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by
Ludovic Armand
March 14, 2023
· Updated on
How Long Do You Spend on Emails Everyday at Work?
Probably quite a good portion of your day, am I right? From communicating with colleagues and clients to managing projects and deadlines, email is an integral part of our daily routine. However, as the use of email continues to grow, so does the challenge of managing it effectively.
According to a study by McKinsey & Company, the average worker spends nearly a third of their workweek on email-related tasks. 🤯
And this number can be even higher for managers and executives.
With so much time spent on email, it's crucial to have effective email management skills to stay productive and efficient.
In this article, we'll explore the best practices for managing your work emails. We'll cover everything from adopting the zero inbox method to using tools and filters to streamline your email workflow.
So whether you're looking to improve your efficiency or enhance your email management skills, these tips will help you keep your inbox organized and under control. Because who doesn't want to be a master of productivity?
Managing your emails can be overwhelming, but with these best practices, you can turn your inbox into a productive tool for work.
Here are some tips to help you manage your emails effectively.
The inbox zero method is a popular approach to email management that involves achieving a clutter-free inbox by processing all emails and organizing them efficiently.
It's like spring cleaning your inbox!
The method has four basic steps that can be adapted to suit your needs and preferences.
While having an empty inbox may not be for everyone, regularly cleaning up and organizing your inbox can have significant benefits like helping you prioritize important messages and making it easier to find the information you need when you need it. Who doesn't love a tidy inbox and a little extra productivity in their day?
Labels and folders are helpful tools for managing your inbox and can be utilized in various ways. Here are some practical ways to use them:
The key is to use labels and folders in a way that suits your particular needs. By organizing your inbox with labels and folders, you'll be able to save time, reduce stress, and stay on top of your email workload.
Using a calendar with your email can be an effective way to manage your time and stay on top of important tasks. Email management software programs like Missive offer a built-in calendar feature that allows you to easily schedule appointments, meetings, and reminders right from your email inbox.
One of the benefits of using a calendar is that it helps with time management. You can schedule and manage your time effectively, ensuring that you have sufficient time for important tasks and appointments. By setting reminders, you can also make sure that you don't miss critical deadlines, appointments, or follow-ups on your communications.
Moreover, a shared calendar can be an excellent collaboration tool. It enables you to coordinate with your colleagues and schedule meetings more efficiently, saving time and reducing unnecessary back-and-forth emails.
By integrating your calendar with your email inbox, you can quickly view all of your upcoming events and deadlines in one place. This can help you stay on track and prioritize tasks without having to switch between your emails and a separate calendar app.
Another helpful tip is to set specific times in your calendar to check and respond to emails.
One way to manage your email more effectively is to set aside dedicated time for checking and responding to messages. By doing so, you can avoid the constant distraction of incoming emails and stay focused on other tasks throughout the day.
For example, you might set aside 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon to check and respond to emails. During this time, you can focus solely on your inbox and work through messages in a deliberate and organized manner.
It's also important to avoid checking your email first thing in the morning. When you check your email as soon as you wake up, you may find yourself immediately caught up in other people's priorities and needs, rather than focusing on your own goals and tasks for the day. Instead, try to begin your day with a proactive task, such as exercise, meditation, or planning out your schedule for the day.
By setting aside dedicated time for emails and avoiding the temptation to constantly check your inbox, you can help ensure that you're using your time and energy in the most effective way possible.
Canned responses are pre-written templates or messages that can be quickly inserted into an email for common scenarios, such as responding to customer inquiries or sending out meeting reminders. This inbox management technique can save you time and help improve consistency in your email communication.
Some email tools like Missive even allow you to customize canned responses with variables to fit each individual situation. By using response templates, your responses are consistent and more detailed since you won't have to write the same email on the fly every time.
Unsubscribing from newsletters and promotional emails that are no longer relevant or that you no longer have interest in is another email management best practice that can help reduce email clutter and improve your productivity. With fewer unnecessary emails in your inbox, you'll have more time to focus on important messages.
The Two-Minute Rule is a popular email management technique that can help you stay on top of your email inbox and prevent it from becoming cluttered with small tasks that can quickly add up.
