Top 5 Email Management Tips

posted by Ben Chouikha in Best Practices on Jun 28, 2011


One of the roadblocks to employee productivity can be an overflowing email inbox. It’s easy to become overwhelmed when email alerts are flashing and inboxes grow to encompass dozens of messages that require attention.

In fact, a study published by IBM revealed that 45 percent of 629 respondents, all of whom were management-level, said having too many emails in their inbox caused workplace stress. Fortunately, there are plenty of steps that employees can take to ease the email management tension. These are the top five tips:

1. Organize with folders

There is a reason nearly all email clients have organization tools built into their offerings. Use them! By dropping emails into designated folders, end-users can prioritize which messages require the most attention, which messages can wait for responses and which can be dumped directly into the trash.

2. Implement inbox quotas

Placing restrictions on the number of emails employees are allowed to keep in their inbox is a common practice at many organizations. Setting a quota forces employees to prioritize the emails in their inbox.

However, if companies do implement an inbox quota, it’s imperative that they educate employees on compliance standards so everyone understands that some messages must be kept for legal reasons.

3. Email content filter

Another option is the installation of a content filter that would automatically compress an email attachment over a certain size . This will help keep the size of the messages in a user’s inbox down, while also helping to keep the system running smoothly by not bogging it down with large files. Companies should encourage their employees to utilize a managed file transfer solution rather than sending large files via email.

4. Anti-spam filter

Spam is something that all email users deal with. Through massive networks of infected computers, called botnets, cyber criminals spread spam at alarming rates, clogging inboxes in the process. Spam impairs employee productivity, as they are forced to sort through the mess to determine which messages have importance and which do not. Implementing an anti-spam filter ensures that malicious messages are blocked from entering a user’s inbox and increases employee productivity.

5. Implement email archiving

Email archiving may be the best email management practice because it can keep a user’s inbox organized, meet regulatory compliance by retaining pertinent emails and store the information in a searchable and accessible manner.  Email archives add a layer of data protection because important emails are stored out of employee inboxes, and further - out of the reach of cyber criminals and accidental data breaches. For these reasons,  companies of all sizes should employ an email archiving solution.


Share this article


Share

Comments

Don’t forget about email encryption. A good email encryption solution will use powerful cryptography techniques to ensure your messages are both stored and transmitted securely, and that only you and your recipients have the capability to decrypt your message data. There are free email encryption services out there that users can try (without having to download or install anything). I use an email encryption service that lets you send messages and attachments in encrypted form and it’s free for you and for message recipients. Once you and the people you exchange email with have all set up your Send accounts, your encrypted emails are secure and private. I use it when I need to include confidential info in my emails.

By Than Nguyen on 2011 07 08

This seems like a good way of separating the regular mail from the fluff. Thanks to the advancement in technology today, there is no more need to prioritize the mails manually.

By Mary Lopez on 2011 07 11