HubSpot的增长副总裁揭示了10条原则，使他的电子邮件生产力飞涨

Email sucks.

让我们把它扔出去。每个人都讨厌它。它分散了注意力，繁重，偶尔感觉就像是苍蝇在我们的头上嗡嗡作响。Yet despite our love of hating it, we need it.Our entire professional life runs off email.

因此，也许我们应该开始优化它，而不是排斥它。提出一个有趣的问题：

How do the world’s most successful peoplemake email work for them？

好吧，老实说 - 我没有该死的线索。

But I took my first stab at understanding how they do it. A few days ago, I got a behind-the-scenes peek into the inbox of HubSpot’s VP of Growth — Brian Balfour.

He’s a busy guy with an impressive resume.

布莱恩（Brian）为数百万公司出售了两家公司，并为各种VC支持的公司提供了建议，并正在领导Sidekick的快速增长。员工给他发电子邮件。Blogger通过电子邮件将他的面试请求发送给他。企业家向他发送电子邮件以寻求建议。等等。

So how does he keep it all straight? And how does he stay sane?

He uses a system, split into 10 principles, that makes his inbox incredibly efficient. He can now spend less time in email, get in touch with hard-to-reach people, avoid repetitive tasks, optimize his energy, and leverage a few tools that have skyrocketed his productivity.

这是10封电子邮件这位世界一流企业家的生产力提示and angel investor [click to Tweet image].

布莱恩在这2-3个小时内做什么？

我nstead of hearing it from me, I'll let Brian share the advice in his own words.

Take it away, Brian.

Email Principle #1: Archive everything.

这two features I use religiously in Gmail are:

1. 这档案button
2. 这发送和存档按钮(在一分钟内我将解释如何to activate this)

结果，我的收件箱从未有大量的消息。这就是它的样子：

请注意，那里只有9封电子邮件。这是因为我将每个电子邮件视为待办事项列表任务。因此，当我收到电子邮件时，我会遵循此流程图：

如果我不需要响应，我会存档。

如果我需要立即做出回应，我会使用发送和存档button. This automatically archives the message after I reply. If I need to respond, but my response can wait for later, I'll follow the same process when I have time.

Constantly archiving messageskeeps my inbox tidy and clean, making it easier to comprehend emails I need to tackle next.

Now when you reply to an email, the default button will be发送和存档。但是您仍然可以选择在不归档消息的情况下发送消息：

Oh yeah, and see how I annotated that image above? That's using one of my favorite tools ...

Email Principle#2: Use tools to work faster, thus spend less time in email.

这re are four email productivity tools I use pretty much daily.

1。Evernote web clipper- If I need to email a screenshot to someone, I capture it usingEvernote的网络快船extension for Google Chrome. It also lets me add arrows and text (as you can see in the first tip above) for easy annotation.

2。Pocket- When I receive an article via email that catches my eye, I'll save it for later usingPocket。这n I’ll read in my downtime.

3。Buffer——如果我读条口袋里很有趣,我'll useBufferto share it withmy Twitterfollowers.

4。Sidekick- If I'm writing emails at 11pm, I schedule them for the next morning usingSidekick。我t also automatically shows Linkedin and Twitter profiles inside of Gmail, which saves me time from having to look them up outside of email.

Email Principle#3: Batch emails.

我相信我们能陷入的最糟糕的习惯是notbatching our emails.

我typically batch email twice a day. First round is between 11am and 12pm. Second round is between 4下午和5pm:

But do Ialwaysbatch my emails?No, I'm not perfect. But I understand the consequences of sporadically checking email throughout the day.

Atostudyby the American Psychological Association，，，，shifting between tasks causes temporary mental barriers, depleting our productivity by as much as 40%。

该原则超出了电子邮件。我尝试批量所有任务，因为我在一系列冲刺和休息中工作。当我最不活力时，当我最充满活力和低优先级的任务时，我可以专注于高优先级任务。

Email Principle＃4：当您的心理能量最少时，电子邮件。

我的精力is highest in the morning, so I leverage that time tofocuson my most important task.

相反，下午我充满活力。自从电子邮件doesn't require intense mental energy, I send most emails then. But of course, some emails are urgent and require a faster response. So I respond to those during my 11am to 12pm email batching time slot.

这trick is understanding when we're most energized, then optimizing each time period for the appropriate task. This empowers us to get more done in less time.