The basic idea behind the rule is that if an email can be addressed in two minutes or less, you should do it right away.
For other emails, set a pre-determined time every week to handle them. Labels can also be useful for categorizing emails you won't be handling right away and keeping your inbox tidy.
Being bombarded by a constant flow of notifications can really hinder your focus and productivity. Turning off email notifications is a good practice that can help you stay on track with your tasks.
Let’s be honest, do you really need to be notified and take action on your emails as soon as you receive them? Probably not.
So why not go ahead and turn off notifications? This can be done by disabling email alerts entirely or only for periods when you want to be focused. By disabling notifications when you receive emails, you’ll be able to reduce your distractions, making you more productive.
Alternatively, you could use rules to only receive notifications if you receive emails from a specific sender or with a particular subject line.
Leveraging AI in your email can be a powerful way to save time, improve efficiency, and get more out of your email communications. By taking advantage of advanced features such as smart replies and email categorization, you can stay on top of your email inbox and achieve your goals more effectively.
Most AI email assistants can understand the context of a conversation and provide relevant replies, so you can handle your emails in less time. For example, with the OpenAI integration in Missive, you can generate new emails, replies and translate messages.
The "touch it once" principle is another popular email management technique that can help you stay on top of your inbox and prevent messages from piling up.
The way it works is quite straightforward:
When you open an email, take action on it right away.
Here's how it works:
By adopting the "touch it once" principle, you can reduce the need to check your inbox multiple times, which can save time and improve email efficiency.
One email management technique that can help you quickly triage your inbox and stay organized is the 4D method. Here's how it works:
By using the 4D method to triage your inbox, you can quickly prioritize emails and stay on top of important messages.
Checking your email constantly can be a major distraction and can disrupt your workflow. Instead, try setting specific times throughout the day to check and respond to emails. This will help you stay focused on your work and prevent email from taking up too much of your time.
Choose a schedule that works best for you and your job requirements. For example, you might check your email first thing in the morning, after lunch, and before leaving for the day. By setting specific times to check your email, you'll be able to better manage your time and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Using to-do items to break emails into tasks can be helpful and allows you to stay on top of important tasks to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. Here's a good approach to using a to-do to break emails into tasks:
Some email clients, like Missive, might even come with task management built-in or offer integration with to-do tools like Todoist to make the process even easier.
To ensure important emails don't slip through the cracks, it's important to follow up on emails that require a response. One way to do this is by scheduling a follow-up email using email management tools like Missive's auto-follow-up button. However, it's important to give the recipient enough time to respond before sending a follow-up email.
A good rule of thumb is to wait three business days before sending a follow-up email. This shows that you are respectful of their time and not overly pushy.
Setting up rules and filters can be a great way to manage your inbox effectively. Here's a simple framework to get started:
Rules can also be a great way to perform automatic actions to save you time. You can find some ideas for creating rules in Missive's rules and templates feature.
For teams that need to collaborate effectively and stay organized, using a shared inbox can be a valuable tool. A shared inbox allows for improved collaboration, streamlined communication, task delegation, greater transparency, and improved efficiency.
By using a shared inbox, team members can access the same messages in one place, assign tasks to specific team members, stay informed about important conversations and decisions, and reduce the time and effort required to manage their inboxes.
Overall, a shared inbox can help teams work more effectively together and achieve their goals.
Using email signatures can be a great way to save time and personalize your emails. A signature is a block of text that is automatically inserted at the bottom of every email you send. It can include your name, title, contact information, and any other relevant details.
With Missive, you can create custom signatures that automatically update with your latest contact information. This can help you save time and ensure your contact information is always accurate and up-to-date.
Starting a new email thread when necessary can help you stay organized and avoid confusion in your inbox. When you receive an email on a new topic or subject, it's a good idea to start a new thread rather than reply to an existing one. This makes it easier to keep track of related messages and find specific information later on.
When starting a new email thread, make sure to include a descriptive subject line that accurately reflects the content of the message. This can help recipients understand the context of the email and prioritize it accordingly. Additionally, be sure to address the email to the appropriate recipients and include any necessary attachments or links.
