Managing Email Overload at Work

YOU’VE LOST WORK-LIFE BALANCE. GOOD. NOW TAKE IT BACK. You check emails the moment you wake up. Reply to every message like it’s urgent. Feel guilty for stepping away—even for ten minutes. You’re not lazy. You’re just wired to be “always on.” Because somewhere along the way, you started believing that’s what success demands. Here’s what I’ve realised: This isn’t productivity. It’s addiction. Most people don’t know how to tell urgent from unimportant. So everything feels urgent. And that’s how your day, your energy, your clarity gets hijacked. Work-life balance isn’t about time. It’s about boundaries. And those boundaries start with your phone. Put it down during meetings. Put it down during meals. Put it down during walks, at the gym, or anything that’s yours. You can check it in 30 minutes. The world will still be there. But your mind will be quieter. Sharper. Yours. If you’re stuck with a boss who expects you to be always-on that’s a different issue. But most of the time, it’s not them. It’s the story you’re telling yourself. So, here’s what I suggest: Train yourself to pause. Not just your hands but your head. Create space for thought. Space for nothing. Space for you. Stop being available to everyone. Start being available to yourself. Because no one will protect your energy for you. You must do it first.

If you’re a project manager, your emails aren’t just communication. They’re evidence. They’re ammunition. They’re either building your defense or handing someone else the bullets. I’ve been in the room when the blame starts flying. You know what shuts it down? A clear, timestamped email. Not a memory. Not a feeling. Not a story. Documentation. If you manage big projects, lead teams, or touch contracts with serious money attached, your emails will be forwarded, screenshot, and maybe even read aloud in arbitration or court. Here are 5 tactical ways to protect yourself every time you hit send: 1. Every call gets a written follow-up Doesn’t matter if it’s internal, external, or casual. “As discussed on today’s call, proceeding with Phase 2. [Job #4521]” 2. Verbal approval means nothing without written confirmation If they said yes, you say: “Confirming your approval to proceed with X. Moving forward unless we hear otherwise.” 3. Always tag your job number It makes everything searchable, trackable, and court-ready. Subject: [Job #4521] Scope Clarification – 6/24 4. Internal meetings need notes too Even if it’s just the team. Risk flagged Budget shift noted Client deadline moved 5. Write like it’ll be read aloud in front of a judge No emotion. No finger-pointing. No passive-aggressive BS. Just calm, direct facts. Email is a weapon. Learn how to use it. Or risk it being used against you. What’s your go-to strategy for protecting yourself in high-stakes projects? — Hardesty

I just deleted 147 cold emails without reading them. Here’s what they all got wrong: Every morning, my inbox looks the same. A flood of pitches from people trying to sell me something. Most days, I just mass delete them. But this morning, I decided to actually read through them first. Within 5 minutes, I spotted a pattern. Everyone was making the exact same mistake. They were all trying to close the deal. ALL IN THE FIRST MESSAGE 🥵 Let me show you what I mean (with two small examples): APPROACH A: "The Wall of Text" Send 100 cold emails with full pitch, calendar link, and case studies. • 3 people open • 0 responses • 0 intros This looks exactly like the 147 emails I just deleted "Hi [Name], I noticed your company is scaling fast! We help companies like yours optimize their marketing stack through our proprietary AI technology. Our clients see 300% ROI within 90 days. Here's my Calendly link to book a 15-min chat: [LINK]. Looking forward to connecting! Best, [Name]" BORING!!! APPROACH B: "Micro Conversations" Same 100 prospects, broken down into micro-convo's. Email 1: "Do you know [mutual connection]?" • Send 100 • ~40 open • ~20 respond Email 2: "They mentioned you're scaling your marketing team. I'd love to connect about [specific thing]." • Send to 20 who responded • ~15 continue engaging Email 3: "Would you mind if they made an intro?" • Ask 15 engaged prospects • ~10 intros Final score: • Approach A: No intros • Approach B: 10 intros How to Apply These Lessons (Tactical Summary): 1. Focus on Micro-Conversations: Break your cold outreach into smaller, manageable steps. Build rapport before making any asks. 2. Personalize Everything: Reference mutual connections, specific company milestones, or shared interests in every message. 3. Play the Long Game: Aim for replies in the first message.. not conversions. If you’ve been struggling with cold outreach, you might just need a new approach. Give this one a try and lmk how it goes.

