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If you’re headed out on vacation but worried about how to deal with email while you’re gone, you’re not alone. 44% of working adults say they check work email every day while on vacation, according to the American Psychological Association.
Vacation is not for constantly checking email, it’s for taking time to relax and unwind. We’ve partnered with SaneBox to help you conquer your inbox, once and for all. Here’s how to manage your emails so you can make the most of your much needed break.
Clear out the clutter
Do some housekeeping before you leave, clear out old emails so your inbox doesn’t reach capacity while you are gone. Make sure any important emails are filed away so they are easy to locate when you return.
Set up a filter
Set up a filter to move unimportant emails out of your Inbox into a separate folder. Daily updates from your go-to website or meeting notifications won’t be needed while you’re on vacation. Make sure to filter out these recurring updates while you are away so you don’t waste time deleting them when you’re back online.
Use SaneVacation to snooze non-urgent emails
Some emails shouldn’t interrupt your vacation. SaneBox customers can set up SaneVacation to defer emails until a certain date. SaneVacation will then snooze emails until the date you select as your official return when they will magically pop back into your inbox.
Don’t hesitate to delegate
Prep your team before you leave on how you’ll be handling email. Give you manager and your team sufficient time before you head out on vacation to address anything important. It’s important for you and your team to agree on the process for handling anything urgent while you are gone.
Set up your email auto-responder, make sure to include the dates you’ll be away and an alternate point of contact if needed. SaneBox also provides a SaneReminders feature to make sure the person you delegated to gets back to you by a certain time.
Forward itineraries to the day of your trip
If you use SaneBox, simply forward your travel itinerary or e-ticket to
Don’t get sucked in
You’re on vacation for a reason, but if you need to check your email try to make it as efficient as possible. Putting aside a specific window of time—whether it’s 15 minutes or an hour—to check email each day is a useful tactic. This allows you to stay connected during your time away from the office while still preserving a majority of your personal time. Resist the urge to respond to non-urgent emails.
When you’re back, talk to your team as soon as you get back to understand anything super urgent that needs your immediate attention. Give yourself uninterrupted time to clear your inbox when you get back. Start from most recent first, and sort emails by subject line to avoid responding to messages in the wrong order. Returning from vacation is always hard, but with a little prep getting back to work will be much easier.
Learn more over at sanebox.com
Post by Octavia Goredema @OctaviaGoredema
