author: Mason Hipp is an entrepreneur, marketing guru, and writer. He blogs about life and business at FreelanceFolder.com and is co-author of the Book The Unlimited Freelancer. Follow him on twitter @MasonHipp
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30 Comments
Max
June 12th, 2009 at 9:17 amIndeed, I also have to deal at least one hour each day reading and responding to my eMails which is one of the most important ways to keep in touch which my clients.
I use Mail.app and have to admit that I’m really satisfied with the way it works. In order to stay ahead of all of them I put them into folders and archive them as soon as a project has been accomplished.
In my opinion it’s not just important to make sure a desk is tidy to stay productive – it’s at least as important to organize all eMails and tasks accurately to achieve that.
There are some things I consider quite useful. First I usually summarize important things for each client in a note put into the folder created for a specific client or project. This is a good way to keep the overview and so I don’t have to read the entire conversation once again just to make sure I didn’t muss a fact. Besides that I usually try to keep my inbox as empty as possible, answering all of the eMails I receive as soon as I can and so it’s no wonder that opening up Mail.app is the first thing I do each morning when I enter my office. :-)
I believe that trying to keep the inbox clean and well organized is quite important – not just because anybody who receives a quick answer usually appreciates that, but also to find peace of mind.
Mason Hipp
June 12th, 2009 at 9:51 amI use Outlook primarily, though everything is forwarded through Gmail and an MS Exchange account (so that it gets pushed to my phone).
As far as productivity tools, I’ll admit that I’m pretty far behind in getting my email accounts organized — no inbox zero here :-) I use flags constantly, reading through email and flagging them as they come in. I then go back through and batch process the responses.
My biggest tip is to unsubscribe yourself from all automated mailings, or in the least set them to go to a different account or folder. When you have dozens or hundreds of emails to respond to each day, automated messages have got to go.
Russell Grimm
June 12th, 2009 at 10:00 amI use GMail, both for my personal account and my business account (via Google Apps). I also have the GMail app installed on my BlackBerry which enables me to check both.
On my PC, I occassionally use GMail Notifier to receive updates, though it depends on how busy I am. I use Netvibes and have a widget for both my personal / professional accounts.
For both accounts, I have massive amounts of filters – for receipts, Elance updates, Dev newsletters, regular newsletters, you name it. They help sort items and make life much easier / more productive for me.
My biggest productivity tip is actually something I just taught myself. Organize all e-mails for a particular project into a folder, and even create a filter to automatically store them there – just be sure to not miss them! With Gmail, this is easy with their simple filtering / labeling system.
Colin Wright
June 12th, 2009 at 11:05 am1. What platform do you use for email? e.g. Outlook, Gmail, Mail.app, etc.
2. What productivity tools do you use? Filtering, folders, add-ons, etc.
3. What is your favorite email productivity tip, tool, or resource?
I use Gmail on the web and on my iPhone, though i have about a dozen other email addresses for different purposes forwarding into different Gmail folders and categories. It’s all very OCD organized and excellent. I filter a bit, but mostly I label and archive. Inbox Zero is the way to go. I also keep my calendar pulled up next to my inbox, which is nice, because then I know I don’t have anything coming up soon and can concentrate at the task at hand.
I’d say go for Inbox Zero…it’s changed my stress level dramatically. It essentially involves having NOTHING in your inbox except for immediate action items, and as soon as you handle one, you label and archive (or file…depending on what service you use) so that it’s out of your hair. Looking at a totally empty mailbox usually means you can go eat or relax or whatnot. It’s a great feeling.
Alex aubert
June 12th, 2009 at 11:24 amI’m using mail.app and I’m pretty happy with it, even if gmail taunts me every day :)
I’m practicing zero inbox, and using it as a “GTD email box”. All emails I can deal with quickly are answering immediately, emails requesting a longest action stay in the inbox for later. As soon as the action required by an email is done (simple answer or modification in a comp, or whatever), the mail is moved to the proper folder (usually the corresponding project folder).
I’m using IMAP so every is sync between my laptop and my desktop.
bogdan pop
June 12th, 2009 at 11:42 amI use mail.app to work with my 5+ email accounts. No folders, except for traditional inbox, sent, spam… I also use iCal and todo’s in there to track important stuff from emails, with specific deadlines. These apps are perfect as I can sync everything between computers, online account and phone.
