If you work in a modern office, chances are you use email quite frequently to communicate with other people. While email can be a blessing, it can also be quite burdensome. It is very easy to get distracted and bogged down whenever you receive an email, which can lower your productivity and waste time. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to avoid getting bogged down by email at work. Here are a few tips.

Use The Phone If It’s Quicker
Email is certainly a more technologically advanced mode of communication, but it still can be less efficient than making a simple phone call. It can take up to a half hour to write a long email, and it can take even longer to get a response. Instead of spending so much time writing and waiting, make a phone call to help you speed through your tasks without getting bogged down. Also, using the phone more will reduce your dependence on email, which will mean a cleaner and less cluttered inbox.

Don’t Constantly Check Your Email
If you find yourself checking your email every five minutes, you definitely need to keep a tighter focus on your other tasks. Email can be a huge distraction, but only if you let it distract you. Instead of refreshing your inbox constantly, keep it closed and check it less frequently. If you’re worried about missing an important email, keep your urgent contact Information In your email signature. This tip will help significantly reduce the amount of time you waste on email.

Set Up Email Templates
If you get asked the same questions over and over through email, instead of wasting your time writing responses to each one, make a template for the questions you are asked most commonly. This can help save you lots of time and help those who need answers get them much more quickly.

Don’t Submit Your Work Email Address To Newsletters
If you get interesting non-work related emails in your inbox, the chances of getting distracted will increase dramatically. Learn to guard your inbox at work and use your personal email address for things that aren’t related to work. This can help keep your inbox clean and less filled with distracting emails.

Sort Your Email In Different Folders
Keeping your email in separate folders may take more time up front, but will make it easier for you to go back and find important emails in the future. Also, the more you practice sorting your email, the quicker you will get at it. Eventually you’ll be able to sort your email in a flash and have a well organized email archive for future reference.

Stay On Top Of Things
If your inbox is overflowing with messages, you have a problem. If on the other hand, you stay on top of things and manage your email well, you’ll be less bogged down by it. Get in the habit of responding to email messages quickly and sorting them away for future reference. If you procrastinate and let messages pile up, you’ll have a much more difficult time cleaning things out later. Clutter breeds clutter, so it’s best to do away with it entirely by diligently staying on top of your email.

Turn Off Your New Message Alert
Keeping your inbox’s new message alert on is a surefire way to keep yourself distracted during the day. Each time you get a new message alert, it’s pretty normal to stop what you’re doing and go check what you just received. This can cause a disruption in your work rhythm and make it difficult to get back into the groove of things. Also, when you get alerted each time you receive a new email, it will make it harder to respond right then and there. Instead, you should keep new email alerts off so you can tackle all of your email at once when you’re ready for it.

Use Filters To Eliminate Spam
Fortunately, gambling, porn, and pharmaceutical spam usually is a rarity in the corporate world, but there are still other types of spam that slip through the cracks and make it into your inbox. This spam comes in the form of automatic email notifications from software used by your company. Sometimes these notifications can be helpful while other times they are completely useless. If you get this type of spam, instead of just rolling your eyes when you get it, set up a filter and forget about it.