Effective email management: techniques for busy business owners, executives, and managers.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY

Email use continues to explode throughout the corporate world. In 2015, the typical business email user handled more than 122 emails daily, receiving 88 emails and sending 34, according to technology market research firm Radicati Group. By the end of 2019, the average corporate email user will send and receive 126 messages a day.

Email volumes can be even higher for busy company owners, executives, and managers who are bombarded with messages from all different directions. Some feel like they're drowning in messages, viewing email as a major distraction and productivity killer. Others have mastered the art of effectively managing email, skillfully using it as a tool to advance their business goals. They're capitalizing on the capabilities of their email program to create different filters that automatically delete spam, junk mail, and other unwanted incoming messages. They're also setting up categorized folders, flagging messages, and marking emails as unread to better organize their inbox.

Of course, not all email management techniques work for everyone. But here are some of the effective strategies Alaska's corporate leaders are using to stay on top of their business email:

Greg Schlabaugh, Senior Manager Commercial Sales and Marketing for General Communication, Inc.

Greg Schlabaugh is constantly handling emails in his work with various commercial applications for GCI. Over one eight-month period, he sent 5,500 messages and received 25,000--which amounts to getting several hundred emails a day. "Over the years, as my position has evolved and I've moved up in the company, email volume has increased," he says.

Schlabaugh uses a combination of Microsoft Outlook rules and other tools to effectively manage his emails. Messages with certain addresses and subject lines automatically get filed away in a folder. This includes anything he doesn't need to address immediately, but will want to reference later, such as newsletters. He also uses flags to highlight items to follow up on and marks important items as unread.

Some people live by the "inbox zero" rule, constantly deleting and filing emails so their inbox is empty at the end of the day. That was kind of how Schlabaugh used to be. "I had to get comfortable with letting go and having a fairly full inbox," he says. "Instead of using folders to have a neat filing system, I archive things that I think I will need and then use the search feature in Outlook to find them later," he says.

In his approach to reviewing email, Schlabaugh applies triage concepts from his emergency medical background. He does a quick analysis to see who's sending the email and what it's about. "Who it's from and what that subject line is can be the first point in the triage," he explains. "Then, you can open up the email and look at the length of it and the first couple of lines."

If it's a long email, he may decide to read it later and tag it as yellow in his triage system. The key to triaging, he says, is to learn what is important and what is not so important. "Learn what you can ignore," he explains.

It's equally important to use effective techniques when sending email. Bad email begets bad email, Schlabaugh says. It's essential...