The Ultimate Guide to Managing Your Executive’s Emails

Managing an Executive’s emails is a fundamental part of the Assistant role and saves the Executive considerable time and stress. Because let’s face it—many of us still get very stressed out by email and the constant need to read, reply, and act on whatever comes into our inboxes. In the ultimate guide to managing your Executive’s emails, we will show you how to take the stress out of managing emails.

Although fundamental to the Assistant role, managing an Executive’s emails is often an area of conflict with Executives. Gaining control of the inbox can be challenging.

I know many Executives who struggle to give up control of their emails, going so far as not letting their Assistants have access. I know it can be frustrating for Assistants, but having access to process emails on your Executive’s behalf is essential. It saves Executives a ton of time. Still, it also helps Assistants understand what is happening in the business, priorities, and current projects, how the Executive makes decisions, and who needs time with the Executive. Ultimately, it helps you stay in the loop. It is vital.

If you are in control of your Executive’s emails, you need to put processes and procedures in place to help you manage the flow of emails and communicate with your Executive on what to do with them. We have put together in this guide all of our tips and tricks to help you manage your Executive’s emails.

It is worth saying that you have to manage your Executive’s inbox proactively. You have to take charge and make decisions. We will show you how.

What Will We Cover in the Ultimate Guide to Managing Your Executive’s Emails?

  • The Initial Conversation
  • Starting from Scratch
  • Processing Emails
  • Making Decisions
  • Working in Sync with Your Executive
Outlook Hacks and Keyboard Shortcuts for Executive Assistants

If Outlook is your email of choice, this cheat sheet is a must!

​If you only pick up five time-saving tips from our Outlook Hacks and Keyboard Shortcuts for Executive Assistants, we reckon you may be able to save hours across your working year. Think of all the wonderful things you could do with that extra time!

The Initial Conversation

Ideally, you want to talk with your Executive in the early days of your working relationship about how you will manage their emails. But it is never too late to get to grips with your Executive’s emails, especially if they are out of control and now that you are reading the ultimate guide to managing your Executive’s emails.

The initial conversation about email management should focus on how your Executive feels about their emails. If they are happy for you to take charge, well, happy days! If they are reluctant, you may have to take your time and allow them some space to adjust to our suggested system.

What Should You Cover in the Initial Conversation?

  • Replying Agreement: Will you reply as your Executive or as yourself? We recommend that you respond as yourself to showcase your authority and the value you bring to your role.
  • Inbox Check Frequency: When and how often should the inbox be checked? You don’t want to live in your Executive’s inbox, but your Executive might expect you to reply to messages quickly. Define how much time your Executive wants you to dedicate to their emails and the response time per email.
  • Oversight of Emails: Does your Executive want to see the email exchange, or are they happy for you to delete the emails once you have taken action? In other words, how much control does your Executive want over their emails?
  • Stress Points: What are the stress points when it comes to your Executive’s inbox? Do they forget to reply to emails? Do they have too many promotional emails that never get opened? Are there too many folders and sub-folders? Do they take action on requests that come via email?
  • Action Items: How do your Executive’s emails sync with their to-do list, and how should you treat actions that come from email messages? Do they use their inbox as their to-do list?
  • Prioritization: What emails are the most important and should be flagged and answered immediately?
  • Email Processing: When should your Executive process their emails once you have triaged the inbox? Once per day or more?

 

Every Executive will have a different approach to email management, and Assistants will have to adjust their style to suit the Executive. However, you must work through the emails so that your Executive doesn’t have hundreds of emails in their inbox. That is rule number one. Rule two is deciding how you communicate and work through the emails together.

Starting from Scratch

If you are starting to organize your Executive’s inbox, a clear inbox is the best place to begin. Some of you may be dealing with an inbox with thousands of emails, so this is not always easy. But it is worth the effort. Once the inbox is reduced to zero, it is much easier to keep it that way, and it is much easier for you to manage.

Some Executives may be horrified at the thought of you clearing out their inbox, so you may have to reassure them that you can archive the emails rather than delete them.

Steps to Clear an Inbox

  1. Archive emails over a month old. If the sender wanted a response, they would have followed up.
  2. Set up an easy folder system (more on that later).
  3. Move promotional emails and newsletters into a dedicated folder. Create rules to automate this going forward.
  4. Block spam and unsubscribe from newsletters that your Executive never opens.

 

Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the emails that have been sitting in your Executive’s inbox. What have they replied to, what was missed, who emailed frequently, and how did your Executive respond? All this information will be useful moving forward. It will give you a good sense of how your Executive prioritizes and who gets their attention.

Processing Emails

Once you have your Executive’s emails under control, the next step is to establish a process that will help you organize the inbox and quickly make decisions about each email. There are many options here; again, you might have to adjust the system to your Executive’s preferences. The fundamental point is that you are not checking emails—you are processing them. Every time you go into your Executive’s inbox, something happens with the emails.

How Do You Organize Your Executive’s Inbox? Here Is My Suggested Method:

Filing

I like the Productivity Ninja process for filing emails. The author Graham Alcott suggests that emails are separated into three distinct areas:

  • The live inbox: Where emails land.
  • The processing folders: Where the work is happening.
  • The library: Where old emails are stored for reference.

In Google Workspace, folders are referred to as labels.

The Processing Folders Are:

  • Action
  • Read
  • Waiting

 

Action: This is the area your Executive will use to work through their emails. The folder will contain emails requiring a direct answer from your Executive or where you need further information before processing the response. If the action requires a response that isn’t replying to the email, you should ideally add the action to their to-do list and archive the original email. For example, if the email requires your Executive to follow up on a phone call or create a report.