The old rules kept us "always on"—but where did it get us? Overwhelmed, overstretched, and without the results to show for it. It's time to rewrite the rules. The traditional mindset had us believing that being constantly available and agreeable is the key to success. But most of the time, it led to burnout, shallow commitments, and work without real impact. Today, we're flipping the script. The new rules are here: -> Protect your time. -> Make every 'yes' count. To help you make the shift, Dr. Carolyn Frost has broken down 7 powerful ways to set clear boundaries in this carousel. Swipe through to learn these actionable strategies and take back control: ❌ Old Rule: Be available 24/7 - and apologize for limits. ✅ New Rule: Set clear communication boundaries upfront. ↳Set auto-responses for non-working hours. ↳Communicate clear working hours upfront. ↳Schedule buffer time for deep work or breaks. ❌ Old Rule: Take every meeting. ✅ New Rule: Question every invitation. ↳Ask, "What's the desired outcome?" ↳Suggest alternatives to meetings. ❌ Old Rule: Power through. ✅ New Rule: Schedule rest like meetings. ↳Buffer 5-10 min breaks between calls. ↳Take a real lunch away from your desk. ↳End your workday at a set time. ❌ Old Rule: Reply immediately. ✅ New Rule: Respond strategically. ↳Batch emails 3x daily. ↳Use templates for common requests. ↳Schedule emails only for business hours. ❌ Old Rule: Say yes to prove worth. ✅ New Rule: Say no to protect impact. ↳Review priorities before committing. ↳Ask, "What needs to drop for this?" ↳Say, "Let me check and circle back." ❌ Old Rule: Push through overwhelm. ✅ New Rule: Listen to overwhelm. ↳Do weekly energy audits. ↳Schedule key tasks during peak energy hours. ↳Get specific about what's causing overwhelm. ❌ Old Rule: Be everything to everyone. ✅ New Rule: Be significant to a few. ↳Nurture your most vital relationships. ↳Delegate tasks others can do 80% as well. ↳Focus on high-impact activities. The old way of overcommitting is outdated. Time to rewrite the rules and create boundaries that actually stick. ♻️ If this resonates, share it with your network  to help others set healthier boundaries. 🔔 Follow me Ani Filipova for more content on change and career.

How do you transition back to work from vacation? Every time I return from vacation my email is flooded and my calendar is packed. It can feel overwhelming. Good news is that I’ve been figuring out my strategy over the years and I no longer stress about the ‘re-entry’. Here’s my process: First I triage my inbox. Use tech to your advantage, focus on what matters and clear out the noise. 🎯 Prioritize. Use filters to group messages by sender, subject, or project and identify emails from leadership, key stakeholders, and team members first. 🎯 Delete unnecessary emails. Skip the backlog of newsletters and other ‘nice to read’ messages. Also skip any threads where decisions were made without you. Those updates will come through team and project meetings as you reconnect. 🎯 Two minute rule. My favorite. Any email with a quick response or action, I knock out. For more complex emails, I flag them for later and group them into calendar time blocks for follow-up. Now I do a calendar review. Get a quick and clear picture of the day and week ahead. I do this review before I leave on vacation to ensure the first days back are focused. I do it again the first day back (within the first hour), and make any required changes. 🎯 Critical meetings. Look for meetings that need preparation and prioritize them. At the same time look for meetings where agendas have not been shared, reprioritize. 🎯 Block time for catch ups. Treat this time as a meeting with yourself and protect it. Schedule blocks for email, catch up with your team, to review project updates, and handle urgent items. I schedule these blocks on my last day before vacation so I’m set up for success when I come back. 🎯 Say NO. Cancel or decline non-essential commitments. It’s okay to say no to meetings that aren’t a high priority, especially in the first few days back. Now I reassess my week and perhaps reprioritize. What needs immediate attention? Have deadlines changed? Any new goals? A crisis? Understand current state and time block for critical path items and high impact work. How do you manage work when you come back from vacation? Please share your tips in the comments so we can all drop the stress in returning to work post vacation.

I sat down with Lea Algazy, Head of Partnerships at Rep AI, to break down how combining Rep AI and Mailability.io is unlocking 50%+ of total store revenue through email with Klaviyo. The secret? Using Conversational AI data + real-time intent scoring to move beyond static email journeys. Here’s the 3-step strategy powering it: Step 1: Turn live conversations into data-backed email journeys - Rep AI’s chatbot collects emails through natural, high-intent on-site interactions. - Those subscribers are synced directly to Klaviyo, enriched with context and preferences. - Mailability.io applies a real-time Intent Score to each profile the moment they enter your system. Step 2: Score and segment based on real behavior - Every profile is scored individually, not just tagged - That allows brands to: • Re-engage shoppers who chatted in the past but didn’t convert • Identify moderate-intent profiles and warm them up • Pinpoint hyper-engaged users who just need one more nudge to buy - Profiles move in and out of Mailability’s AI segments and AI flows automatically, based on real-time behavior. Step 3: Personalize flows and campaigns at scale - Use the combination of Rep AI’s 500+ chat data points and Mailability’s Intent Scores and smart actions to send the right message, to the right message, at the right time, on autopilot. - Brands are using this to: • Warm up cold profiles and bring them into high-performing AI campaign lists and flows • Increase site activity by 71.5% by sending the right message at the right time • Trigger on-site engagement when high-intent users return, without missing the moment to increase email revenue by 32% It’s not about blasting more emails. It’s about aligning signals across your tech stack and letting real-time behavior guide every send. The full breakdown is in the slides. Curious how this might look inside your Klaviyo account? Let’s connect? https://lnkd.in/dCdwyQ2d

“I hope this email finds you…” I hope FEWER emails find all of you. But when they (inevitably) do find you, follow 3-21-0: • 3 email processing sessions daily • 21 minutes per session • 0 emails left (goal of inbox zero) I first learned of this method from author Kevin Kruse. Today, you’ll get a proven plan to execute it. — First, why follow 3-21-0? Batching. The most successful people of the future will be those who can focus and go deep into their work. Batching email limits distraction and protects non-batching times for valuable "deep work" activities. — How to execute 3-21-0: Block 3, 21-minute sessions on your calendar. Practical times: • 9:30-9:51 AM • 1:00-1:21 PM • 4:30- 4:51 PM Avoid checking email outside these times (if possible). Kill notifications. — Your digital environment is either producing clarity or complexity. Choose clarity with the 3-21-0 Method. ⬳ Find this useful? Repost to help your network too, and follow me for more.

