Email Best Practices - 10 Tips to Help Manage Your Inbox

Remember when email was novel and exciting? I do. Rewind back to 1997 right as ArcStone was getting its start. It was fun to get email because you didn’t receive too much. It was managable. An email message was like getting a letter in the mail. It was pleasurable and usually came from someone you knew and sounded like this.

Fast forward 18 years. Things have changed dramatically in the world of email. We get email on our phones, watches, laptops, tablets, desktops...It's always there. Not only is email not fun, it’s something that most of us dread.

Email is a daily struggle. It's elusive. Most days I receive over one hundred messages and I know I'm not alone. Email’s relentless and never ending. The moment you get through your inbox, more messages sail in. So, how can you make email more managable and reduce the amount of time you spend dealing with it?

Start with these best practices.

1. Don’t let your inbox get full
Even if you can’t get to inbox zero, a term coined several years ago by Merlin Mann, clean out your inbox every day. Try to do it at the same time every day. By creating a routine, you’ll be less likely to drop the ball. When reviewing messages, label it for later. If it’s a quick task, take care of it right then.

2. Short and sweet
Don’t write long-winded, rambling emails. No one likes them. They’re draining, confusing and usually do nothing to move a project or task further along. How many times have you opened an email and noticed that the message is really long and quickly closed it, saving it for later? If you can’t get your main point across in 2-3 sentences, the topic may warrant a phone call. For more on this, read "Mastering the Short Email."

3. Keep fonts & formatting simple
Save fancy fonts and formatting for your design projects. Use standard fonts that are available on most computers for email. Same goes for formatting. Keep it simple.

4. Enlist the help of the subject line
Use the subject line to indicate what the email is about. This may seem obvious but I frequently receive email with vague or even empty subject lines. A good subject line can improve the chances of your email getting read and it makes scanning through your inbox much quicker too.

5. Action items & outcomes
Be clear. Is there something that you want the recipient to do? If so, don’t wait until the end of the message to say so. Keep action items front and center so they don’t get missed or better yet, include them in the subject line.

6. Reply all, only when necessary
Use "reply all" sparingly. If you must send the message to everyone on the team, be sure to address specific people on questions and to-dos. That way, people know who will respond.

7. Long vacation? Consider email bankruptcy
If you have a vacation coming up, especially if it’s over 10 days and you won’t have access to your email, consider declaring email bankruptcy. Email bankruptcy, coined by Lawrence Lessig, simply means that you’re planning on deleting all emails older than a specific date, due to the vast volume of messages.

8. Use the Gmail + trick
If you use gmail, setup specific addresses and filters to reduce spam. Let’s say that you bought a new pair of socks from a website called “Fancy Socks.” Use the address janesmith+fancysocks@gmail.com to create your account. Email to this address will still come to your regular gmail address but you’ll be able to easily filter it out from your inbox and even see if the folks at Fancy Socks are sharing your email address.

9. Revisit your signature
Since we typically don’t send email to ourselves, email signatures are often overlooked. Make it a point to review your signature every ninety days or so. Confirm that all contact information and links work properly.

10. Be prompt with your response
Let’s face it, people expect an immediate response with email. If you’ve received an email and it’s going to take more than one to two days to write a thoughtful reply, send a quick reply back acknowledging the email and let the sender know that you’ll get back to them within a specified time period.

To learn more about experimental features at Gmail, explore the official Gmail blog.