Read: If you work in a large organization, your Executive will get tons of internal communications, updates, and newsletters. These emails must be read but shouldn’t sit in the live inbox. Move them into the read folder and find time in your Executive’s schedule for them to process and read these emails.

Waiting: Use this area to store emails you have delegated to another staff member and are waiting for a response. It is a good way for your Executive to clarify what is and isn’t being acted on. Once you’ve had an answer, you can move it into the archive.

The Library

This area stores old emails that you keep for reference and referral. Like Graham Alcott, I also do not like folders and subfolders. The search and sort functions on both Outlook and Gmail are powerful, so there is no need for many folders and subfolders. Try to keep folders to a minimum. I suggest the following:

  • Personal
  • Finance
  • Key Projects
  • Newsletters/Promotional
  • Confirmations/Invitations

Again, process the library area at least once a month and archive or delete any emails that are no longer relevant.

Lastly, we have the live inbox area, the place where your Executive’s emails arrive. Once you have your processing system in place, you will find that your Executive’s inbox is much less chaotic! Pick three times daily to jump into the inbox, move the new emails into the appropriate folders, or answer quick requests.

Setting Up Folders in Outlook

Setting Up Labels in Gmail

Categorizing and Labeling

Many Assistants I know love categorizing and labeling and use the system to take the organization of emails to another level! I’m not a big fan of categorizing emails. If you use a filing system, this should be enough to keep your Executive’s emails organized. Also, you don’t want to spend considerable time processing emails, and I feel using categories or labels adds unnecessary time and decision-making.

That being said, Google Workspace uses labels rather than folders, which means the labeling options are pretty dynamic. This is a good article explaining the difference between Outlook folders and Gmail labels and how to use labels in Gmail effectively.

If you want to add categories to your emails in Outlook, here is an excellent resource.

Rules

Rules are brilliant for organizing your email folders and automating processing. Here is a good article about setting up rules on Outlook. Anything that helps automate your workflow is well worth setting up. Once you move emails into the designated folders, you’ll notice that the emails often come from the same sender. For example, the internal communications newsletter will come from the same staff member. Set a rule so the internal communications letter drops straight into the “read” folder.

Setting Up Rules on Outlook

Setting Up Rules in Google

Making Decisions

Now that you have the primary system in place for managing your Executive’s inbox, the next step in the ultimate guide to managing your Executive’s emails is to start making decisions about each email sent to your Executive.

As I mentioned, you don’t want to live in your Executive’s inbox. Ideally, you should only process emails three times per day at most. The reason is that you have other work to do! Try to keep email processing down to half an hour.

When you open their emails, I suggest you have a system in place to quickly and efficiently work through the inbox. I like David Allen’s 3 Ds method:

  • Do It
  • Delegate It
  • Defer It

 

Do It: This is pretty straightforward. If it takes less than two minutes, as the saying goes, do it! Get these small tasks off your plate quickly. They may take two minutes today, but they could take longer or become more complicated if you leave them.

Delegate It: Assistants can delegate—I can’t emphasize this enough. You don’t have to do everything that lands in your Executive’s inbox. If you or your Executive aren’t the right people for the job, delegate the work. Alternatively, if you’re waiting for part of the work to be completed by someone else, make sure you follow up until they reply to your request. Following up is something Assistants should be highly skilled at. It’s incredibly effective if you remember to follow up and chase people for work. Things don’t get done at work because they fall by the wayside or are forgotten. If someone in the office is in charge of accountability, so much more will be accomplished. Assistants should be in charge of accountability!

Defer It: This is where things get a little more complicated. If you can’t take action on the email immediately, which can be for several reasons, have a system in place for the next steps. What happens to emails you can’t answer right away? Use the filing system to move the email out of the inbox while waiting for it to be actioned.

Working in Sync with Your Executive

The final part of the process in the ultimate guide to managing your Executive’s emails is deciding how you will communicate with your Executive about your actions with their emails. It doesn’t need to be complicated, especially if you have implemented the folder system and triaged their emails into relevant areas that require your Executive’s attention. However, you must be on the same page and consistent in your approach.

If your Executive is comfortable with you managing their email inbox entirely, communications about emails should be kept to a minimum. If your Executive prefers some oversight, I suggest debriefing them at the end of the day—ideally face-to-face. Avoid adding more emails to their inbox if possible. If the debrief is via email, keep it concise and easy to read. Let your Executive know what has happened that requires their attention. Highlight urgent emails in the action folder and suggest a course of action.

For many Executive Assistants, managing their Executive’s emails is a primary and increasingly important part of their role. Whether setting up rules and filters, filing away emails, or compiling the most relevant information from emails to share with your Executive, staying on top of their email load is essential. The ultimate guide to managing your Executive’s emails has provided you with a proactive strategy for handling email overload so you can remain efficient and productive in helping your Executive manage their inbox.

While gaining control of an inbox can be challenging, it is achievable with the tools outlined above. If you’re looking for additional support and guidance, take a look at the Effective Email Management Online Course designed to help you better manage your Executive’s email processes. Managing your Executive’s emails doesn’t have to be stressful—the right solutions will leave you confident that all necessary tasks are handled correctly and promptly, freeing up time and energy for other priorities.

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Picture of Nicky Christmas

Nicky Christmas

I'm Nicky, the Founder and CEO of The EA Campus. Let’s continue the conversation over in our communities.

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