In this article we’re going to go through 10 tips that work for managing email overload.
More and more emails are sent every year, with Statista predicting that almost 380 billion emails will be sent and received per day worldwide by 2025. That’s almost 30 billion more than today’s figures. And we’re talking daily here.
It’s no wonder people suffer from email overload.
But don’t worry. There are many ways you can manage email overload so that you can keep your inbox clean and your sanity intact.
What is email overload?
Email overload occurs when the number of emails coming into your inbox exceeds your capacity to read, process, and respond to them in a timely manner.
It refers to a situation in which you’re essentially overloaded by email messages, almost to the point of paralysis. It’s like a messy room that’s become so out of control you don’t even know where – or how – to start the clean up process.
10 tips for managing email overload
1. Use additional tools
For starters, you can branch out. There’s no need to use email for everything these days. In fact, in most cases, it’s not even the best choice for effective communication.
For internal asynchronous communication, instant messaging tools like Slack are a great email alternative.
Your team can download a tool like Slack and leave it running in the background while they work. Then, if team members have quick questions to ask each other, they can simply open Slack and send messages back and forth.
You can have group chats, use emojis, add attachments. It’s got all of the benefits of email without the clutter of an inbox!
But, what about external communication?
Well, you don’t need to rely on email for that either. There are tons of project management tools out there that have been designed specifically to manage project communication.
The Project.co discussion tool gives you a complete, timestamped log of all of your project communications:
And you can also keep all of your project files and payments in the same place, so no more digging through your overloaded inbox to find vital information.
Project management software eliminates this issue, because everyone has access to the same project-specific files, documents, and conversations – it becomes almost impossible to bury important messages.
2. Time blocking
One of the best things for dealing with unread emails is simply carving out the time to do it. Time blocking can help you do just that.
Time blocking is a time management strategy that helps you to manage your daily tasks by scheduling everything out in blocks of time. Here’s an example using Google Calendar:
You can use time blocking for everything in your life, not just work-related tasks. And, as you can see from the example, it’s important to add in buffer time to give you the wiggle room to deal with unexpected tasks or tasks that run a little longer than expected.
Clearing your inbox is something that you can add to your day with time blocking. All this means is scheduling in a small amount of time – even just 5 or 10 minutes – to go through your inbox and tidy things up.
If you’re really struggling with email overload, you can schedule this task in for a couple of times a day at first. But, the more you do it, the less time consuming it will be and the cleaner your inbox will become!
3. Reduce notifications
When thinking of how to manage email overload, sometimes it’s not about reducing the number of emails you have, but simply reducing the amount of time you spend in your inbox.
You can save time by reducing the number of notifications you receive from your email provider. Most email providers will allow you to do this by going to Settings > Notifications. You can reduce the number of notifications you receive, or you can turn off mail notifications altogether.
Turning off mail notifications may seem scary, but it can stop you from being distracted by every single email that comes into your inbox. This is super important for productivity!
By turning off mail notifications and instead checking your emails at allocated times throughout the day, you can reduce the feeling of email overload and be more productive.
4. Eisenhower matrix
The Eisenhower matrix is a time management technique that can help you to make quick decisions about how to deal with emails, so you can feel less overwhelmed by your inbox.
The matrix gives you a quick formula for dealing with certain tasks (or in this case, emails) by splitting them into four categories, like so:
In terms of emails, this gives you a kind of ‘playbook’ to follow. If you see an email that is urgent and important, it’s best to deal with it straight away. If you see one that’s important but not urgent, you can file it and come back to it later. If you see an email that is urgent but not important, you can forward it to a member of your team who can handle it for you. And, lastly, any unwanted emails that are not important or urgent should be deleted immediately.
This technique will help you to manage email overload and possibly make tracks towards reaching inbox zero.
5. Utilise folders to get organised
Part of the issue with email overload is that important messages get buried and it becomes impossible to find what you’re looking for.
Using folders within your inbox can help you to get organised so that you can easily navigate your emails and feel less overwhelmed by the volume of unread messages.
If you’re using Gmail, you can quickly and easily create labels to organise your inbox:
You can also nest labels under other labels – to organise your inbox even further!
When you get new incoming messages, simply sort them into the appropriate label so that you can easily find them later.
Organising your inbox with labels can help to improve efficiency and reduce any stress you feel from email overload.
6. Use Gmail’s smart features
Another useful tool in Gmail (and most other email service providers) is smart suggestions. This feature uses AI to provide automated suggestions to you when you’re composing emails.
These smart suggestions are based on commonly used phrases and the context of your email, and they can help with email overload by allowing you to respond to emails more quickly.
