Take Control of Your Emails and Better Manage Your Time

Camala Bailey, CPA, CVA, at Camala C. Bailey, CPA, PC, gives a few email tricks you should use to better manage your time at work.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“I’m often asked how to take control of time. I have five quick email tricks that you might want to consider. The first is, unsubscribe from all that stuff you never want to read. Go down to the bottom and hit ‘Unsubscribe.’ Amazingly, it works, and it cleans out a lot of your email.

The second is, keep your email short and sweet. You do not have to write love letters. You don’t have to say ‘Best Regards’ at the end. A quick sign-off is great. Keep it short and sweet. You’re doing a favor to yourself, and you’re doing a favor to the people who read it. The next is, turn off the noise. If you sit at a desk all day long, and it dings every time that you get an email, aren’t you drawn to it? I know I am. I’ve turned off that sound. What I actually do, another great tip, is to schedule time to look at your email. I schedule time when I first come in in the morning, because of course I wonder what's there. Then I look at it right before lunch. And I look at it right before I go home. My productivity when I made that change increased significantly.

The other is, don’t play Ring Around the Rosie. What do I mean by that? How many times do you exchange emails, you know somebody else is sitting at their computer, you’re sitting at your computer, type-send. Type-send. Type-send. The best thing to do if you’re exchanging emails over, and over, and over again is just pick up the phone. So, there’s some great ideas to take control of your emails and manage your time.”