Your email is essentially your main "hub" for your business. Often times, business owners find that this is the first place that shows signs of neglect. Hundreds of unread messages, unreplied messages, and an overwhelming feeling everytime you open your mailbox. Gmail is my go-to email service. I recommend Gsuite to my clients. Why? Because of the extensive features their services provide. Here are a few examples of the magic that gmail offers:
Side Panel Access: Gmail companion apps such as your Calendar, Task List, and Keep. I find this especially useful for my Calendar. I used to have to leave my inbox to schedule appointments. Now, I simply click on the calendar to open it and double click to start creating an appointment. I haven't left my inbox! An even cooler feature - if you are reading an email when you add an appoinment, Google will auto-populate the Appointment name with the subject of the email. You can change this, of course but it does come in handy.
Add-Ons: Gmail offers add-ons to their email service for hundreds of different apps! There are so many, but if you have a favorite app that you use for CRM, accounting, project management, or social media do yourself a favor and see if Gmail offers an add-on. I currently use the add-on feature for Todoist (which is the task management app that I use). I can add items to my to do list without ever leaving my inbox. So, instead of leaving to-do items in my inbox so I don't forget them, I can file that email because it has already been put on my to-do list.
Message Templates: Do you have an email that you send over and over again? Make a template! Gmail has a template feature and it is a HUGE time saver. They are easy to make and easy to access. Want to know how? Drop me an email and I will send you instructions on how to create one.
If your main problem is an overwhelming number of unread emails, it may be time to clean house. I use unroll.me to keep on top of my email subscriptions. This has cut way down on my email. About every quarter I review my unroll.me subscription report and unsubscribe to anything that I am not reading. Be honest with yourself! If it is truly something you want to make time for, create a label and have those emails go directly to that folder when the arrive. They will bypass your inbox and you still have them if you want to return to them.
Hope these tricks help you wrangle your inbox! If you think you might need additional help with Inbox Management, let's schedule a time to chat. Consultations are free! Email sara@adminenvy.com to get your spot