A productivity tip would be this one: Stop checking your email every 30 minutes. If you cannot go on with work when a new email pops in the inbox, just close the email client for a couple of hours. If something really urgent comes up, the one contacting you via mail should do it on the phone!
Tommy
June 12th, 2009 at 11:43 amI use Outlook ‘07. I would prefer to use Thunderbird, but I am a huge fan of OneNote and the integration between the two applications is pretty darn neat (and productive). The only add-on I use is Xobni. It improves search and integrates LinkedIn and Facebook (as well as others) into Outlook.
As for how I manage my emails, I am anal about using folders, tagging messages, and dragging those that need more then a couple sentence reply to the “Task” area. I rarely, if ever, have more than 2-3 emails in my “In-box.”
I also use ‘07 for my RSS feeds, which I have about 125 of that are industry/client related. Again, I think there are better readers, but I prefer to have my feeds with my emails. And that is really where OneNote comes into play. If I get an attached in a email, a feed I want to research, a link, you name it I can just send it to OneNote and start working, then use what I’ve done as either a blog post, and article on my site, or a response to an email.
Bill DiBenedetto
June 12th, 2009 at 12:01 pmI use Outlook almost exclusively. The first thing I do each morning is a select-all of all the email that’s arrived overnight, usually 100 or more (it’s mostly spam) and then do a major batch deletion.
I have dozens of folders and subfolders setup by subject matter and for some clients. Some email automatically goes into the folders, the rest I manually move into these folders (if they are worthy). About once a month I clean out or winnow down the content of all these folders.
I find that handling email is the most time-consuming and distracting part of the day, but as I’m still in the “building-the-business” stage I pay more attention to each email than I probably should.
I like the Outlook feature of automatically saving new contacts, but I don’t understand the value of archiving. Can someone explain why auto-archiving is necessary?
sam
June 12th, 2009 at 12:04 pmuse this notifier http://gmailnotifier.net/
Jeremy
June 12th, 2009 at 3:24 pmI forward all of my email addresses to Gmail, which are tagged with the address from which they come in. To access Gmail I set it up as an app using Fluid.
The first filter that it goes through is Otherinbox. This seems to cut through a lot of the things that I may want to access at one time or another but for the most part don’t matter all that much.
The rest of the mail is sorted by me. I use a tagging system to organize it. New client, active client, follow-up etc. On the average work day I respond to anything pressing almost immediately anything that can wait an hour or two I file under “follow-up” + other tags like Active client, Prospect etc. Once I follow up I drop the follow up tag so I don’t get confused. I also installed Send and Archive so that each time I respond it gets placed in Sent Mail Archive and alleviates some of the clutter.
The follow up tag comes in very handy when I am busy, or it’s after hours/weekend. If I didn’t use this tag I would probably have some unanswered emails here and there.
Another thing that may be helpful or possibly hinder my outside of work life is being able to access everything via iPhone, same organizational features in place.
Oh yeah and I agree, checking your email too often can sometimes put a damper on the day.
Basic Computer Information
June 12th, 2009 at 5:25 pmWhat platform do you use for email?
Outlook Express.
Thinking of trying Thunderbird.
What productivity tools do you use?
-Folders
-Rules
What is your favorite email productivity tip, tool, or resource?
-Sort incoming mail with rules and folders.
-Sort mail by Date Received
Konsalting Sajtovi
June 12th, 2009 at 8:23 pmI use mainly Gmail. Mail accounts from websites are redirected to Gmail, too. And I use it from mobile and on desktop PC. Regarding productivity tools, contacts groups are main help there for me.
Julian
June 12th, 2009 at 11:38 pmWhat platform do you use for email?
Gmail (the best in my opinion)
What productivity tools do you use?
Filters
What is your favorite email productivity tip, tool, or resource?
Filters and labels. I apply appropriate labels to clients’ emails and forward them to my phone automatically with filters. What’s great about Gmail is that the email is sent as a text message so it’ll work even if your phone doesn’t have the mobile Net (like mine).
I use “Stars” to differenciate particularly important client email such login details or the contract we agreed upon for quick future reference.
