Every day you start another morning by gathering your cup of coffee and sitting down in your chair at the office or home office, and the first thing you do is check your email like 90% of other people. This of course is normal and a vital part of your businesses communication, whether it is with your customers, employees or business associates. Although email can be a blessing, it can also be a huge time consuming monster. Here are some simple and effective tips for managing your time and email.

• 1. Set a designated time and block of time to deal with your emails every day. If you receive 200 emails a day, it becomes increasingly easier to waste more and more time replying to those emails and reducing your productivity. Try giving yourself only 30 minutes at the end of the day to which you devote your time specifically to handling your email. Why the end of the day? The best time to do your emails is during the least productive time of the day for you. If that is 4:30 p.m., then you want to use that time to handle the less stressful but still important things, like email. When you set aside a fixed amount of time, the emails that are of little importance will not be replied to and you will probably not even notice a difference. Those emails that do require your attention will have more than enough time to be dealt with.

• 2. Let your email program manage your emails as much as POSSIBLE. By spending the time to set up your email program properly, you can effectively save a lot of time because of the process you have put into place. When you create your categories and sub-categories, use words and phrases that properly describe what is located there. Simple, organizational techniques will save you time and keep your inbox empty.

• 3. Do not read and reply to your emails throughout the day. This is a terrible waste of time. Nothing interrupts productivity worse than switching modes all the time. When you are in focused productive mode, do not lose that opportunity to accomplish as much as you can until you absolutely have to. The key to productivity is setting up an order to your day and the things you would like to achieve while you are working.

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