原文: 7 Ways To Manage Your Email Like An Expert

If you are someone like me who is online 15 hours a day, then I am sure you understand the importance of email and are always hunting for ways to manage it better. It won't be an exaggeration if I say that today, email is the second most common way to communicate after telephone. And I am sure it will surpass it soon because I can already see people using their phones to in fact send email.

Hence today I decided to list 7 simple ways to better manage your email and increase your productivity while dealing with your inbox. These are the methods that I have followed and they have helped me a lot. Before I start, I'd like to mention that these ways are only for those who get less than 300 to 400 emails (excluding spam ) a day. If you get more, then I strongly suggest you to immediately hire someone else like a virtual assistant, to manage your email.

For the rest of you, here are the ways to manage your email like an expert:

1. Set a time frame: This is very important; it is easy to lose track of time while checking your mail. In between the deleting and replying, you simply lose track of time and find later that 4 hours has slipped by. You could probably set 3 slots of 20-30 minutes each, during different times of the day, to check your email. Use reminders or other time tracking tools to keep track of your time.
   
   
2. Use Gmail: If you are using a different web based email then waste no time in switching to Gmail. It will make you much more productive. You could also switch to Gmail without changing your original email address, which is probably preferred. Here is an article that explains how to do it.
   
   I advocate the use of Gmail, not as a die-hard Gmail fan, but as someone who has tried out various email clients in the past 5 years and found that nothing else compares. It has some amazing features including filters and keyboard shortcuts and if you use a desktop client like Outlook or Thunderbird, then Gmail also provides for IMAP access which makes life easier.
   
   
3. Prioritize using Labels / Folders: It's important to differentiate the important mails from the unimportant ones. If you use Gmail, then you can set filters which will do the job automatically by applying labels or re-routing the incoming mail. In all the other email clients, there are folders which you can use to prioritize your email as well. You can make folders named "friends", "Reply today", etc. and when you open your inbox, immediately start shifting mails to their respective folders.
   
   
4. Be Precise: Be precise and to the point when answering emails. You could even skip 'Hello' and 'Regards' if you want; I don't think anyone will mind it. Learn to use one-liners effectively. If you use web-based email and Firefox as your browser, then there are some add-ons like Paste Email which helps you to paste repetitive texts in forms or emails with one or two clicks.
   
   
5. Delete Ruthlessly: You can easily conclude from the subject line of an email if it's worth reading. If it isn't, delete it without thinking twice. If you slack, thinking that you probably might read it later, then believe me, that email will remain there as unread until you finally decide to do away with it. Act upon the email the first time you see it by either responding immediately, deleting it, or setting it as a task to accomplish at a specific time.
   
   
6. Don't leave it for the next day: Try and finish replying to the emails and clearing your inbox within the time frame you decided. I know, it's not always possible, especially if you get more than 100 emails a day, but if the emails go pending then the next day it becomes much more difficult for you to sift through your inbox. Think of your inbox like a snowball, the more it rolls, the larger it gets.
   

   Tip for Outlook users from Jay: If you receive an email that you want to address tomorrow, right click on it and drag it to your task pad. You can then assign a due date and a priority level. Heck, you can even assign it to someone else on your team. If you constantly do that, you'll have a good task list to work from and a clean inbox. This will completely remove the constant inbox browsing that you're doing now; not only is that habit unproductive but it's downright frustrating. If it's something that will take a long time or if it's a critical task, drag it to your calendar instead and actually create an appointment with yourself to dedicate time to it.
   

7. Replace the source: Inspite of trying out the aforementioned 6 steps, if you still find it difficult to manage your email, then check the source of emails and try to replace it with something more useful. For example, if you get tons of emails from the contact form in your website, then identify the major concern which visitors have and then publish something on your website which will help those visitors, thereby helping to reduce your incoming email flow.

Email is a great tool if you learn how to manage it. Unfortunately most people are managed by their email. Get it under control by implementing some of these tips. If you have other keen ideas, let us know in the comments.