Starting a new email thread can also be helpful when you need to follow up on a previous conversation or ask a new question. By starting a new thread, you can ensure that your message is clear and easy to understand and that the recipient has all the information they need to respond.
While it can be tempting to try to tackle multiple emails at once, multitasking can actually be counterproductive. Studies have shown that multitasking can reduce productivity and increase the likelihood of errors and mistakes.
Instead of trying to juggle multiple emails at once, try to focus on one email at a time. This will help you stay focused and ensure that you're giving each message the attention it deserves.
Using email management tools can be a great way to manage your inbox more efficiently and effectively. There are many tools available that offer a variety of features to help you streamline your email workflow. This software will make it even easier to adopt the best practices we have explored.
Here are some reasons why using tools designed for email management like Missive can be beneficial:
By using an email management software you can take advantage of all of these features and more to manage your inbox more efficiently and effectively. If you’re a Gmail user, you might want to look at the best email clients for Gmail.
By adopting these best practices, you can manage your work emails more effectively and improve your productivity at work. Remember to tailor these practices to your specific needs and preferences, and don't be afraid to experiment with new techniques to find what works best for you.
March 25, 2025
Outlook vs Gmail for Business: Which is better?
Welcome to the great business email debate—Gmail or Outlook?
Welcome to the great business email debate—Gmail or Outlook?
Emails are the lifeblood of many businesses. They’re how people inquire about your services, it's how you communicate with clients and vendors, and maybe it's even how you communicate internally with your team.
We'll be doing an in-depth analysis of the two big email providers (Gmail vs Outlook). And give you the information you need to make a decision on which email service you'd like to build your communication system from.
We'll be going over:
There are two ways to create an email with Google.
You can either have a free, personal email address that ends in @gmail.com, with limited storage (15gb across your Google Suite), or you can pay for Google Workspace (Gmail for business) and create an email address with your business domain: @yourcompany.com, have more storage, and more admin/security controls over your email service.
The Google Workspace business plans vary:
Whether you have a Gmail account or a Google Workspace account, your inbox will look similar.
This is where Google shines. Their real-time collaborative documents were a game changer when they launched back in 2006 and has become the preferred tools for many organizations since.
When looking at Gmail's security measures for Google Workspace accounts, here are two that stand out:
Gmail uses TLS for email transit and has encryption at rest and in transit.
With over 1.8 billion Gmail users worldwide, there are some very well known issues and tradeoffs within the Gmail's functionality. Here are three common ones:
Like Gmail, Outlook is Microsoft's free, personal email service; Microsoft 365 is essentially Outlook for business, equivalent to Google Workspace.
Here's an overview of the Microsoft 365 plans (assuming an annual payment, as of April 1, 2025):
With thousands of enterprise customers, Outlook's security and privacy are tuned for those standards.
And just like Gmail, Outlook uses TLS encryption for email in transit. And data at rest is also encrypted.
As with most decisions in life, it depends.
Google Workspace is collaborative at its core, though its shared inbox and email automation options are more limited.
Microsoft Outlook is more robust in it's DNA overall, but can feel overly complex and lacking in modern design.
If your business prioritizes simplicity and collaboration with clients, team members, and vendors—I would err on the side of Gmail and Google Workspace.
If you work in a field with a lot of sensitive information (i.e. law, accounting, etc), then I would err on the side of Outlook and their very high standard for security controls.
Whether you choose Gmail or Outlook, there are some business email hygiene factors to follow:
Neither Outlook or Gmail was really designed for teams. They added on some lightweight features (shared mailboxes), but if you truly live in your inbox everyday, replying to clients, team members, and vendors—you'll want something designed specifically for team collaboration and shared inboxes.
That would be us—Missive!
Missive is an email client that sits on top of your chosen email service—whether that's Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, or Apple Mail.
It has all the features that are loved in Gmail and Outlook—labels, rules, snoozing, but supercharged with more functionality. Including AI powered rules that allow for auto-translation, auto-labeling, and so much more.
