In my first few weeks as a faculty member I was unsure how to manage my email inbox. I received more email than I had in probably the prior 6 months as a self-employed interpreter who was mostly a stay-at-home mom. Initially I didn’t know whose emails I could safely delete. The subject lines were no real help in the beginning.
I can’t help you with figuring out which email you need to attend to in those early days, the tips below can help you keep email corralled to a manageable part of your day once you know which ones are important.
What’s in an email?
Your email inbox is a mishmash of relevant information you’ll need later, irrelevant information that you’ll likely never need, questions to answer quickly, questions that need more thought or information before you can reply, tasks, and projects.
Often people say that email takes them hours per day…really, it’s the work that comes to you via email that takes hours. And that work can usually be assigned to one of your main areas of responsibility, which is not email.
- A student asking you to double check a grade that they think is off – that’s Teaching.
- A report you need to read and critique before the next committee meeting – that’s service.
- The draft of your grant proposal that is returned with feedback – that’s scholarship.
- An article you sent for review is sent back for revision and resubmit, that’s scholarship.
- I do the work that comes via email at predetermined times – not during email time.
To effectively manage your email inbox, you’ll need a system that corrals email to the time you designate.
You receive different types of email and you probably already recognize that some email can be dealt with quickly and other email messages bring tasks or projects and will take significant effort to resolve.
Obviously you can’t deal with all of these types of email in the same way. They require different responses.
1. Create a Folder System for Managing Email
In simplest terms, you need a way to get email into the right “bucket” for managing your inbox.
Relevant Email messages go into a Repository
For example, those email messages that are relevant and have information that you’ll need to access later need to move out of your inbox and put them into a repository you can search later. This could be your email system’s “archive” folder or a folder you designate as “May Need Later.” It doesn’t really matter what you call it as long as you know the rule for what you put there.
Some people want to create multiple sub-folders for this type of information. I don’t. Email is highly searchable, and I can find anything in my archive just by searching relevant keywords or the name of the person who sent me the email.
Irrelevant email go to the trash
For that email that is irrelevant and you’ll not ever need the info, click that wonderful delete button and send it straight to the trash. If that stresses you out that you might in some twisted universe need it in the future, you can also put these email messages into the archive folder.
Email that needs a quick response need a place
Here’s where some people get stuck in their email inbox. When an email takes just a few minutes to respond to, they’ll go ahead and respond right away. If you do this, you’re likely to take up more time than you intended managing the inbox. So, I recommend a place for these email messages to live until you have time to reply (we’ll talk about when to reply later). I use my “reply” folder for this. You could call it anything else you want.
Email that Needs a Thoughtful Response
I generally move these messages right to my reply folder along with other email messages that need a reply. Other times I’ve been known to separate them into their own “follow-up” folder. Since the number of messages in this folder is limited to what has come in since my last email working session (more on this later), there aren’t too many things here to deal with.
Tasks and Projects Come through Email
Sometimes the email message is the bearer of tasks and projects that you need to complete. Managing your email inbox in this case, requires moving the message out of the inbox and into the “to-do” folder. While you’re at it add the task to your project or task management system. I’ll touch on this again later.
Most of my folder system was taken from the Stack method for email. You can learn more here.
2. Set Aside Time to Check Email
Set aside time each day to manage your email inbox. I recommend 1-3 times per day to check email and set a time limit for how long you’ll spend checking it. 5-10 minutes twice a day, and 30 minutes once per day should be plenty.
I know this probably sounds outrageous considering you’re probably in your email multiple times per hour for 5 minutes or so.
If you’re like I used to be, you’re probably clicking over to email every time you get a notification (more on this later) or every time you switch tasks throughout your day. I promise when you can get away from this habit you’ll manage your inbox better and be more productive in your other tasks.
Two different types of email work time help me to effectively manage my email inbox. I have my quick triage time, and my main working time.
Triage the Email Inbox to Manage overwhelm
Twice a day I do a quick triage. It’s part of my workday start-up and shutdown routines. During triage, I look at each email and decide which bucket it belongs to (see above). I give myself a strict 5 minute limit here. You might want to give yourself 10 or so minutes when you get started.
If I have time left after my triage, I go to my reply folder and knock out as many of those items as I can within my time limit.
There is nothing in your email that can’t wait a few hours. Nothing. Or more realistically, if something can’t wait a few hours someone probably should have phoned you.
Spend one dedicated work session per day on email
My primary email time of day is usually just after lunch, although it varies based on my teaching schedule and other standing meetings.
I reply to leftover messages that need a quick response. I also reply to items in my “follow-up” folder that need a longer, thoughtful responses.
I don’t do tasks or projects during this time. If I’ve finished something and I need to follow-up, I send those responses during this time.
