Email Task Management: How to Make Email More Powerful

As a team manager, your standard workday may begin by logging into your inbox, addressing emails, and formulating a to-do list of tasks for the day. You then start communicating responsibilities and assigning them in a task management application. This process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to hours of your workday. 

Switching back and forth between email and other task management applications can be timely and frustrating. But what if there was an easier way to address emails and tasks? 

Email task management tools can take your inbox to the next level so your team can share, manage, and track projects in one convenient platform.

What is Email Task Management? 

Email task management entails using your inbox to address, organize, and assign incoming tasks. Many incoming tasks stem from your email account. This makes email and tasks inextricable. 

While email can systematically sort emails by sender, subject, date, etc., the process is not always efficient. You will still need to switch back and forth between email and task management applications to get work done. 

Many teams opt for a separate task management application. But there are simple solutions that can help you organize incoming tasks. These include:  

Email Folders 

Email folders live on the side of your inbox and can help keep incoming emails organized. For example, you can name a folder as "follow-ups" for incoming client emails that need responses or "pending tasks" for emails that need to be assigned to other team members. Folders minimize inbox clutter and keep incoming tasks organized. 

Email Labels

Gmail uses labels instead of folders for organization. Labels serve essentially the same purpose as folders and live on the left panel of your Gmail inbox. Labels can be color-coded for better organization. You can also apply several labels to one email and later find that specific email by clicking any of its labels.

Tasks Do What Folders and Labels Cannot Do

While email labels and folders can help organize incoming emails and help you navigate tasks, transforming emails into a task is still a necessity. Rather than enter a separate application, a project/task management solution can be integrated right within your inbox so teams can see tasks visually and better organize workload. 

Transform Your Inbox into a Task Management System 

As many as 42% of organizations do not see the value of project management. While email can offer tremendous opportunities for organizing tasks, it may not be an effective tool for tasks on its own. However, email task management through project management solutions can save the average manager 153 hours per year. 

Project management solutions take many forms. Many teams opt for a Kanban style of management which offers a visual project management solution in the form of columns to increase transparency and provide real-time communication on projects. 

Gmelius, a communication and collaboration solution for Gmail, offers Kanban boards specifically designed to integrate with your Gmail inbox. Any email can be assigned as a task card with Gmail Kanban boards. This allows you to get clear visibility on your team's workflows right from your team's shared inbox. Teams can:

• view boards through their shared inbox
• assign tasks right from their Gmail inbox 
• set a ticket’s status
• tag colleagues
• add notes to tickets for context 
  

The “board view” lives on the left side of your Gmail to view your Kanban boards in one click. 

If you are a manager of multiple departments in your company, you need a simple way to manage client projects and tasks while ensuring deadlines are met to stay on budget. Gmelius helps with just that. 

For example, if you want to check in with your support team, each column can be assigned to a specific representative so you can view which tasks are in their column.

If you notice one team member has been assigned too many tasks, you can simply transition a task to another board member to effectively distribute their workload. As a result, teams no longer need to feel overworked, and projects can stay on track. You can even sync your Kanban boards with Trello—a kanban list-making application. 

Email Task Management for Teams 

Gmelius helps teams manage the entire life cycle of a task by simplifying everyday responsibilities into one collaborative platform. In addition to Kanban boards for Gmail, Gmelius also allows teams to share Gmail labels, customize and share email templates, and automate follow-ups. 

Shared Gmail Labels. As discussed above, Gmail labels can help teams sort and filter incoming emails for better organization. With Gmelius, your team can share new or existing emails within a shared inbox so everyone can work out of the same label to maintain communication and organization. 

Shared Email Templates. Responding to emails and sending follow-ups can take hours. Expedite the process with Gmelius’ shared email templates so you and your team can create robust responses together. 

Workflow Automation. Automate menial tasks by using workflow automation rules. Incoming emails can be sorted into a Gmail Label or Kanban board by simply choosing triggers and setting conditions. Follow-ups and delegation can be completed in one click. Not to mention, our sequences feature can automate your company's workflows and processes so your team can easily send drip campaigns from Gmail or G Suite and keep your leads engaged through the entire sales cycle. 

Two-way Integration. Need to communicate a task fast? Gmelius offers integration with Slack, Zoom, and other commonly used platforms for teams. Teams can easily send emails through a Slack channel or schedule Zoom meetings in Gmail to remove the hassle of switching back and forth between applications. 

By utilizing an email task management solution, teams can address emails and tasks in one interface to breeze through their to-do lists while also preventing inbox clutter. 

If you are looking for a way to make your email more powerful, consider Gmelius. We offer an array of email task management solutions your team will love. Check out our features and integrations and learn how Gmelius is built to improve team communication and collaboration. Ready to get started? Sign up today!