From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Reducing multiple email accounts

From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Reducing multiple email accounts

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- Email 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 email. One best practice is to reduce the number of email gathering points you have. Ideally, one email inbox if possible. For example, I've worked with clients who have 10 or more email accounts, yet they've set everything to go into one email inbox. Now, some are concerned by this concept and 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 cost you'll pay, which leads to more free time and greater focus. Even if you go from five email gathering points to two, you'll experience a big productivity boost. Now, because there are so many email 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 email so you use as few apps and inboxes as possible. A simple online search for combined email 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 email app you'll use and if you're able to combine inboxes within that app.

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