Being a manager, more than any other role, yields a huge sanity boost when we take control of our email. (We're confident in saying this, because the vast majority of our customers are execs, managers and founders - we're here for you!)
Ever wondered why email is at the centre of our workflow? Let's see if these ring true...
- You can't miss an important email. You're plugged into the central nerve of the company, and need to stay on top of all the information.
- You straddle multiple teams, all of whom use their own project management tool suited to their role. Email is only tool that works across everyone.
- The most important part of your work is making decisions, which often come in the form of emails, to unblock your team and keep them running efficiently.
What are the key things ActiveInbox can do to help you?
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Treat emails as a flow of tasks
Give emails Due Date reminders so nothing important is missed, and add Sub Tasks and Notes so you instantly know how to close the task every time you re-open it.
You can also add lower priority emails to a new priority list called 'Low Priority'. Or you might separate out news updates into a list called 'To Read'.
Doing this means you can also empty your inbox to achieve Inbox Zero, knowing that everything important is tracked. You'll be sure no nasty surprises are lurking.
To stay calm and do deep, thoughtufl work, you can separate checking email from replying to it. The former is a quick 'prioritize and archive' skim of the inbox, to check for explosions, and the latter is a chunk of time you set aside once a day.
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Be sure colleagues reply to you
Whenever you send an email to a colleague, you can mark it to Follow Up if they don't reply in 2 days, and ActiveInbox will remind you. No more spending precious minutes writing something only to 'Send & Pray' you get a reply.
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Focus on finishing projects
Instead of being overwhelmed by a flurry of 100s of emails, rise above them for a fresh view of Gmail, of just the handful of projects you're working on with project folders.
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Glide through Today with bite-size chunks
Having even 10 items on our Today list tends to lead to paralysis as we try to figure out what to tackle first (and the inbox is often so bloated we simply can't face it).
The trick is to prioritize and sort everything important, so you can always know what's next and feel ready to get things done.