Here’s an example:
As you type, Gmail suggests ways to complete your sentence. If the suggestion is correct, you simply hit the ‘tab’ button to automatically fill out the sentence.
Gmail also has other smart features that can help you manage email overload directly from your inbox. For example, if you have a quick question to ask a colleague you can simply hit the ‘Meet’ button on the left-hand side to invite colleagues to a quick video chat:
Email is definitely evolving all of the time, so it’s important to keep up to date with all of the different ways you can use your inbox to help make your life a little easier!
7. Use AI
Speaking of tools and smart features, let’s take a closer look at AI for managing email overload. There are several tools out there that can enhance your productivity and reduce your reliability on your email inbox.
One example is GrammarlyGo. GrammarlyGo is an AI writing tool that can help you respond to emails faster and with more ease.
The AI is even powerful enough to pick up on sender intent within emails, so that it can make smarter suggestions for how to respond, and ultimately improve your response times.
This can save you time on reading and writing emails, making your inbox feel less overwhelming.
Another AI tool that can eliminate the need for emails altogether (in some cases) is Supernormal. Supernormal is an AI meeting notes tool that works seamlessly with Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet.
The software can create a full transcription of your meeting or offer up summarised notes that are easy to scan. This can eliminate the email back and forth that can sometimes follow meetings, by giving everyone a specific place to review meeting notes and understand next steps.
8. Create habits
A way to remain consistent with checking your inbox is to take these tips and transform them into habits.
When we perform an activity as a ‘habit’, it becomes a lot easier, because it’s automatic. Think about the small habits you enact every day, like brushing your teeth and showering. Usually, these things are done at the same time every day and this is what helps the behaviour become habitual and something you can always find time for.
The same can be done with keeping your inbox clean! But it will take consistency.
9. Stick with it!
One of the biggest tips we can share when it comes to email management is simply to stick with whatever you’re doing!
Maybe for you, time blocking is the best tool for managing emails. Or perhaps you prefer to use labels to help you get to inbox zero. Whatever works for you, just be sure to stick with it on a regular basis.
It can be really easy to let things slip and before you know it, you’re overloaded with emails again. By ensuring you keep up with regular email management, you can avoid this overwhelming feeling and take control of your inbox.
10. Manage your productivity in general
It has to be said that if you’re suffering from email overload, then it’s possible you could be feeling overloaded in other areas too.
Yes, billions of emails are sent and received every single day – so we all have bulging inboxes – but, sometimes the issue of email overload can actually be a more general productivity issue.
Managing your productivity in all areas can be a great place to start when tackling email overload. The idea being that if you manage your time effectively in all areas, then hopefully email will follow suit.
Not sure where to start when it comes to productivity? Check out the article below:
How to manage email overload with Project.co
Project management software can really help you to get over your email overload, and stop your inbox from becoming overwhelmingly full ever again.
This is because you can keep all of your project communication in one centralised place, that was decided specifically to harbour information like this in a neat and manageable way.
Let’s take a look at how to manage email overload with Project.co.
The first thing you’re going to want to do is add people to your projects – this will allow them to communicate with you via the platform!
Simply click on the People button and then ‘Invite New’ in the top left-hand corner:
Enter in the person’s email address and select their role. We have the ‘collaborator’ role for clients and the ‘creator’ role for your internal team. This is important because the role determines what permissions the user will have.
Next, you can add this person to any relevant groups and projects. This will ensure that the person is notified of communications that happen on their projects – and only their projects. No more unnecessary messages!
Speaking of messages, all new messages come through on our date and time stamped discussions thread:
It’s super easy to follow. You can tag other users, add files, reply directly to threads, and even see when someone is typing.
It’s all a lot tidier and more intuitive than email communication. Plus, according to our Business Communication Statistics 2023, 82% of people who use a project management tool to communicate with co-workers and clients say they have a good understanding of what others in their team are working on at any given time (compared with only 55% when not using a project management tool).
When you do get new messages, you’ll find them all in your Project.co inbox:
All notifications are project-specific to ensure this page never feels overwhelming, and you can easily mark messages as read directly from your inbox, pin projects to remind you to reply later, or open the discussion to send an immediate response.
Conclusion: email overload
So, that’s email overload! We hope you find these tips useful for managing your inbox, feeling more in control of your time, and generally achieving a better work life balance.
If you’re ready to take your inbox management to the next stage, you might enjoy this article: What is inbox zero – and is it possible to get there?
Or, if you’re sick of emails and ready to level up to a project management tool instead – create your Project.co account today!
