Are you one of the hundreds of people we speak to every day who came back post-Christmas to an overflowing, unmanageable inbox? It's hard to know what's more stressful, the number on the scales after the holiday indulgence, or the thousands of unread messages in our inboxes. Here at Mail Manager, we are always looking to promote better, smarter ways of doing things. So, if you want to get on top of your inbox in 2021, read on for actionable email insights.
The importance of managing your inbox post-pandemic
Email remains the letter of today and the main communication tool for businesses, but also remains one of the main workplace stressors and productivity drains. In the post-pandemic world, email became even more important as staff have been unable to get updates by simply asking colleagues in the office. More emails were sent, more emails were received, staff turnover increased, and more business-critical information was locked in inboxes.
Ask yourself:
- Will we return to the 'old ways' of working, or will remote working be here to stay?
- How has the role of email evolved in the anytime/anywhere workplace?
- What collaboration challenges can better email management solve?
In our latest webinar 'New year, new inbox', we covered the common email management pitfalls, as well as outlined some actionable tips to keep on top of things before they become a problem and improve overall productivity.
Our tips webinar for slimming down your inbox covers:
- How to finish work on time
- How to address issues before they become a problem
- How behavioural change can impact your inbox
- How to collaborate over email
- How to avoid distractions and get more done
- How we manage emails
Since the webinar, we've had a number of businesses requesting our actionable email insights on-demand, so you can re-watch the webinar below.
How Mail Manager eases email management pain
Mail Manager is a Microsoft Outlook add-on that was first engineered internally by Arup Engineering around 10 years ago. The company's 16,000 employees were all managing email in different ways, if at all. Indeed, more than three-quarters of project information was contained in emails but wasn't linked to projects or folders - instead, it was locked inside employees' email inboxes.
This led to employees wasting crucial time looking for essential correspondence and resulted in Arup experiencing risk and disputes. The organisation went in search of a solution that would help all of its employees find any email on any project in seconds, without wasting time on filing. And, in the event of not finding one, they built their own.
Mail Manager also helps to solve common issues such as:
- Quick and easy filing: Emails are filed as soon as they are sent or received by employees, as well as automatically keeping or discarding attachments. This can save up to two hours per day, per employee.
- Simple search: Businesses can search for any keyword or between a specific date and time range, and the software will generate a list of relevant results within seconds. It searches email headers, body text and attachment names, saving people time and increasing efficiency by ensuring they no longer have to dig through their inboxes.
- Removing employee reliance: Employees inevitably file emails in places that make it difficult for businesses to discover information. Businesses can now standardise filing processes across the organisation and remove this reliance on staff's bad practices.
- Storage saving: Automated filing of emails slashes the space required to store email attachments and eliminates the possibility of duplication.
- Enhanced collaboration: Emails are automatically filed into team folders, which makes them accessible to all members of a project and ensures everyone can collaborate on documents regardless of whether owners are sick or on holiday.