- Abhijeet

译文: 7种方式让您像专家一样处理电子邮件的方法

    如果您像我一样每天上网15小时，那么我敢肯定你一定明白电子邮件的重要性，并总在寻找把它们处理得更好的方法，如果我今天说，电子邮件是仅次于电话的沟通方式，一点也不夸张。我相信不久以后它将会超过电话因为我已经看到人们用手机来发送电子邮件。

    因此今天我决定列出7个简单的方式以便当您处理您的收件箱时，更好您的电子邮件和增加您的效率。这些是我用过并且给了我很多帮助的方法。在我开始之前，我要说明这些方式仅是为一天收到少于300到400封电子邮件的那些人(除了垃圾)。如果您收到的邮件，我则强烈建议您立刻雇用一个虚拟助理，帮您处理电子邮件。

    对于其他的朋友，这就是7种方式让您像专家一样处理电子邮件的方法。

    设置时间表：这非常重要; 当检查您的邮件时，很容易忘记时间。在删除和回复之间，您花掉了很多时间并且发现4个小时已经过去了。您可以在一天不同的时段里设置3个槽孔每个大约20-30分钟，以便检查您的邮件。使用提醒或其他时间追踪器，以提醒您时间。

    使用Gmail ：如果您使用的是不同的基于Web的电子邮件，那么就必要把时间浪费在切换到Gmail上 。这将使你更富有成效。您也可以转换到Gmail且不改变你原有的电子邮件地址，这可能是首选。这里是一篇说明如何做的文章。

    我主张利用Gmail ，并不是作为一个铁杆的Gmail的粉丝，只因为有人在过去的五年尝试了各种电子邮件客户端，但并发现有可以相媲美的。它具有一些令人惊叹的功能，包括过滤器和键盘快捷键，如果您使用的像 Outlook或Thunderbird的桌面客户端，Gmail也提供 IMAP的访问权，这使生活变得更轻松。

    优先使用标签/文件夹：从不重要的邮件中区分重要邮件是很重要的。如果您使用Gmail ，那么您就可以设置过滤器，过滤器会自动应用标签或重新路由传入的邮件。在所有其他的电子邮件客户端，您可以使用文件夹来排列电子邮件的优先次序。您可以将文件夹命名为“朋友” ， “今天的答复”等，当您打开您的收件箱，它就立即开始向各自的文件夹转移电子邮件。

    精确：当在回复电子邮件时要准确。如果你愿意，你甚至可以省略'你好'和'关于'; 不认为每个人都会介意。学会有效地使用衬板。如果您使用基于Web的电子邮件和Firefox作为您的浏览器，有一些加载项，如粘贴的电子邮件，您只需要点击一或两次，就可以帮助您重复粘贴的文本形式或电子邮件。

    无情地删除：如果它值得一读，您可以通过电子的邮件主题行很容易地得出结论。如果不值得一读，请毫不犹豫地删除它。如果您意志不坚定，认为你很可能之后还要看，请相信我，这个电子邮件将保留有为未读，直到您最后决定要删除它。在您第一次看到它时就把电子邮件处理掉，无论立即回复还是删除它，或把它作为一项任务在某一特定的时间完成。

    别把它留到第二天：在你设定的时间内，试着完成在回复电子邮件及清理您的收件箱。我知道，这并非总是可能的，尤其是如果你1天收到100多封电子邮件，但是，如果不去处理电子邮件，第二天，为您筛选您的收件箱就更为困难。把您的收件箱想象成一个雪球，越滚越大。

    来自杰伊对Outlook用户的建议：如果你收到一封您想要明天回复的电子邮件，右键点击它，并将它拖曳到您的任务栏，然后，您可以指定到日期和优先顺序。你甚至可以将它指派给你团队的其他人。如果你一直这样做，您将有一个良好的工作清单，以及一个清洁的收件箱。

    这将完全删除收件箱中不断浏览您现在的一举一动; 它不仅是非有效性的习惯，而且简直是令人沮丧。如果它需要相当长的时间，或如果它是一个重要任务，把它拖曳到您的日历，而不是制定计划让自己特别找时间给它。

    取代来源：尽管尝试了上述6个步骤，如果您仍觉得难以管理您的电子邮件，检查电子邮件的来源，尝试以一些更加有用的东西取代之。举例来说，如果你从您接触的网站上，得很多的电子邮件，然后确定访客们的主要关注点，然后在您的网站上发表一些东西，这将帮助那些访客，从而帮助降低您的电子邮件流量。

    电子邮件是一个伟大的工具，如果你了解如何去管理它。可惜大多数人被他们的电子邮件所控制了。通过这些提示摆脱它的控制。如果您有其他更好的想法，在评论中告诉我们。