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Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the flood of work emails, especially when you take some time off or when issues arise, and everyone chimes in? The chaos is only made worse by a barrage of spam, unnecessary CCs, and pointless emails cluttering your inbox.
I've read plenty of books, articles, and best practices on email management. The problem is, most of these strategies rely on organsational change. If your entire team doesn’t buy into better email practices—like labelling or using subject tags—these methods won’t stick. A great example I came across in the book Productivity Ninja suggested adding words like "Read" or "Action" to email subjects so recipients know if they need to act now or just be aware of it. It’s a brilliant idea in theory, but without everyone following the system, it falls flat.
So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and explore individual strategies for managing email efficiently—focusing on productivity, automation, and reducing stress without needing organisation-wide changes. This post will walk you through some practical ways to handle your emails more effectively using free tools you likely already have in Microsoft’s ecosystem.
Tackling External Marketing Emails
A quick and easy win is managing those repetitive marketing emails you get from external companies—like supermarket offers, or retail deals. I’m not saying to unsubscribe since you might find them useful, but they do clutter your inbox unnecessarily.
Here’s a simple way to handle them using Outlook’s features:
Create Subfolders: Set up new subfolders in Outlook. You can make them specific to each company (e.g., Tesco, ASOS) or by category (e.g., Shopping, House).
Use the Sweep Feature: Locate one of those recurring emails, click on the broom icon, and set a rule to automatically move all emails from that sender into the relevant subfolder. This will instantly reduce your unread email count and clean up your inbox.
Adjust as Needed: If you realise that many of these emails are actually spam, you can easily update the rule to delete them automatically.
The sweep action will not only organise future emails but also tidy up your existing ones in a single click.
Automate Invoice Management with Power Automate
For regular invoices or statements—like your phone bill or Microsoft subscriptions—you’ll want to keep them on record but not clutter your inbox. This is where Microsoft Power Automate can make your life much easier.
Set Up a Workflow: In Power Automate, start with the "When a new email arrives" trigger and specify the sender (e.g., microsoft-noreply@microsoft.com).
Add a Condition: Use a condition to filter emails by subject, like "Invoice" or "Statement." Whatever is used within those monthly emails.
Store Attachments Automatically: For emails that match your criteria, create a step that saves attachments to a designated OneDrive or SharePoint folder.
Clean Up: Finally, add a step to delete these emails from your inbox once they’ve been saved. If the condition isn’t met, simply terminate the process.
This way, you’ll have easy access to important documents without them taking up space in your inbox.
Email Templates and Guides
A lot of emails feel like a never-ending loop of writing the same things over and over again. To break this cycle, let’s create some templates for those frequently sent emails.
Create Email Templates: Draft your regularly used emails as you normally would, leaving placeholders for details like [Staff Name] where needed. Once done, click "File" in the email window, choose "Save As," and select "Outlook Template" as the file type. Save it with a descriptive name that clearly indicates its purpose. This small effort upfront can save you a lot of time down the line and help bring your email numbers down faster.
Build Process Documents: Take it a step further by creating quick process documents or guides to support your team. If you’re always answering the same questions or explaining how to do a specific task, invest some time in creating a step-by-step guide. Include this guide in your email templates so that instead of rewriting instructions, you’re providing consistent, helpful responses. This approach not only reduces the volume of repetitive emails but also helps your organisation become more efficient.
Email Spacing
Ever heard of email spacing? It’s a great strategy to control when you receive replies, preventing you from being overwhelmed by emails at specific times of the day. Remember, you are the master of your inbox—don't let it control you.
Scheduling your emails allows you to write them during your free time and send them at strategic intervals throughout the day, making it easier to manage the flow of incoming responses. Here’s how to schedule an email in Outlook:
Write Your Email: Once your email is ready to go, head to the "Options" tab.
Delay Delivery: Click on "Delay Delivery" in the More Options group. Then, check the box next to "Do not deliver before" and select your desired date and time.
Schedule Send: Alternatively, you can click the arrow next to the "Send" button and select "Schedule Send."
This simple technique helps you manage your time better and keeps your inbox under control by spacing out the responses you’ll need to handle.
Request Forms and Out-of-Office Support (with help from Microsoft Planner)
It’s no secret I’m a huge Microsoft Planner fan, and this next tip has probably saved me days of reviewing and actioning emails. It’s significantly reduced my email load and helped keep things organised. Here’s how I do it:
Create a Request Form: I created a request form in Microsoft Forms—a way for people to submit issues or questions directly to me. This cuts down on the need for back-and-forth emails and helps streamline the communication process.
Automate with Power Automate: I use Power Automate to take the responses from these forms and automatically add them to Microsoft Planner as tasks. This way, either I or a team member can quickly address and manage these requests. Power Automate even has a template for this setup, so with just a bit of tweaking, you’ll be good to go.
Integrate with Out-of-Office: Don’t forget to include a link to the request form in your out-of-office message. This ensures that even when you're away, the requests are still getting logged and managed without clogging up your inbox.
Scheduling with Microsoft Bookings
Now, some people might suggest using Outlook's Meeting Schedule Assistant, which does a decent job, but if you want to theme your weeks and organise your time more effectively, Microsoft Bookings is the way to go. This approach helps you focus on specific types of work at specific times, keeping your mind organised and your schedule structured.
Set Up Services in Bookings: Create services in Microsoft Bookings, such as "Budget Discussions" or "Project Reviews," and specify the dates and times when you’re available for these activities.
Sync with Your Calendar: Microsoft Bookings integrates seamlessly with your calendar, so if you block out certain times or already have meetings scheduled, those slots won’t be available for others to book. This prevents double-booking and lets you control when you're open for specific tasks.
Share the Link: Simply share your Bookings link with colleagues and include it in your email signature and out-of-office messages. This reduces the number of back-and-forth emails for scheduling meetings and saves time usually spent negotiating availability.
Using Microsoft Bookings in this way not only reduces the volume of meeting invites and follow-up emails but also helps you stay focused on your priorities without constant interruptions.
These tips are just a start to taking control of your inbox, improving productivity, and reducing stress without needing everyone in your organisation to change their habits. Stay tuned for more strategies in future posts!
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