Delay your responses

... to read and respond to email. Don’t leave your email program open all day long. Alerts from incoming messages can interrupt your work flow. Instead, schedule specific blocks of time throughout the day for checking your email. 

You might even try marking your calendar and setting your availability to “busy.” If necessary, turn off your cellphone and shut your office door to prevent interruptions.

• browse the inbox for emails that can be immediately deleted (spam or promotional emails). Then select messages that don’t require a response and delete or archive them. 
• Don’t let important emails sit in your inbox for days. Unless you’re on vacation, respond within 48 hours. Reply to the sender as soon as you’ve read his or her message.
• If you’re unable to respond immediately, communicate to the sender that you received the message and will be in touch shortly. Set a deadline and follow up.

• Only use enough quotations to establish the context.
• Your reply should come below it.
• When possible, cut and reformat the quoted text.
• Get tasks out of your email and into a task manager.

Ask yourself:

• What’s the meaning and the value of the message?
• What action does this message require of me?

There’s no “definitive” system. The best framework is the one that works for you. Ideally, it should model your work style, supporting the way you work. Bonus points if it’s low-maintenance, fast to set up, and adaptable as your work changes.

Some people like to use folders with specific actions (do, delegate, reply), while others prefer the deadline-driven approach (today, tomorrow, next week).

Some examples:

• Undo Send: for when you accidentally press the send button.
• Canned Responses: create a template that you can reuse with canned responses.
• Send and Archive: Automatically archive an email after replying to it using the send and archive button.

Unsubscribe from every list that doesn’t offer solid value for your business.

Interrupting a task with notifications leads to a loss of concentration and a decline in productivity levels.

Feel free to set up an autoresponder re-directing all urgent matters to your phone.

Trying to locate an email you want to respond to can be very time-consuming.

Mark the email you want to respond to later as "unread." It is easier to find between all your other messages.

Getting out of the habit of checking email frequently can be tough. 

Check and respond to emails twice a day at a specific time. The rest of the day you can be dedicated to your work and not lose focus because of incoming messages.

To become a more effective communicator, you must 'smoke out' original thought. Rather than conforming to the status quo, make a conscious decision to abandon overdone and clichéd material/

Citing tired platitudes might win you a few "cool points" in social media circles, but they will only take you so far if you're truly striving to effectuate change. 

Once you’ve developed a fresh idea, work on organizing your message and polishing your delivery. Think about:

• How  you will launch a stunning opening and closing line
• How you will organize your material succinctly so that it is both moving and memorable (perhaps tweetable and repeatable)
• Compelling details that should be included.
• Your vocal and non-verbal communication (body language).

... during the day can be an effective way to keep your inbox at manageable levels.

However, the constant interruption and distraction that comes from it can dramatically lower your productivity, and disrupt your ability to enter a state of flow when working on high value projects.

• Try using the "Two-Minute Rule" when you read your mail: if the email will take less than two minutes to read and reply to, then take care of it right now, even if it's not a high priority.
• For emails that will take longer than two minutes to read or respond to, schedule time on your calendar, or add this as an action on your To-Do List , to do later. 

There are many different philosophies when it comes to managing your email inbox. 

You can use your inbox as a catchall, limit it to only high-priority messages, or make it a working task list. Choose one purpose for your inbox and stick with it.

Create an email whitelist to ensure those messages get through, and a blacklist for what you consider spam addresses.

Things that are rare and dwindling become more attractive and are perceived as more valuable. The less we write, the more valuable our writing becomes. 

Refrain from responding immediately. If another recipient should answer, give the person the right of first response. Ask yourself:

• Do I need to send this now?
• If not, do I need to send it at all?
• If so, does more than one person really need it?

We long for clarity and for other people to say what they mean in as few words as possible.

Making wordy sentences that lose their fluency due to needless complexity in a text negatively affects the receiver of your message. In short: big is bad.