Email management is an essential skill for any assistant and it’s one of the main reasons that clients often book you for your services. Here’s why email management is so important and why your clients rely on you to keep their inboxes organised and under control: 

Email is a crucial form of communication 

In today’s fast-paced business world, email is often the primary method of communication between colleagues, clients, and partners. As an assistant, you play a key role in managing your boss’s email inbox and ensuring that important messages are not missed or overlooked. 

Email can be overwhelming 

With so much information flowing in and out of our inboxes on a daily basis, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. As an assistant, you are responsible for filtering out the noise and prioritising the most important messages, which can help your boss stay focused and productive. 

Email management saves time 

Effective email management can save a lot of time, both for your boss and for you. By organising emails into folders and setting up filters, you can ensure that important messages are easy to find and that your boss doesn’t waste time sifting through unimportant emails. 

Email management enhances professionalism 

A cluttered, disorganised inbox can give the impression of disorganisation and lack of professionalism. By keeping your boss’s inbox tidy and organised, you can help them maintain a professional image and make a positive impression on clients and colleagues. 

So, how can you improve your email management skills and become an invaluable asset to your boss? Here are a few tips: 

  1. Use folders and labels: In Outlook, you can create folders to organise your emails into categories. For example, you might create a folder for client emails, another for internal communications, and another for invoices. This will help you and your boss find emails more quickly and stay organised. 
     
  1. Set up rules: Outlook’s “Rules” feature allows you to automatically sort incoming emails based on specific criteria. For example, you might set up a rule to automatically move all emails from a specific sender into a designated folder or to flag emails with certain keywords. 
     
  1. Use the “To-Do” list: Outlook’s “To-Do” list is a great way to keep track of tasks and deadlines related to emails. You can create tasks, set due dates and priorities, and even assign tasks to other people. 
     
  1. Archive emails: When you or your boss no longer need to keep an email in your inbox, consider archiving it. This will help keep your inbox tidy and prevent it from getting cluttered with old or unnecessary messages. 
     

By following these tips and using the tools available in Outlook, you can become an expert in email management and make a big difference in your boss’s workday. Remember, the key is to stay organised and stay on top of your tasks. With a little bit of practice and discipline, you can become an invaluable asset to your boss and make a positive impact on their business.  

Ready to discover the secrets to effective email management? Take a look at our Outlook training here Essential Outlook for The Savvy Assistant  

The session was well structured and the explanation was very clear. It was amazing how Shelley managed to squeeze so much info in just one hour and a half! Colin’s support and contributions were also very valuable, and so were “Virtual Veronica”‘s. Thank you for a most interesting and useful training session at the Miss Jones Virtual Summit!

Laura Carizzo- Royal Norwegian Embassy in Argentina

I haven’t used PowerPoint in 20 years, this has really boosted my confidence.

Lyn Parker

Course is packed with so much valuable information in a easy-to-understand and follow language, even for a complete beginner. I can respect the fact that sometimes it’s very hard for an expert to break the information down to basics. but Shelley has done it brilliantly. I was sure that I knew quite a bit but Shelley has proven me wrong even at the very beginning of the basics of PowerPoint. Lessons are short and precise which allowed me to easily transfer the new skill into practice without being overwhelmed and to carry on adding on more with each lesson. I had so many ‘Aha!’ moments and for most of them I couldn’t believe I used to pay graphic designer to do it for me, now, thanks to Shelley, I am looking forward to creating, designing, converting my presentations all by myself!

Iva Freeman – Vertex Human Capital

Shelley was very thorough and knew a lot of tip’s for using Teams, thank you 🙂

James O’Connor – Cavannah Homes

Very informative, constantly getting everyone in the meeting involved, loved every bit of it!

Dylan Teal Hopkins – Cavannah Homes
Fantastic and informative training and great to see all of the exciting functions with Microsoft Teams.
Laura Rigby – The Apprenticeship College
Shelley was really clear in her teaching and went at a pace that was helpful to us. We covered all we needed to know to get us started, as a small team, using MS Teams. She was also very helpful in the run up to the session, with check in calls and ensuring our platform was set up correctly. I would highly recommend Shelley to anyone wanting to learn to navigate their way around MS Teams.
Leigh Dowling – Innuous

Microsoft Teams One to One Training Session

Shelley was approachable, easy to work with, and agile with answering questions to apply the session to my specific needs

Melissa Marshall – Present Your Science

A course on Outlook had been on the top of my list when Shelley asked VA’s what they wanted to learn. It was a real case of ‘so that’s how you do it’ or ‘I never knew that’. I have to say that I learnt so many great tips it has definitely improved the way I work in Outlook and my inbox is looking colourful and organised and I can’t wait to share this knowledge with my clients.

Jacqueline Leake – JLeake VA Services – Outlook

A great course with lots of examples and step by step instructions. I can now confidently create infographics and as a bonus, I learnt a lot of new PowerPoint functionality that will enhance all my PowerPoint work and save me so much time.

Jessica Bailey – Integral Resource

I really like Shelley’s courses. She has a clear and easy to follow teaching style. In ‘How to Create Fillable Forms’ I’ve learned about the functions of the Developer ribbon which will mean I’ll be able to create a bespoke Returns Form for a client who has an online shop

Freya Henderson – Virtual Office Orkney

Shelley was really clear in her teaching and went at a pace that was helpful to us. We covered all we needed to know to get us started, as a small team, using MS Teams. She was also very helpful in the run up to the session, with check in calls and ensuring our platform was set up correctly. I would highly recommend Shelley to anyone wanting to learn to navigate their way around MS Teams.

Sarah Clements – Inuous

Absolutely superb course, easy to follow and to refer back whilst putting it all into practice! I was unaware of the extent you can customise a presentation and it’s just made me want to know more – what’s next Shelley?

Denise Williams

I thought I had a pretty good grasp of Outlook until I did this course! In her videos, Shelley is clear and concise, and the language she uses is straightforward and jargon-free. Each module is broken down into manageable chunks, which helps keep your attention and means the course is easy to fit in around other commitments. I’ve created email templates and implemented rules that are already saving me time, and as all the other things I’ve learnt start to become second nature, the positive impact on my efficiency is fast becoming clear. This course has been incredibly beneficial and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to strengthen their skills and boost productivity.

Pip Doleman VA

I thought I knew Powerpoint really well, but I wanted to specifically learn how to use Powerpoint to create better infographics, easily and quickly. Shelley explains everything in a very logical and clear way, so I understood everything the first time I heard it. The most useful thing I learnt was that Powerpoint can do so much more than I thought it could. By also using the short cuts that Shelley showed me I am much quicker than I have ever been and I thought I was already quick!

Susan Marot

Shelley Fishel of Tomorrow’s VA has a wealth of experience in Microsoft Office. I met her in person 2 years ago at the PA Show in London. I also saw her in action in a fab workshop and knew she was the whizz that everyone had told me she was. I have since bought a lifetime access to her HUB and all the courses in there are a MUST if you are a VA on a mission. The courses will give you confidence in all the Office 365 components and will catapult you to dizzy heights

Alex Hughes