But don't just take our word for it, here's Arif, a lawyer and long time Outlook user, who recently signed up for Missive:
When I open Missive, I can hit Inbox Zero quickly. I never had that feeling with Outlook.
And here's Pat, a property manager and Gmail user, who recently signed up for Missive:
We’ve tried so many shared inbox solutions. Missive was unexpectedly powerful. Suddenly, we weren’t scrambling over lost emails or letting days slip by.
So whether you're Team Gmail for business or Team Outlook for business—you can try Missive today and get the best collaborative email client for businesses.
March 17, 2025
What Is the Best Email Client for Outlook? Our Top 6 Picks
Looking for the best email client for Outlook? We compare the top 6 Outlook alternatives based on collaboration, AI features, security, and pricing. Discover the best option for teams and individuals—whether you need shared inboxes, AI automation, or a unified email experience.
Email is the medium of business. It's how requests, deals, hires, are started and made.
Most businesses live in their inbox, whether they like it or not. And that inbox is likely an Outlook inbox — over 3.7 million companies use Microsoft Outlook for email management.
The are two main reasons for that:
However, like Word or Excel, Outlook was made mostly for enterprise solo use. It wasn't made for collaboration, even as the world of business and email moved towards needing more and more collaboration.
In 2025, several tools meet the security and control standards of Outlook while offering far more powerful inbox collaboration and coordination features suited for modern businesses.
We'll cover what to look for in an Outlook email client, introduce the six most popular third-party options, and break down their key differences.
All options have desktop and mobile email apps and support IMAP, MAPI, and POP3.
Plus, we'll cover a range of price points for the best Outlook alternatives—including ones that are free email clients.
Missive is a collaborative inbox for teams that run on email. This means it is designed with collaboration as a priority, featuring contextual in-email chat using @mentions—eliminating the need for forwarding.
You can assign or watch emails, and every action is logged—giving you visibility into emails and tracking who did what and when.
On top of that, Missive supports all email providers (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Apple Mail, etc) and you can have multiple accounts (personal and business).
Under the hood, Missive has a powerful automation engine, allowing you to do things like:
From a security perspective, Missive meets the same gold standard as Outlook. They have an SOC 2 Type II report, encryption of data at rest and in transit, and they are GDPR compliant.
For pricing, Missive plans start at $14/user/month on an annual plan.
One thing to note, if you use folders in Outlook, they are called labels in Missive.
In the same way that some teams prefer Google Docs to Word because of their collaboration functionality (commenting, multi-player drafting, etc) — you may prefer Missive as your email app to Outlook, if you find yourself hitting reply all and forward all the time.
Thunderbird stands out as the only open-source email client.
It's a community-driven, free email client, that has been around for nearly two decades. With a thriving online community and an ecosystem of 1200+ add-ons (including AI-powered ones to help you draft replies), it's considered one of the best email apps for those prioritizing a free and open sourced solution.
If you're looking for an email client that has more collaboration functionality, Thunderbird's collaboration features come mostly from its third-party add-ons—things like mail merging and adding notes/comments to emails. Which makes collaboration possible, but likely a little unreliable given the nature of third-party connections failing from time to time.
From an organization perspective, Thunderbird calls their version of "folders", tags. Functionally, they are the same.
Thunderbird is a very privacy forward email app with built-in filters for phishing/spam and remote image blocking.
Though, it doesn't have the same compliance certifications (i.e. SOC or ISO) due to it's free and open-source nature.
Mailbird is for those of you who have way too many email accounts. It's known for it's unified inbox, where you're able to flow multiple accounts into the same consolidated inbox view.
Mailbird doesn't offer any features related to collaboration or coordination. It's more of a productivity improvement for Outlook power users who would like to integrate a few popular apps into their email workflow and see all emails in one place.
From an AI perspective, Mailbird offers simple AI drafting through ChatGPT.
Of all the Outlook alternatives on this list, Mailbird has the most similar user experience to Outlook—for example, their naming conversions are the same (folders are folders, and not labels or tags).
For security and compliance, Mailbird is only GDPR compliant and does not have any external audits or certifications.
For pricing, Mailbird has a free version as well as a premium version that's $4.99/user/month. There is also a pay once option to buy the product outright at $49.50 (standard) or $99.75 (premium).
