Is it actually possible to love your e-mail?
The answer, as with all things, is that it depends. It depends mostly on you, that is, not your e-mail. Let’s just say that it is possible to tame the beast and make it work the way you want. It will take time, tools, and perseverance.
The first thing to tackle is the question of how your e-mail is hosted and viewed. If you are able to separate your e-mail hosting from your website hosting, so much the better. This introduces a degree of independence and fault-tolerance, since it will not be linked to the availability of your web hosting and be subject to server outages. If you are still downloading all your mail to read offline, this really should be a thing of the past, especially with always-on broadband and cellular Internet service. For maximum flexibility and reliability, the recommendation is to go with a cloud-based e-mail solution that uses IMAP as the means of managing messages. E-mail stays in the cloud, not on your device, so you can read and reply wherever you are and whatever you’re using – be it smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Once you’ve taken the decision to move your e-mail to the cloud, migrating, if need be, any existing e-mail, the next question is one of tools. Cloud-based e-mail typically uses a web-based interface, which greatly reduces the investment businesses need to make in desktop application software, such as Microsoft Outlook. Replacing expensive desktop software with a webmail client is reason enough to love your e-mail when you make such appreciable cost savings.
However, the benefits don’t stop there. Your e-mail is only the start. Desktop applications also include spreadsheets, presentations, and word processing, all of which can be replaced by web clients, reducing costs even further. No need to purchase new versions every time an upgrade comes along. The software is always up-to-date and you never have to think about the time and expense of upgrades or compatibility issues.
Now that the cloud-based solution is up and working, it’s time to look at third-party tools. These may include e-mail clients for smartphones and tablets, as well as integrations with other cloud-based services. Once set up and configured, these have the potential to revolutionise your productivity with time-saving features that simply and effectively work together to make your life much easier.
What do I use?
The solution starts with Google Apps for Work. This is home base, as it were; everything else builds on a foundation of Google Apps for Work. To this, I add a whole slew of apps that integrate with Google Apps (and often with each other):
- Google Chrome (with a ton of extensions to make life easier) for browsing and desktop e-mail (all synced with the cloud, so that my bookmarks go with me on any device)
- Google Drive for file storage and synchronisation (web and iOS)
- Spark to manage e-mail down to the holy grail of “inbox zero” (for Mac OS X and iOS)
- Sunrise Calendar (for Google Chrome, iOS)
- Capsule CRM to keep track of the people and companies we do business with, communications with them, opportunities in the pipeline, and what needs to be done when (web and iOS)
- Xero for online invoicing, estimates, bookkeeping and accounting (web and iOS)
- Wunderlist and Azendoo to group all our teamwork in one place so that we can plan, share and get organised (web, desktop, and iOS)
- Trello for project management (web, desktop, and iOS)
- Evernote for notes (web, desktop, and iOS)
- Pocket for saving articles, videos, or pretty much anything else on the web (web and iOS)
I hope this has given you food for thought. There are so many things you can achieve once you rethink your e-mail strategy. Remember: it all starts with Google Apps for Work.
Edward Solomon has over 30 years’ experience in project management, technical education, computer networking, web design and development and is a Digital Business Consultant for PENNInk Productions Ltd.
