This post originally appeared onMedium.

If some information isreallythat important, trust that it will come to you another way, e.g.

through your personal connection.

And when you actually need to find an email, practice using the search function.

Optional response.No need to respond, but it would be more courteous if you did.

Spare time reading.It would be nice to read, but not required.

Practice putting as many emails as possible into this category (and the previous one!

)This is key to improving your email productivity.

Undecided.Rather than suffer from paralysis by analysis, just put it into one of the above categories.

It’s probably #1 or #2.

Consider creating email folders for #2-5.

#2 could be multiple folders depending on projects.

#3 and #4 can just be one folder each.

Make Your Email Processing More Efficient

Have aspecific timeto process your email.

I spend 30 minutes at the end of each workday clearing my email inbox to zero.

This is more efficient than trying to clear your inbox to zero throughout the day.

Because of the “batching” principle.

Thelessoften you switch activities, themoreflow and efficiency you tend to experience.

What if you get urgent emails?

If it requires a response immediately, I do that.

If not, I save the response for end of day.

Sometimes by the end of day, the issue resolves itself.

When people figure things out for themselves, they become more empowered in the process.

This way, you’re not draining your subconscious energy, continuing to wonder if you’re getting messages.

And definitelyturn off any email notificationsaudio and visualfor new messages.

You don’t work in a nuclear power plant.

(And even if you did, the truly urgent stuff wouldn’t come via email.)

(you might even trythe “email game” tool.)

Write shorter emails.What isthe one main thingyou want to communicate?

The shorter your emails, the shorter their email response tends to be.

It saves everyone time.

However:be positive & friendly.Emails can build, or erode, relationships quickly.

For example, “Thanks for your thoughtful message!”

or “Hope the rest of your week goes well!”

Only open a few emails, while archiving/deleting the rest.

Simply resolve to open and respond to thepersonal and privateemails.

Categorize according to the aforementioned seven types.

I do thisafterI’ve responded to the emails I need to respond to.

Then, I quickly archive the remainder.

Whenever you are processing email, open that document.

Image byrobuart(Shutterstock).

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