Columnist Clare Palo discusses five ways to help you better manage your emails.
One of the most embarrassing things to experience is forgetting to respond to an email that is way past due. I am the worst offender — I won’t deny it. There are currently three flagged emails in my inbox that need follow-up. Once I open the email on my phone I read it, respond in my head and then forget to type and send a response because I’m doing something at the time.
It is a well-known fact that a quality of very successful bosses and CEOs is that they respond to emails immediately, to let you know they saw your email and are taking time to listen to you.
I’ve gathered some tips that may help you with your email ADD, and help you become a successful, responsive student and co-worker. Most of these tips are applicable for smartphone usage.
1. Flag your emails.
Whether on iOS or Android, there is a flagging option on your phone’s native email systems to instantly flag emails so you can remember important information stored in the email or remind yourself to respond when you have the time.
2. Mark them as unread
If you like to induce anxiety upon yourself in order to get things done, then this tip is for you: After you read the email that you need to respond to, instead of flagging it, mark it as unread. The red badge button (for iPhone users) will give you so much anxiety on the Mail app that you’ll be forced to answer it. This works unless you’re one of those people who never clears out their emails and has 4,000 unread emails (you people are inhuman and give me panic attacks).
3. Snooze your emails
Outlook and Gmail have an option to snooze emails so that they will pop up at a certain time you set to remind you to answer. These features can only be used in the Gmail or Outlook apps or web versions, and unfortunately cannot be integrated into native mail systems.
4. Use apps like NudgeMail, Mailbox and WunderList
There are a number of apps that can provide you with reminders by forwarding your emails to you based on a set time clock (NudgeMail), snooze patterns (Mailbox, whose days are numbered) or reminder notifications about answering emails (WunderList).
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5. Respond immediately
If you don’t have time to answer the email right then, type a quick response and say, “Hey, just wanted to let you know I got your email, and I will look into this answer and send you back a response later today” (tomorrow, or whenever you know the answer). Then, the person knows you’re not ignoring them, but just busy at the moment.
Clare Palo is a senior studying journalism and digital content director for The Post. Do you have 4,000 unread emails? Tweet her @clarepalo or email her at cp954211@ohio.edu.
