12 Ways to Make Your Inbox More ManageableBy YECEmail can be a huge time suck. And the more you send, the more you receive. But with a little organization, email can take up much less of your time. Thats why we asked ! entrepreneurs from"oung Entrepreneur #ouncil $"E#%the following &uestion'Q. What is one step I can take to reduce the number of emailsI send or reply to every day?1. Pick Up the Phone(t is so easy to hide behind a screen, whether it be your monitor,your phone or your tablet. A great way to reduce the in and out )ow of emails is to use an old*fashioned piece of technology' the telephone. +y general rule of thumb is the longer an email becomes, the more likely that the topic is better suited to a phone call.+ore phone calls e&uate to a lighter inbo,. - .erek /unter , 0illiam 1oam 2. Include Everything the First Time0henever you send an email, provide all the details needed to complete the task or make the decision.This will dramatically reduce the amount of back and forth needed to answer &uestions. 2or e,ample, include relevant logins, documents, an itemized to do list, and answer potential &uestions all in your 3rst email. (f you spend 4*5 minutes on a long email, it could save you a week of back and forth6 - 2araz 7han , 8o .irect 9ead 8eneration 3. Wait an Hour( 3nd it tempting to respond immediately as soon as ( get an email to get it off my plate. /owever, ( 3nd that my clients and vendors often have follow*up thoughts or other people chime in if ( :ust wait. ;o, rather than responding after every individual comment, ( :ust take a pause and wait an hour and review full email strings< it is much more productive. - Angela /arless , AcrobatAnt 4. Hire a Personal Assistant( hired an assistant on o.esk, and she has saved my life in terms of cleaning up my inbo,. =ow, she 3lters and prioritizes the most important emails so ( never miss something important.Email used to be my biggest time suck until ( hired her. ( was nervous about giving up control, and now ( cant believe it took me so long to take that step6 ;he also now handles my scheduling and /1 tasks, too. - 8. 7rista +organ , >!Binvestor 5. Delegate(f youre responding to more emails than you can in a day, you should start to delegate some of the responsibility to other people. .elegation is one of the best ways that (ve helped clear out a lot of my inbo, so only the most important things remain. - ?ohn 1ampton , .ue 6. Dont Ask QuestionsEmail has become a receptacle for other people to stash their problems. ( try not to ask &uestions in email. The back and forth can go on forever when a &uick call will 3, it right then. After ( take out all the &uestion marks, ( delete the last line ( wrote in the email. =ine times out often it was super)uous or based on emotion anyway. (m a phone guy now, and ( prefer face*to*face. - +ichael >ortman , Birds Barbershop