If you’re like many people, you came back from an extended holiday vacation this week and realized the Holiday Elves failed to magically clean your email inbox while you were gone. While some manage to achieve the coveted Inbox Zero over the holiday, most of us are instead stuck with a bit of a mess. Today’s article is about email management: the role of the inbox, folders (including some best practice folder ideas I’ve found help a great deal), running a Request for Proposal (RFP) out of your inbox, and managing multiple inboxes. I encourage you to share your own best tips with me (perhaps as comments to this article on LinkedIn or by simply dropping me a line). Hopefully you find something here that helps you tame the inbox beast!
Before I launch in, one of the best executive tips I’ve ever received: Don’t BCC anyone other than yourself. If you feel a need to BCC (blind carbon copy) someone on something to keep them informed, instead send your email as normal, then find it in your Sent folder and forward it to the person you want to inform. This allows you to add context, puts it straight in their inbox, and doesn’t cause trouble if they miss that they’re BCC’d and Reply All. This happened to me once: I didn’t notice someone had BCC’d me and I replied to the group with my thoughts. Mass confusion and embarrassment ensued. More info on when you might BCC yourself on an email later in this article.
The Role of the Inbox
I am one of those people who uses my inbox as my “to do” list. That means I like to keep it clean, although that looks a little different for each different given mail program. I run a Mac as my primary computer, and so I keep items I have not yet handled as unread in Apple Mail. Often I read them and then re-mark them as unread so they stay on my list of things to do.
When I was running Outlook, I would sort and archive emails to leave only active items in my inbox. As a front-line buyer, I made a rule for myself that I could leave for the day when all my emails were dealt with (the folder system I talk about later makes this possible). When I became a manager, I usually couldn’t make it through my inbox daily and tried to keep the oldest email in my inbox less than a week old. I still aim for a one-week turn on emails, but that is much harder when I’m traveling or simply when life happens. At the moment I’m writing this, the oldest email in my professional inbox is 11 days old and is a supplier invoice I’m disputing (because Intuit just added a $25 payment to online payments and I need another way to pay this monthly invoice without the fee! Yikes!). I should probably put it in the “Hold for Action” folder while I wait for the supplier to respond.
I have definitely known people who use flags to keep track of what is active in their inboxes. While I understand this method, I don’t prefer it because with unread items or even just items in the Outlook inbox, I can quickly tell how many items I have to deal with. I can also tell how likely it is I need to put in some extra time to manage the inbox or clear it out. With flags, getting that number is more difficult.
Folders: Your Best Management Tool
Figuring out how you like to manage your folders is a key part of inbox management. Everyone has a different system, here are some key folders and rules that work well for me:
- Avoid too much granularity. I made this mistake early on and spent far too much time sorting and filing emails. I had a folder for “Indirect” and then under that a folder for “IT” and then one for “Projects.” Way too deep! Life got much better when I instead had broad folders for Indirect, Direct, Business Transformation, and Team. I tried to keep my folders to about six or fewer. Search functions in email are good enough I can now get away with just an “Archive” folder with no granularity at all. If I’m looking for something from a specific person or for a specific project, I simply put that project into the search box and add more words until I find what I’m looking for. In the age of AI, inboxes will continue to get more sophisticated and our ability to archive old emails will (hopefully) continue to be more automated. Filing emails is one task I’d rather a computer did for me!
- Temp Folder. If you take one thing away from this article other than the rules for BCC, this one is my favorite. The temp folder is for all those emails you need and want to reference for about two weeks, but then don’t ever care about again. Email about certain streets by your office being closed for construction next week? Temp folder. Note about the new IT team structure while they put the new org chart into your HR system? Temp folder. Weekly business transformation email that you read and probably won’t read again but had something interesting in it you know your boss is going to mention? Temp folder. Then every two weeks or so (or when I think about it), I go through the temp folder and trash everything that’s more than two weeks old. I already made the decision that it goes to trash in two weeks, I don’t have to re-decide how long to keep it. Of course, anything that I read and never need again (daily safety email, anyone?) I simply trash immediately.
- Hold for Action Folder. This one is an absolute lifesaver in procurement. The Hold for Action folder is for active items that need a response. This might be the scope of work you sent to the technical team for markup. Or it’s the disputed supplier invoice where you’re waiting on the reply from the supplier. This is also where I do use BCC. When I’m sending a task to someone and know I’m going to wait on a response, I BCC myself on the request. Then I put that BCC’d email in the Hold For Action folder. This makes following up easier because I can simply re-forward the original email with a few more notes. I go through the Hold for Action folder every 1-2 weeks to delete items that are complete, follow up on items still needed, and remove duplicate threads. If I’ve already followed up on something and need to do so again, that’s when it gets a phone call. While it can be difficult to pick up the phone, it’s important and can clear up to do lists far faster than sending email after email. Note: the Hold for Action folder is NOT where I put the big ugly tasks I don’t want to work on right away. Those stay in the inbox until they’re dealt with. The Hold for Action folder is only there for things where the next step is waiting on someone else.
- External Folder. Companies are increasingly requiring these, but they are a good idea even if your company does not require them. Most larger companies have software that marks emails as coming from external sources, but you can also put in place an email rule that places any incoming email not from your company email address (i.e. not “@passwallsolutions.com”) in the External Folder. In addition, many mail programs let you make anything in this folder have red subject line text or otherwise look different from other folders. (Here’s a tutorial for Outlook.) The reason to do this is to keep a better eye out for phishing scams or other suspicious links. Suppliers are a major weak point in your cybersecurity perimeter, as they can get hacked and then criminals use an email address you recognize to get you to click on a link. While an external folder can be a pain, it’s less painful than being the reason your company was the victim of a phishing scam because you didn’t realize an email was NOT from your IT department.