Email Principle＃5：关闭通知（尤其是在移动设备上）。

Email is distracting enough. Using notifications (both desktop and mobile) just intensifies the distraction. Shut them off.

我花了一段时间才意识到这一点，因为我曾经有一个非常糟糕的早晨习惯：

醒来后，仍在床上，我将iPhone从充电电缆中拉出，然后通过电子邮件通知进行紧急消息。

我discovered this stressed me out more than anything. Because instead of starting the day clear-minded, I'd be distracted by requests and questions from others.

尼尔·艾尔（Nir Eyal），一个expert关于习惯建造，遵循类似的过程。他关闭了电子邮件通知，因此他可以专注于高优先级任务。

Email Principle#6: To get a response from someone successful that is difficult to reach, follow these guidelines.

我f we're sending ineffective emails, we won't get an answer. If we don't get an answer, we're wasting our time in email.

我t's not easy getting in touch with venture capitalists, successful entrepreneurs, and CEOs. But itis可能的。但是，它要求我们学习一些有关如何获得响应的规则。

以下是过去与许多成功人士联系在一起的原则：

Get an introduction from someone else.它给其他人施加了社会压力。

Discover how you can help them.Don't just blindly ask for help without offering something yourself. Do your research (ex. Twitter, Linkedin, blogs, etc.) to discover how you can offer value to them.

Be unique.吸引他们的注意。如果您写通用的话，“嘿，我是XYZ Company的Joe Schmo，会喜欢您的一些时间……”这是即时删除bob全站app。尝试一条独特的主题和介绍，听起来不像其他所有人。

保持简短...具体。Always ask one specific question. Not two or three questions. One. And be very specific about what you want a response for. More on that in the next tip ...

Email Principle＃7：如果您想快速回复，请不要提出通用问题。

Please, if you're an entrepreneur, don't do the following to anyone (it is my biggest pet peeve):

Don't ask extremely generic questions that are almost impossible to answer!

当我们提出通用问题时，我们会得到（1）没有回答，或者（2）电子邮件要求更多澄清。

我f we get no response, we end up sending a follow-up email (thus spending more time in email). If asked for more clarification, it just adds yet another email to our inbox. It's a lose-lose situation.

For example, I often get hit up by entrepreneurs asking for growth or marketing advice. The email usually goes like this:

My immediate answer in my head is,

“我have no #$%@ing clue. I don't know who you are or anything about your company. And you are asking me a generic question that is nearly impossible to answer without anything details about your situation."

我t makes me feel like this person hasn't put in any time or thought into the email. And if they haven't, why should I?

Email Principle#8: Be ruthless about unsubscribing.

我give all newsletters two strikes (i.e. two articles where I didn't learn anything new) before I unsubscribe. This keeps my inbox from overflowing with junk that doesn't teach me something new.

同样，如果我没有从中获得价值，我退订了产品更新或促销优惠。

By ruthlessly unsubscribing, I avoid the "email debt" that progressively builds over time from multiple email subscriptions. If you're buried in a mountain of email subscriptions, giveenrull.me尝试一次批量订阅。

Email Principle#9: Use "no templates" to stop typing repetitive emails.

我一生中有重中之重，我真的很关心。不幸的是，这些人并不总是与他人的优先事项一致。发生这种情况时，我不得不说不。

But it's innefficient to say "no" in a unique way whenever someone emails me.

因此，我通过使用节省时间罐头响应在Gmail。现在，每当我收到请求，但没有帮助的能力，我可以通过使用罐头响应进行两次点击发送此电子邮件：

（随意复制并粘贴上述模板以供您个人使用）

Most people respond well to that. If they don't understand, then they probably aren't the type of person I want to be helping anyways.

Email Principle#10: Use email templates to outsource tasks that aren't your specialty.

Finally, I used to do everything myself. And then one day I realized how stupid this was.

我'd trick myself into feeling busy with smaller tasks, when I was just wasting time. My stress levels continued to rise until I realized I needed to start outsourcing tasks.

但是存在这个小问题 - 外包任务也需要时间。

We have to type the email, give directions, and make sure we don't miss any important parts. After we do all of that, we might as well of done the task ourselves. By using email templates (again, with Gmail's canned responses), all the hard work is automatically done for me.

Now I just have to make three clicks and press send.

You can flip through all of the email templates below: