Do you clear your inbox every single day?

Absolutely crushed with work this year - so many emails coming through that I practically only respond to emails that I’ve been chased on - ignoring everything else

How do you guys get through busy months?

5 Comments
 

Based on the most helpful WSO content, managing a crushing workload, especially with emails, requires a strategic approach. Here are some tips that might help you get through those busy months:

  1. Prioritize Urgently: Focus on emails that are time-sensitive or from key stakeholders first. Use filters and labels to help prioritize your inbox automatically.

  2. Set Specific Times for Email: Allocate specific times of the day to check and respond to emails. This can prevent emails from constantly interrupting your workflow and can increase your overall productivity.

  3. Use Templates and Canned Responses: For common inquiries or updates, prepare templates or canned responses to save time.

  4. Delegate When Possible: If you have the resources, delegate email management to an assistant or a team member who can pre-sort and prioritize emails for you.

  5. Communicate Your Workflow: Let your team and contacts know how you manage emails during peak times. For example, you might only respond to non-urgent emails once a day or inform them that if something is urgent, to mark it clearly or follow up with a call.

Implementing these strategies can help you manage your workload more effectively and ensure that important communications are not overlooked.

Sources: How Do You Deal With the BB Sweatshop Hours?, So what's December like for you FO guys? It's interesting in BO . . ., 9+ months of unemployment and feeling cursed…, Work/Life Balance - Hours, Navigating the Unemployment Terrain

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

Yes I always get my inbox to zero (pre 5). I make it my goal to respond to every email by EOB to avoid leaving things hanging and being able to disconnect and relax after work at night but at most 24 hours.
 

I use an old school flag system for my emails but some of my peers have more efficient email systems that categorize, assign an urgency and move emails and it seems to work well for them.  
 

 
Most Helpful

When you say "clear" do you mean getting the unread emails down to zero or actually emptying it?

My goal is zero unread emails.  I think I'm at roughly 200 emails a day, and going into mobile outlook's "other" folder lets me run and mass-delete half of them. I also have a bunch of folders that I try to use.  Some like the folders for the Virtu & S&P morning notes are easy, while others like sorting inbounds buy business line are challenging, so 80% just stay in my inbox.  I'd feel bad about this except my highly successful boss who's the named lead PM on 11 figures worth of AUM has admitted that he's got a similar process.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 

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