Do you spend more time reading, sorting through and responding to emails than actually working? Could you make better use of this time, but don’t know how to take back control? Here are a few tips to eradicate over 90% of the emails you could live without.

1. Unsubscribe from ALL excess emails you receive. The ones you never read, but have to hit delete for. Most, if not all emails now come with an unsubcribe link with the email. USE IT!

2.  When you complete an online form (purchase, more info, support ticket) there’s usually a little check-box asking if they could contact you with offers and updates. DON”T check this off. Chances are you’ll b bombarded with emails you’ll never read.

3. Get rid of the fifty email accounts you have. There is NO NEED for multiple email accounts. One for personal stuff and one for business related communication will work just fine.

4. When contacting someone/company for support and you can’t get it resolved after 2-3 emails, PICK UP THE PHONE! You’re only wasting time when you start emailing back and forth. A simple phone call should get things resolved, in a much faster time frame. Remember how things were done before email!
5.  Set aside specific times when you will read and respond to emails. For this to work best, you may have to set up and autoresponder message to let the person emailing you know that you did receive the message and when they could expect a response. So your autoresponder message will say something like ” This is to confirm that I did receive your email. If its an emergency, please call me at (phone number), it not I’ll respond within the next (State time here when you think you can follow-up)” The outgoing message can be tailored to your liking.

6. If you run a website, create a ticket support system. But before they can submit a ticket, have them go through the company’s FAQ. You’ll be amazed how many unwanted emails this will prevent.

Give these tips a try and I bet-you you’ll spend less time with unwanted emails.