If you manage multiple Outlook accounts and need a unified inbox for all your emails, Mailbird might be the perfect solution.
eM Client is a very similar email client to Mailbird. Most of their features are productivity focused for individuals—shortcuts, watch/snooze, configurable layout.
The most unique and powerful feature for eM Client is their search. Not only does the search cover all messages in your inbox, it can also search within certain types of attached files—think PDFs, Word docs, etc.
On the collaboration front, they don't have much beyond the ability to share folders (aka. labels), calendars, and accounts.
Like Mailbird, eM Client offers basic AI drafting to assist with typos and tone in your replies.
On security and compliance, eM Client is GDPR compliant (though possibly outdated with 2018 references) and does not have any external audits or certifications.
For pricing, eM Client has a sharp distinction between personal and business plans. There is a free plan for non-commercial use. The paid plans can be an annual subscription or a one-time payment.
The personal plan (without AI features) is $39.95/year or $49.95 as a one-time payment.
The business plan (with AI features) is $49.95/year or a one-time payment of $188.95.
Both one-time payment options do not include future feature updates. You can purchase lifetime upgrades separately at $90 per license.
If you're looking for a slightly more productive version of Outlook and you want a free email app because you're not using it for commercial purposes—then eM Client might be a good option.
If you're a Mac user and you really don't want to download another email client. Does the out-of-the-inbox (get it?) mail app from Apple work well for Outlook?
Well, compared to Thunderbird, Mailbird, and eM Client—Apple Mail isn't going to give you any increased functionality.
If you use Apple Mail as your Outlook email client, you won't have the integrated calendar or task management, and you'll have to remember that folders are "labels" in Apple Mail.
The good news is that Apple Mail can support multiple accounts from multiple providers (via IMAP and SMTP standards), so if you have a Gmail account and an Outlook account that you would like to unify into one very well designed, simple inbox—Apple Mail can do that.
If you want a free email client with a cleaner design than Outlook and don’t require advanced features, Apple Mail might be your best option.
When Superhuman first came out, it was solely focused on Gmail and Google email users. As of May 2022, they also support Outlook users.
From a user interface perspective, Superhuman is the most distinct of this list. It looks nothing like an Outlook inbox, so if familiarity is a requirement, this might not be a good fit.
Superhuman offers several AI-powered features, the most notable being its ability to answer questions about your inbox.
Instead of traditional search (even as powerful as eM Client's), you can ask your inbox direct questions. Instead of needing to remember a file's name to look for a specific piece of information, you could say: What was the price that John from ACME quoted me?
On the collaboration front, Superhuman offers the ability to @mention your colleagues through Team Comments.
From a security and compliance perspective, they are compliant with SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, CCPA, and GDPR.
For pricing, Superhuman is on the higher end of these email clients, starting at $25/user/month on an annual plan.
To summarize our options for the best email client for Outlook users, we sorted them into two categories:
We hope this has been a helpful overview of the types of email clients that are out there for Outlook users. If you're interested in Missive, continue on and we'll get into some tactical information.
Stephanie at Lighting Dynamics, manages 100+ email quotes a day. Her team used to use Outlook for email management:
With traditional Outlook forwarding, once an email was out of the shared inbox, there was no visibility. We never knew if it had been handled. It was chaotic.
And now, with Missive: "Missive checked all our boxes. It was a huge relief to see we could maintain the shared inbox model—without building custom software from scratch."
Or Kason, from i-SOLIDS, who grew his sales team beyond himself:
We got to a point where we weren't providing the same level of communication, response, and service that allowed us to get to this point. We were relying on Outlook email and it was like 'are you responding to that or am I?'
And after a month with Missive, Kason recommends: "Don't think about just choosing a tool for today but this tool needs to work for scale too—that's a major decision factor."
Get a detailed walk through of how to configure Outlook to Missive, including terminology differences to get you acclimated to your new inbox.
Well like most things, it depends. If you're a team who lives in their inbox day and day out, and you're looking a collaboration-first inbox—we hope you'll give Missive a try.