Every day billions of emails are sent.
The average person has at least two email accounts. One account dedicated to spam, the other for everything else. Ranging from work to personal life, email has consumed a huge part of our life.
The rise in the number of mobile devices, making email more accessible, has added yet another layer of usage. In this article, I want to go over the “proper” way of creating, sending, and organizing your email inbox. I will cover the two email clients I use, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, for my examples. After reading this article you should have a better understanding of how to handle emails and keep the number of messages in your inbox down.
Folders: Folders are customizable so you can create as many as you want. When creating a folder, be specific in the name as to what will go in it. For example, label a folder Clients for all your work-related emails. Unfortunately, email providers such as Yahoo! Mail, Comcast, and Sonic will only let your message live in one folder. So if you have more than one client, and I’m sure you do, then all their emails get tossed into one folder. You can see how this can quickly become a nightmare. Not to mention, replies come as separate emails adding more to your inbox. Thankfully there is the search field. If you are like me, you keep your Yahoo! Mail around because everyone is familiar with it.
You want to upgrade to Gmail to get rid of this hassle. Gmail is an amazing email provider.
I remember when I made the switch how foreign it was to me. The way emails are kept in a conversation and the tagging system was amazing. Once I jumped in though I realized how valuable Gmail is and how crazy I was for sticking with Yahoo! Mail for so long. Gmail allows emails to be kept like conversations.
You send an email, the recipient replies, and you get all that back in one email. This helps when you want to look at what was said in the previous email and keeps the number of messages in your inbox to a minimum.
Tagging: The tagging in Gmail is probably the best feature. You can customize as many tags as you want and apply more than one to any email.
Using the example above with the label “Clients,” you can tag all your clients’ emails with the same label. In addition, you can add a more specific tag, for instance, “Design files.” This narrows the search even more.
I just coordinated a web design conference and tagging was a lifesaver. I had to send and keep track of all the emails between attendees, speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and catering. One email could have three tags, easy!
Plus, Gmail now breaks down your incoming emails by categories (Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, Forms)! This way your inbox doesn’t become too overwhelming.
For businesses looking to use Gmail but want their email address to be @YourDomainName.com check out G Suite here.