Your sales emails suck. And guess what? I know because I get 30 of them a day. I see the same mistakes over and over...the boring intros, the endless rambling, and the generic pitches that make my inbox feel like a nightmare. Want to know why? Because your email has 3 seconds to make an impression. THREE. Seconds. That's how long you have before I hit "delete" So if you’re not cutting through the noise, you’re just part of the problem. Here’s why your outreach isn’t working: 🚫 Cut the fluff, now – “Hope you’re doing well” or “Just checking in” is a one-way ticket to the trash. No one has time for that. If you don’t get to the point within the first 5 words, you’re done. ✂️ Get to the point fast – Lengthy emails are a killer. Research shows emails under 50 words see 83% more replies. That means if you're writing a novel, you’re already losing. 📚 Personalize (like actually personalize) – "I see you're in [insert job title here]”—that's not personalization, it’s lazy. Do your homework and show that you understand my specific challenges and goals. If you don’t, I’m clicking delete before you even finish your sentence. 🎯 Relevance matters more than anything – If your email isn’t directly tied to what I’m trying to accomplish, it’s not going to get a reply. I don’t need a generic pitch; I need to know how you can help me solve my problems today. 🔥 Stop the lazy copy-paste – If I can tell you’re sending the same message to 100 people, I’m out. Your outreach should feel like you’re speaking to me, not to the entire world. Personalization isn’t just a buzzword. You’ve got 3 seconds to grab attention and show value. If you’re still using the same tired tactics, you’re wasting your time...and mine. 🎤 🫳 ALSO MASSIVE SHOUTOUT to the folks using video to prospect, can say that personalized video messages get a response from me every time. I LOVE them.

This is the fastest way to burn out as a data professional: (And it's so common that it scares me) Being an order taker. Someone asks for a dashboard... You say, "Sure." Someone asks for a report... You say, "Okay." Someone tells you, "I need this by Friday..." You say, "No problem." Eventually, you've built a backlog of dashboards that nobody uses. ... a ton of metrics that don't tie to any useful decisions. And worst of all, a reputation as a "BI help desk." Why is this such a big deal? Because you're setting the standard for how you want to be treated. Most data teams fall into this trap. And this is why most data teams are exhausted, undervalued, and lost. They’ve turned themselves into order processors instead of problem solvers. There's only one way to fix this problem: Learn to say, "No." Not a hard “no” that shuts the door... But a strategic no that redirects the conversation to what matters. A "No" that allows you to investigate: • What decision is stuck right now? • How will this be used once it’s built? • Is a dashboard even the right tool?    Here’s the takeaway: The best analytics teams are the slowest to say “yes” to ad-hoc requests. Why? Because everything must tie back to ROI. ♻️ Share this to help someone in your team avoid the order-taker trap. Follow me for more pragmatic takes on how to make analytics drive outcomes.

Are you sending more than 5k emails to Gmail accounts and is your spam rate <0.3%? 🤔 It's not a question you would have asked yourself a week ago. Google's latest announcement around new Gmail requirements as of Feb'24 will mean a good amount of companies will need to review their email-sending practices very soon if A) they're sending over 5k emails per day to Gmail users B) have a >0.3% spam rate A couple of things to note on the spam rate 1. Spam rate applies to all email traffic of the domain, not just sales/marketing 👀 0.3% is 3 emails marked as spam for every 1,000 emails sent This means you'll need to drive down spam rate for your email domain across every email motion whether you're sending newsletters, cold emails etc. 2. 0.3% spam rate requirement is for all the senders, not just those sending over 5K emails to Gmail users. What you should consider doing? 1. Monitor Postmaster Tools 2. Increase quality and reduce quantity (Easier said than done). 3. Warm-up EVERY mailbox you use to send emails to people you don't know 4. Introduce dedicated domains for email motions and do domain rotation 5. Reduce # of emails you have in a sequence. More emails sent to a recipient within a short timeframe = higher likelihood of spam report There's more, but ultimately think from a user's standpoint and reduce the likelihood of them reporting your email as spam. There are things that aren't in your control due to email fatigue. Some users # Don't open emails from unknown senders. They can't/won't manage it. # Automatically filter emails from unknown senders or use tools to block them. # Mark automatically as spam, even newsletters they signed up to, which is cruel :) The good news there's plenty of time for you to adjust. More info and a link to the article in the comments below.