How to master the daily email chaos
According to Statista, there were an estimated 4.37 billion email users worldwide in 2023. In Germany, 80% of the population used the internet to send and receive emails.
Working people in Germany receive an average of 42 emails per day. Compared to 2021, the number has increased by 16 emails alone, according to the industry association Bitkom. The challenge here is to keep track of the unstructured information and identify the resulting tasks.
The following procedure is recommended to get the e-mail chaos under control:
- Automate the e-mail process to a large extent: For this to succeed, priorities must first be defined and rules established. Deleting spam and advertising and identifying emails that only need to be forwarded is also key.
- Decide immediately what to do when reading: The aim should be to read an email only once. And in the event that this results in a specific task (with a time expenditure of more than five minutes), this should be immediately transferred to a project management or collaboration software.
- Avoid distractions while working on emails: It is helpful to set yourself fixed time slots for processing emails. If this is not possible, you should at least ensure that the emails can be processed in a focused manner.
- Switch off alerts: If you are constantly interrupted in your work by acoustic or visual notifications from your email program, you will not be able to concentrate. Alerts should therefore always be switched off.
"Companies and organizations that follow these tips will find it even easier if they also take advantage of the possibilities offered by modern Outlook integrations," says Dr. Andreas Tremel, co-founder and CEO of Munich-based software manufacturer InLoox. The company offers a project management platform of the same name which, among other things, helps to transform unstructured e-mail information into structured tasks. The platform acts like a functional extension of Outlook.
An AI assistant then analyzes the content of the emails and based on this, suggestions for possible tasks are created. These can then be adopted or modified. The AI also estimates the time required for each task and suggests a completion date. The tasks are displayed in a side panel integrated into Outlook - sorted by due date so that you can see at a glance what has priority. Conveniently, the tasks can also be edited directly in the side panel. Documents and e-mail attachments can also be added to the task using drag & drop. If required, digital time recording can also be started directly from a task.
One thing is certain: the time and energy you save on dealing with emails is available for other projects and things - even if it's just for a relaxed coffee with colleagues or an earlier finish.
Source: www.statista.com / www.bitkom.org
