How To Manage Your Emails Better For Work and College

We’ve all been there, stuck in a deep dark hole of countless unread emails littering our inboxes with no idea where to start from. The accompanying fear of missing a really important email buried beneath all that junk doesn’t help either. How do you fix this mess while balancing your work and college responsibilities?

A disorganized inbox can quickly become any student or professional’s nightmare, yet it is hard to avoid. One moment everything is neat and perfect, and another, you can’t keep up with the daily onslaught that adds to your troubles. You would ideally like to read them all, but it’s simply not feasible anymore to dedicate that time out of your tough schedule.

Perhaps it’s your colleagues who CC you in every slightly relevant interaction, or maybe clients that have become way too much to handle. It could be the professors that won’t let you rest for a single day or that annoying group project member you’re tired of. It may even be the countless irritating websites you don’t recall that once asked for your email to proceed, and now you can’t figure out how to unsubscribe from. It’s just way too much to keep up with, and it can be pretty easy to feel lost.

Well, you’re in luck because we’re here to help you out of this mess. We’ve compiled a handy list of ways to help you better organize and manage your work emails starting today. These tips and tricks will help you build better email and inbox habits, so you never have to go through this mess again. So without further adieu, let’s dive in!

1. Get rid of the junk

One of the first things it would be wise to do is slowly but surely get rid of the backlog of junk. Only some of your emails will be important and need your time and effort to review. Many of them may be junk from random websites you don’t remember signing up for, and you would be surprised to find out that they probably outnumber the important ones. So it would be best if you dealt with both types of emails differently.

You can allocate time for any important-looking emails to review them first to check if they are relevant before deleting them. However, for the spam emails, it would be better to delete them en masse as they likely have nothing of substance to them.

One immensely useful trick is to take any of these spam emails you come across, unsubscribe from the website it came from, and then search the email address in your email search bar. This will bring up all emails received from this particular email, which we are already aware are junk, that you can then wipe out very quickly in a singular go. Repeat this enough, and you will have a fresh-looking spam-free inbox in no time.

2. Create a routine

Once you’ve gotten rid of all the junk, the next step should be to build a daily routine of checking your emails that you can follow so that all of it doesn’t build up again. A good practice would be to check and reply to your emails every day at a set time without fail. Some people prefer this to be the first thing they do when they wake up; others may like to do this over breakfast. Everyone is different, so find what works for you and stick to it. Just make sure it’s near the start of the day, so you are caught up every day. This trick will also ensure that you don’t miss any important emails and reply to them on time.

3. Pin important emails to reply to later

If you ever encounter an email you must reply to later, just use the pin icon to pin it to the top of your inbox. This way, you can ensure that you won’t forget to reply to them, and once you’re done, just remove the pin. Your inbox will look way more organized with this simple trick.

4. Separate work/college emails from private

Another important step you should take to make your email life easier is completely separate your private and work-life emails. For your college or work-related emails, you should exclusively use your institution-provided email account so that all the important emails will be in one place. On the other hand, you should make separate email accounts for all your private and personal needs. This guideline will ensure limited mixing of random private emails with work emails so that you never have trouble finding what you’re looking for quickly.

5. Try an email client

If, for whatever reason, you still feel like you would not be able to follow all these tips and tricks, then don’t worry; we have the perfect solution for you; smart email clients. Smart email clients such as Canary Mail are a lifesaver for students or professionals struggling to manage and organize their work emails.

Canary Mail is a clever AI-powered email client stacked with features that does all the heavy lifting for you. It’s AI technology learns from you and automatically organizes your inbox how you would like it to. Its smart prioritization brings all your important emails to the top, so you never miss one again. The 1-Click unsubscribe button does exactly what the name suggests and saves you from all the effort and time you would otherwise waste. Its conversational assistant and easy pin feature make navigating your emails effortless. Long gone are the days of being lost in your inbox with Canary Mail by your side, so be sure to give it a shot.

Conclusion

Emails can quickly get overwhelming when you’re a student or professional, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. With a few minor changes and quick corrections in your habits, you can once again have full control over your inbox in no time. So if you too are struggling right now with a massive disorganized backlog of emails, then definitely give these tips and tricks a try and let us know how it goes.