How to avoid (or manage) a wave of email after vacation

Take a quick look

Don’t dive right into the details: focusing on every single individual message will add to your inbox-clearing anxiety. Instead, make a quick glance of your inbox to filter what’s important and what isn’t. Look at the names of these email senders, and file away high-priority emails by their levels of importance.

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Don’t open any emails yet! This way, you won’t get lost in immediately responding to individual emails, and you can continue your overall look at your inbox without getting mired in the details.

Consolidate less important messages

No doubt your inbox will have automated messages like newsletters, promotions, and notifications from the apps and services you use. These will likely be not as important as messages from your coworkers and managers; plus, depending on the app, you can sign in to them later and see the same notifications.

Select your automated messages and mark them as low importance if necessary,or delete and block them. Nobody’s feelings will be hurt! And if any spam messages sneak in, here are some ways to eliminate junk mail in the future.

Use tools to prioritize what’s important

Every email manager will include ways of organizing your messages by category and importance. For example, when you flag an email in Outlook, you are setting a reminder that this message requires a follow-up. You can also easily create folders to categorize related messages and stay on top of your organization. Even before you open or respond to a message, you can sort out your unread emails in this way.

From here, you can figure out what projects rank highest in priority, or respond to the easiest messages. For example, if a colleague asks you whether you’re attending a meeting, a simple “yes” will suffice — and that’s one less email to manage.

Turn off your OOO

A good practice is to organize an out-of-office (OOO) strategy for when you’re away. This usually consists of three parts:

• Marking your OOO dates on a shared calendar: When you speak to your manager about dates you’re taking off, it’s also be a good time to set a calendar appointment notifying your colleagues and coworkers that you’ll be away.
• Setting up an automated OOO message: If anyone emails you during your vacation, you can set up an automated reply that informs them that you’re away and when you’ll return. This is vital for avoiding confusion and maintaining positive relations with your colleagues or clients. For tips on how to set up and write an effective OOO reply, read more from Microsoft.
• Turning off your OOO when you return: While automated OOO tools are designed to turn off based on the date you set for your return, it helps to check whether you’re still sending out automated messages. That way you can avoid confusion and prevent delays in your projects.

Strive for “inbox zero,” but don’t fret

For some busy employees, the concept of “inbox zero” or no new messages may seem like an unattainable dream. But it’s not to be taken literally: the goal of inbox zero is to ensure that your mind and your time aren’t tied to your inbox. Nevertheless, many people find that going through all of their messages is the only way to achieve this zen-like state.

The tips and tricks for achieving inbox zero also apply for a post-vacation email purge — only heightened, perhaps, by the amount of time they’ve had to build up. But don’t worry: through clever organizing, such as block scheduling, you can clear your inbox back to normal without stress. For more organizational tips, Microsoft 365’s full suite of tools and apps have you covered.