4 Ways Great Managers Prevent Email Overload

Managers receive multiple emails every day, from reportees, vendors, candidates, customers, C-level leaders, and more. It's easy to get buried under email overwhelm and lose precious time that could be spent on value-adding tasks instead.

However, between teams to manage and clients to handle, they can’t afford not to be on top of their inbox. So, how do they do it all? Here four ways to reduce email overwhelm for managers.

1. Spend Dedicated Time on Your Inbox

It may seem counterproductive, but it’s true. Having your inbox in check does not mean spending close to no time or half your day on emails. It actually means having a set amount of time dedicated to it. No more, no less, no distractions.

According to research, checking your emails only 3 times a day reduces your stress levels and helps you feel productive. What better way to be a good manager and dedicated leader than to have less stress and a motivated productivity feeling?

The most efficient schedule would be checking your inbox as you arrive in the morning, after lunch and before leaving the office. However, it’s just a recommendation, your schedule should meet your needs. What really matters is for you to limit the number of time you check your inbox, and that once you are on it, you set a length of time to stay on it and spend this time dedicated to getting things done.

Spending 1 hour on your inbox 3 times a day may seem like a lot, but you would actually be spending only half the time the average worker usually spends on emails in a day.

2. Have It Organized

You cannot afford to spend half your time struggling to see what is important what is not, looking through a maze of unopened emails with no classification system. Great managers are usually pretty organized that is the only way they can keep an eye on everything happening.

So you, like them, need a system: we are talking labels/folders, stars, and carefully set reminders. That way in the morning you can snooze emails which can be dealt with later today, so that they won’t be forgotten. Flag emails which may need research or an action to be taken on before being answered and deal with anything urgent.

A good manager is efficient on both sides of the conversations, that means sent emails are also carefully thought out and organized. You can label outgoing email as they are sent to keep track of the whole conversation or set automatic follow-ups to never again forget about an email if it is left unanswered.

#ProTip: Use a platform like Gmelius to auto-tag emails using AI. Sign up for free.

3. Share Email Workload

Good managers are on the path to be great leaders, and the only way to get there is to learn how to delegate very early on. This applies to work in general but is also relevant to emails. No one can be expected to be efficiently managing if they are elbow deep in emails refusing to acknowledge that some things may be dealt by others.

The 4D rule of email management is applied by many leaders; an email can be dealt with, delegated, deferred or deleted. It may not be easy at first but if someone has more expertise, could deal with an email quicker or is just more relevant to the matter at hand then it makes sense to send it their way.

Your inbox may not seem properly set up for delegation (we have all heard of forwarding and reply-all incidents!) but additional tools might help you. You shouldn’t be wasting precious time where technology could provide a solution. Instead, use email assignment and automated dispatching to help you send out delegated emails. That way you keep track of the conversation and others can send work your way as well. Collaboration is a two-way street.

#FunFact: Gmelius now includes "Read Statuses" so that you know if team members have opened an incoming email in a shared inbox.

4. Promote Email Collaboration

Speaking of collaboration, some emails need team members to help each other out on without actually needing to be delegated. Even great managers sometimes need help from others regarding a client request or a deadline. When the team workload has been properly distributed, everyone must chip in to finish tasks on time.

A good manager also needs to be kept in the loop and give his thoughts on projects at different times. To reduce email ping-pong, lengthy conversation threads, and just save time, you need more than traditional email. In a collaborative email environment, private notes can allow managers and team members to think out loud, add info, and exchange quickly on the side of an email conversation.

It's also easier for managers to handle task related emails if there's an integrated task management system in place. Remember that flagged email that required an urgent action before it could be answered? With a task management board, you can add any email to a visual to-do list, give them due dates, set priorities, and, most importantly, share the board and ask for help from team members.

Using Gmelius to Prevent Email Overwhelm

If anyone needs new solutions to prevent email overwhelm, it's managers. That's why Gmelius has built an AI-powered shared inbox that automatically sorts, dispatches, and even drafts replies to your emails, saving time and effort. As manager, it's key that you never miss an important email, while also having the time for tasks that really matter.

Upgrade your Gmail inbox with Gmelius to eliminate email overwhelm today.