From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Reducing multiple email accounts

From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Reducing multiple email accounts

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e-mail is a part of our everyday lives, especially at work. We can start taking control of it by reducing the number of apps we use for e-mail. One best practice is to reduce the number of e-mail gathering points you have, ideally one e-mail inbox if possible. For example, I've worked with clients who have 10 or more e-mail accounts, yet they've set everything to go into one e-mail inbox. Now some are concerned by this concept want to keep work and personal separate. I understand. Some organizations or jobs simply won't permit that for legal and security reasons. If so, that's fine. Just consolidate as much as reasonable. The fewer gathering points you have, the less switching costs you'll pay, which leads to more free time and greater focus. Even if you go from five e-mail gathering points to two, you'll experience a big productivity boost. Now, because there are so many e-mail apps available, I'm not able to offer a detailed walkthrough for each. For now, all you need to focus on is combining the flow of e-mail so you use as few apps and inboxes as possible. A simple online search for combined e-mail accounts and then the name of your preferred app is probably enough to find a tutorial on how to do this. Often, you can automatically have separate signatures depending on the account you're using. So a work signature appears when you're replying to work emails and a different signature for personal emails. By processing emails in one spot, you'll make processing more productive. Pause and consider the primary e-mail app you'll use and if you're able to combine inboxes within that app.

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