3. Don’t keep tasks and projects in your inbox
Many people spend an hour or more “doing email,” but what they’re really doing are tasks and projects that came to them through email.
When you receive an email that is really a task, put it on your task list. If it’s a project, put it in your project management system.
Keeping it in your email takes more cognitive load than adding it to your task list. It ensures it’s where you’ll see it when it’s time to work on that area.
If a student has a question about a grade, for example, that’s a task – or mini project depending on the nature of the question. I add this type of request to the place where I keep all of my teaching related tasks. Then I do the task (figuring out if there is a grading error or not) during the time I have designated for teaching – not during the time I have designated for checking email.
This also helps me account for how I’m spending my time. That 10-20 minutes to “respond to that email” was really not responding to email, it was student support work.
4. Turn off Desktop Notifications
You’ve set aside specific times to check your email. You don’t need to be notified every time a message drops in. Turn off all desktop notifications for email. You can even shut down your email program. This truly is one of the easiest ways to manage your email inbox – ignore it!
It’s easier to manage checking email only 3 times per day if you’re not inundated with a notification every time an email comes in. Open your email program at your 3 designated times per day, and then shut it down the rest of the time.
5. Remove Work Email and Notifications from Your Phone
When you’re walking between classes, it’s not the time to respond to email. When you’re sitting down to dinner with friends, it’s not the time to respond to email.
Now that you have specific times of day for checking email, you can rest easy that you’re on top of the system and you don’t need to worry that something will get lost or overlooked.
Keep the boundaries clear. If it’s not email time, ignore it.
If I’m looking forward to an important message from a colleague or a journal to tell me my article was accepted (or better yet, an offer for a book contract), I can use my phone’s browser to log-in and check email. Using my browser and logging into the system is just enough friction to check my intention.
When I used to check email on my phone, I always had a long list of emails in my inbox because I would open it and realize I didn’t have time or bandwidth to take care of it on the spot. It became easier for me to manage when I have it open on my computer and only my computer, except in very exceptional circumstances when I’m looking for something specific.
6. Communicate Expected Email Response Times
I’m sure some of you are thinking, “yeah, that’s all sounds good, but what about the fact that people want answers from me right away?” To that, I say, “that’s their problem, not yours.”
You can communicate your response times in a couple of ways. You can use your email auto-responder (the same one you use when you’re out of town) to let people know when to expect a response. For example, I’ve used this wording before:
I’ve received your message! I generally respond to email messages between 1:30 and 2:30 PM Monday through Friday. If I receive an email after 2:30 PM, I will respond the next business day.
I also add a message to my syllabus that let’s students know my email turnaround time. In addition, I frequently use other communication systems for students that I check and respond to multiple times throughout the day for more pressing needs.
When you establish and stick with your boundaries, others will accept them and learn to work around them.
7. Create template email responses to manage your inbox
Templates can speed up many activities that faculty do. Many email messages you receive will need similar responses. Creating a template response for those replies can save you significant time and bandwidth. I first learned this tip from Cathy Mazak in a group coaching program she runs.
Here are a couple of email templates that I have set up:
- Denying a request for a capacity override into my course
- Approving a request for an override into my course
- Process and information needed for an advising appointment
- Informing students I’ll check on their concern and get back with them
- How to Schedule an appointment with me.
You can save your templates anywhere easy to access. If your email program doesn’t have a template feature, you can just save the templates in a google doc with headings so you can jump to just what you need. You can also create draft email messages with a subject line for each issue and then copy and paste from that draft email as needed.
If your email program does have a template feature that is probably the quickest way to implement this. Michael Hyatt, a productivity guru, wrote that he used the “signature” feature of his email program to do this. His email didn’t have a template feature; so, he created multiple email signatures to use for various needs. The signature was the entire body of an email that he then just had to tweak to meet the needs for that particular response.
Or if you’d like to be able to insert a template anywhere with just a few keystrokes, try out TextExpander.
8. Use a Scheduling Tool to Reduce Inbox Overload
Scheduling meetings can involve multiple email messages back and forth. Use a scheduling tool that syncs with your calendar so people can grab time on your calendar when you’re available. I’ve used Calendly and TidyCal in the past. My favorite tool for this is Morgen. Any similar system will allow you to create different types of appointments (i.e., 15 minute, 30 minute, 1 hour, etc.) and give them different names. For each type of appointment you’ll be able to designate times that you’re available to meet.
So, for example, if you have office hours from 2-4 on Thursdays, you can set up an “Student Appointment” and allow it to be scheduled on Thursdays, but only when you’re not already booked up. You can also create appointments that can book any time, and it checks your calendar to see when you are open for a meeting.
Of course, you can’t determine your entire schedule – that’s a post for another day – but you can reduce the number of email messages it takes to schedule a meeting.