Nikhil
June 13th, 2009 at 2:04 amI use Outlook 07.
I like the flagging method available in this. I also use hotmail account for other purposes.
I nearly monitor my email account all the time for clients and use hotmail account for Blog Subscriptions, different signups and for general purpose. It helps to keep business away from the regular activities.
I like both Outlook and Hotmail…
theCount
June 13th, 2009 at 11:08 amI have tried to post a comment twice and they both disappeared, is the blog broken?
theCount
June 13th, 2009 at 11:09 amHmmm that worked so I will try again…
I use Thunderbird for all my own domain based email accounts. By connecting to my email servers using IMAP I have better control over syncing between different machines and the webmailer service.
My Essentials for Productivity are as follows:
Use Folders and Filters together with the Address Book for managing email subscriptions, newsletters, alerts and reduce Inbox clutter.
Use every Anti-Spam method available (host, client and antivirus application)
Just deleting spam is NOT going to help, instead use all your options to flag Spam and Junk mails before deleting them, the more spam you flag the less you will get.
Disable preview panels and loading images in emails. Why?
Firstly, this helps to combat spam, and tracking cookies, and is a first line of defence against email Virus attacks.
Secondly, It will force you to actually read ALL mails not handled by your Filters, make a habit of reading a mail fully and then either flagging it for action, creating a filter based upon it or replying immediately if appropriate.
Finally learn to delete, uninteresting, irrelevant, unsolicited and useless emails – get brutal and also delete your Trash – your email client will load and run faster.
Establish a routine schedule for using your email client and when you are not using it leave it closed. Doing this will help you avoid distraction and to concentrate on dealing with emails properly. Email is not a medium for urgent matters! the telephone is the best option for instant action, tell your clients this too. If they have sent you a mail that requires immediate action they should make a 10 second call and let you know.
My schedule looks like this:
Morning Coffee: 15-20 minutes Filtering, Flagging and Deleting and then immediate Responses. Exit email client.
Lunchtime: 15-30 minutes Reading and Flagging, this is where I take the time to follow links and take actions on mails. Reply or take action on Flagged inbox items. Flag and Kill Spam. Exit email client.
Late Afternoon: 15-20 minutes Reading, Flagging and Replys. Deleting all the Left overs from the days mail. Exit email client.
Writing emails is done as needed during the day, these are the typical client/colleague interactions, sending proofs, asking questions, requesting infos etc. Rely on your Filters and Flags and don´t get sidetracked into following up on non-urgent mails in these short sessions. After sending the mail exit the email client.
This is how I go about my daily email business, it is up to you to set up and manage a schedule that best suits your working day, what is important is that you don´t leave the email client open outside of your scheduled timeframes.
Of course the exception always proves the rule but if you are disciplined and establish routines then you will reduce the amount of time wasted by “browsing” email to an absolute minimum.
ilkut
June 13th, 2009 at 11:25 amI use mail.app which starts upg hideously as the system logs in
I also use labeling with/and filtering + archiving to keep the inbox 0 and organized.
Catherine Azzarello
June 13th, 2009 at 11:51 amI use mail.app. All my accounts (gmail for personal/subscriptions/etc.; name@website for clients; info@website for business-related stuff) are set up as IMAP accts that I manage through mail.app.
I also set up smart folders for clients and subscriptions. That way, everything is automatically organized and easy to retrieve.
Setting up sync on Mobile Me also simplifies things. That way, I can sit somewhere else (deck in summer is nice ;-) with laptop and coffee to read & compose mail, flagging ones that need more attention. When I move into the office w/iMac, flags are there and I can address mail as necessary.
Marketing Specialist
June 13th, 2009 at 1:44 pmThis is a great thread and a lot of good ideas/options in the comments. I would say I spend approximately half of my day reading, responding and deleting the influx of e-mails in my various inboxes.
1.What platform do you use for email? I use Outlook ‘07 and the only addin I use is Xobni
2.What productivity tools do you use? fitlers, rules, Onenote and of course Folders
3.What is your favorite email productivity tip, tool, or resource? Rules are a must! Client e-mails I have sent to an ‘immediate response’ folder, friend e-mail are sent to a separate folder, RSS feeds sent to a ‘read later’ folder, etc.