- CC Folder. The CC folder is something I had to put in place when I became a people manager. It’s very common to copy your supervisor on something to make sure they see what you’re working on, what might bubble up and cause trouble, or whatever else might concern them. We all do it, and we get better at what we should send as we get better at corporate life. But if you’re the supervisor and especially if you’re managing 10+ people (which was me for most of my corporate life), that is a LOT of CC’d email. I created a CC Folder and a rule that put any email I was CC’d on into the CC Folder. I made an exception for our company CEO, my supervisor, and our Chief Procurement Officer, whose emails went straight to my inbox no matter where I was on the email. I let my team know that if they needed an action from me, they had to put me in the “To” line. Otherwise, I would assume the email copied me for my information and they had the situation handled. This was also helpful in letting my team members subtly call for help or maintain their autonomy at their discretion. I then checked the CC folder roughly once a day (often at the end of the day). I would read everything in it, and occasionally move something to my inbox, but it really took the “FYI pressure” off my very active inbox.
RFP Management
Many companies of multiple sizes still run their Requests for Proposal (RFPs) through email instead of an online software. While there are multiple reasons for this, the end result is the same. So here are some thoughts on running RFPs through email efficiently:
- Create a group inbox where possible. If a family member is unexpectedly sick or you have another emergency while an RFP is open, it’s helpful to have someone other than yourself with access to that RFP without IT breaking into your inbox (no one wants that!). So see if you can create an email like indirectProcurement@companyname.com or DirectRFPs@companyname.com or something similar, and get access to send emails from that inbox. This also has a benefit of continuity for suppliers as people change roles within your organization. They can program the email as a top priority for response when emails come from it and ensure your RFP doesn’t get caught in spam filters.
- Consider your timing. I have a whole article on RFP timing, which applies no matter what method you are using for sending and collecting RFPs. Don’t send an RFP request last thing on a Friday and expect a supplier to see it before Monday morning. Set a deadline for supplier responses. One advantage of Procure-to-pay software systems is that bids will open and close at set times, so there is a natural deadline. Email tends to be open-ended, so make sure you set a deadline for suppliers to submit their responses. Note that if your company requires sealed bids according to your procurement policy, you should be using a procure-to-pay system for all sealed bids.
- Ensure suppliers received the request. If a supplier doesn’t acknowledge your RFP within the first business day or so, follow up. In the ocean of emails we all receive, they may have missed your request. Or your request may have landed in their spam filter. Follow up however you can (phone, text, LinkedIn message, carrier pigeon…) and make sure they see your RFP in time to put together a valid response. Or tell you why they aren’t the right choice for this business.
- Send individual emails. The BCC line is not your friend. It is treacherous and prone to error, so create an email requesting a supplier response but then send each email to each supplier separately. It’s ok to combine supplier contacts in one email (send to both Sally and Harry at Supplier A), but don’t send one email to all competitors and rely on the BCC line to keep them confidential.
- Follow RFP best practices. Just because the format feels more casual doesn’t mean you can treat email RFPs casually. Still write a good scope of work with the technical team. Create a good pricing schedule. Don’t send a lengthy questionnaire no one will read. Use good grammar and spelling and present yourself professionally. You know, the basics.
Managing Multiple Inboxes
At this stage in my life/career, I manage five emails regularly: my personal email, my farm email, a professional gmail address, my company email, and the email associated with another consulting firm I partner with. For you, it might be just your work email and the group inbox I mentioned earlier. Or it could be more than that. Either way, here are some thoughts on managing multiple inboxes:
- Use an email aggregator. This might be Outlook, Apple Mail, or something else. While each of these is a bit different, they help you see and manage multiple inboxes at once. There’s also usually a drop down where you can decide which email address should send each outgoing email. My Apple Mail suggests which email address I’m likely to use based on who is receiving the email.
- Be thoughtful about notifications. The first thing I do in setting up any new computer is turn off that notification that shows up when I get a new email. It’s so disruptive! Research shows it takes 8 to 25 minutes for us to get back on task after being interrupted, and a notification is an interruption. Email is, by its very nature, asynchronous. If someone needs an immediate reply, an email is one of the worst ways to get it and no one should expect an immediate response to email. Therefore, turn those email notifications off. We have enough things dinging at us all day.
- Communicate and organize shared inboxes. If you are indeed running an e-auction inbox, procurement bidding inbox, or any other shared inbox, communicate with your coworkers about how that inbox will be managed. How will you know if someone on the shared inbox has taken a request and is working on it? Be rigorous and thoughtful about making sure everyone sharing the inbox knows how it’s organized, what “unread” really means, and when a task is already covered.
Many of us spend a ridiculous amount of time reading, responding to, and filing emails. A few little tricks to manage email can make a big difference in workplace productivity, so take the opportunity provided by the new year to try something new. If you’d like to talk about your own challenges or best practices, let’s chat. If you’d like to get these articles weekly straight to your inbox and never miss one, sign up for my newsletter.
My book, Transform Procurement: The Value of E-auctions is now available in ebook, paperback and even hardcover format: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F79T6F25
