I check my email first thing in the morning, and last thing before I go to bed. I check it once every 5 mins, clicking the refresh button and hoping to see something interesting pop in and spice up my day. Gladly (or not), I know I’m not alone in this. A study by Apex Performance revealed that we’re looking at our email about once every 20 minutes, and more than half of the employees surveyed check their inbox more than 11 times a day. In short, we’re spending a lot of our work time looking for a ping in that inbox.

1. 15 Hacks to Increasing
Email Productivity
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

2. Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

3. 1. Limit yourself to 5 sentences
According to Guy Kawasaki, ―Less than five
sentences is often abrupt and rude, more than five
sentences wastes time‖. If you are still afraid of
offending the recipient, add in this text at the end
as a disclaimer:
——————————————–
Q: Why is this email five sentences or less?
A: http://five.sentenc.es
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

4. 2. Get to Inbox Zero daily
The more messages there are in your inbox, the
more of your brain resides there. Clear it out on a
daily basis.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

5. 3. Create Filters
Keep creating filters for noisy, frequent, and nonurgent items.
What I do in Gmail is to create a filter that
automatically archives all emails that are sent from
certain senders, and voila! my inbox is junk- free.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

6. 4. Turn off notifications
Turn off automatic email checking also known as
push notifications. Turn off automatic email
checking also known as push notifications. It cuts
into your focus and flow while working, not to
mention drains your phone battery.
It cuts into your focus and flow while working, not
to mention drains your phone battery.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

7. 5. Turn off sounds & alerts
The same goes for notification sounds and alerts.
Shut them off.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

8. 6. Batch Emails
Gather your email activity into batches.
Read and send what you need to within a certain
time constraint, and then get back to work.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

9. 7. Multiple Inboxes (Gmail)
If you are using Gmail, make full use of Multiple
Inboxes.
With Multiple Inboxes, you can confidently delete
or archive messages knowing that important
messages are safely stored in your other inboxes.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

10. 8. Trusted Trio
Use Lifehacker’s Trusted Trio, which is made up of
three folders:
• Archive (for closed messages you may want to
reference later).
• Follow Up (for messages to do something about
and respond to).
• Hold (for messages you’re waiting on someone
else to get back to you about).
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

11. 9. Action Method
Or, you can choose to use 99u’s Action Method to
organize your inboxes instead.
This system is made up of 4 labels/folders: Action
Steps (tasks that need to be completed within 24
hours), Backburner (tasks that require review or
non-urgent follow-up), Delegated (tasks that
require a response/action from someone else),
and References (for non-task-oriented emails).
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

12. 10. Move Quickly
Have a set of actions in mind, and move through
your inbox quickly.
In Michael Hyatt’s words, ―Don’t get bogged down,
keep moving‖.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

13. 11. Reply under 2 minutes
If you can reply in under 2 minutes…
…do it right away.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

14. 12. Go to the bathroom instead 
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

15. 13. Archive
If in doubt, archive…
…and don’t think twice about it.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

16. 14. No chit-chat
Avoid chit-chat over email.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

17. 15. Move email app icon
Move your email application icons somewhere
where it won’t bother you – you control when you
check your email application.
Sahil Parikh, founder of Brightpod, literally places
his Mailbox application icon on the second page of
his smartphone.
Life is short. Work Smart. Have fun. Compiled by Brightpod.com

18. Life is short. Work smart. Have fun.
Compiled by www.brightpod.com