I will say one of the best rules I’ve ever implemented has been the e-mail delay rule – essentially I applied a 5 minute delay to when I e-mail is sent unless the e-mail is noted as high priority in which case it is sent immediately. This has saved me a number of times!
Chani
June 13th, 2009 at 2:35 pmI use Outlook 07 to manage around ten different email addresses, for various businesses that I am involved in. Each email address has its own .pst file, so they stay separate. My inbox on any one of those addresses is regularly emptied to folders and subfolders. Within Outlook, I use the Calendar feature quite heavily, plus Journal, Notes (that get attached to mail messages and tasks), Evernote, Flags/Categories (color coding to highlight important items), and Tasks. The Outlook Dashboard is a true gift, gives me a snapshot of how my day will unfold, and allow a quick look ahead to the following two or three days. I receive around 250 email messages a day, that I handle in three sessions – early morning, mid-day and late evening.
Carrie
June 13th, 2009 at 3:45 pmI could not do my job without Gmail and its features.
Diane H
June 13th, 2009 at 6:04 pmMy most important productivity tool is the delete key. Press it often (although not randomly of course)!!! So much of what comes in can be glanced at and discarded, and if you ever really need it you can search your deleted folders really easily.
Keith Freund
June 13th, 2009 at 10:54 pmI use Gmail for my online business and have no complaints. It’s portable and well integrated into my phone. I have to admit I’ve never used Outlook or any email platform that isn’t web-based and can’t imagine doing so. It’s often a life-saver to have every email with you everywhere you go.
The Gmail labels system is far superior to folders (in essence, emails can be in more than one “folder” simultaneously). I can send and receive messages from my business email so I don’t have to check four different email accounts all day. Using Gmail filters, all emails sent to my business account are automatically labeled as such. Even better, my PayPal/web hosting/other automated emails are automatically labeled, archived and marked as read so I have a copy for tax reasons but don’t have to spend time marking and sorting them.
Haryo
June 14th, 2009 at 11:20 pm1. I use Evolution as the primary platform.
2. I use rules, filters and also folders.
3. I usually create a separate folder for each of my clients, and I believe it made me even easier to track down previous email communications I’ve had with them.
Northa
June 15th, 2009 at 12:09 pm1. What platform do you use for email? Apple Mail
2. What productivity tools do you use? I filter notifications (i.e., Twitter), but everything else gets dumped into a huge archive folder (currently sitting at about 14,000 messages)
3. What is your favorite email productivity tip, tool, or resource? My work relies on email, but the biggest productivity booster has been shutting it off. Allow people wait a bit longer for replies.
Rhys
June 15th, 2009 at 3:01 pmI’m sad when I don’t have a new email, but then when I do, the reality of having to respond to it hits me and I wish I could be happy with an empty inbox. I like the suggestions here. My advice is a simple “the power of small” type solution, but it works pretty well if you stick to it. I try to respond to email as soon as I get it, rather than putting it off (if I plan on responding to it at all). This means that generally I respond to emails quickly, because often I am busy working on something else. This may amount to more emails exchanged over time, because if you put off responding to an email for a long time, there are naturally fewer opportunities for exchanges. But I find that this leads to quicker more efficient correspondence ove all. And people like knowing that a response to something they feel is urgent will come soon.
Andrew Keir
July 1st, 2009 at 7:37 amHaving multiple email addresses was a huge benefit for me. My spam eventually got so bad i had to change my email address which I’d had for years.
Since then i have a primary email i only give out directly with contact forms on my blog so my address isn’t trawled up by spammers. A secondary address i use for leaving comments, or other productive things. Then a third “rubbish” address i use for signing up to anything I don’t expect to use long term.
The addresses download into different folders so i can see the primarys first, sort out the secondary stuff, and delete all the trash with no confusion.
James
July 8th, 2009 at 5:39 amI think you guys are more organized than me.
I use gMail (the online client) for all of my emails because whenever I try to set up any desktop apps it starts getting messy! I use a Windows computer at work and my MacBook at home, I also have an Android phone with the gMail app on. What’s the best way to set up my emails?
I really need to sort my emails out!
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Weiseeinveway
December 16th, 2009 at 3:34 amHowdy ya’ll,
I am most likely the first to say it, but probably not the last: Seasons Greetings.
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