Raise your hand if you are scared of the thought of opening your email when you start your business day. My hand is definitely up. I have tried different resources and will continue to try email management tools to help lessen the fear of checking my email. What if you could have a little fun while clearing your email box? Well this is possible by using the Google Chrome app: The email game 

(Update the app now belongs to boomerang and it has other great tools that can be found here.)

This is how it works. 

Once you have downloaded the software to your computer the fun begins. A timer clock starts a countdown to zero and your email pops on the screen one by one for you to reply, reply all, forward, boomerang, skip, archive, move or delete. When you are done a score is compiled based on your performance. An example of my score is below:

Your stats

You saved 12m 11s over 30 messages and scored 3104 points!

• #947 overall this week
  • Your #1 score this week.
  • Your #4 score this month.
• 3 seconds per email
  • 1m 34s total
  • 298% faster than average
• 30 messages cleaned
  • 0 replied
  • 3 archived
  • 0 skipped
  • 0 Boomeranged
  • 27 deleted

This is a great way to get a visual picture of how much time you spend clearing your email box and if you have used time tracking software in the past to capture how much time you’ve spent on email management then the comparison can come as a real shock. Once you have received your score you are able to post it to Twitter or Facebook which could be a fun way to engage with your followers or clients and encourage others to be more productive by clearing their email box using this app. The email game is a great tool to use to take the fear out of cleaning your email box. If you have a virtual assistant they will love using this app to manage your email. If you are a VA you will have a much more positive attitude about cleaning out your client’s email box. The only caveat is that it can become quite addicting. Have fun!