Not all marketers are successful at using email for lead generation.

While many books, articles, and blog posts have been written on how to effectively use this strategy to achieve marketing goals, little attention has been paid to the importance of being better at receiving and processing email.

Here are some tips to help you process email more competently, save precious marketing time, and lower the office hassle:

1. Don’t let email be in command of you

The inherent instant gratification of clearing your inbox provides a brief feeling of accomplishment, but it’s really not productive. Doing email is just one part of work. Determine how much time you want to spend in your inbox on a given day, and don’t exceed it.

When you first open your inbox in the morning, star/flag emails that must be dealt with today, but make sure to focus on your top priorities first before diving into your inbox.

Dedicate 30-minute blocks every two hours to staying on top of email. If you need more time, make it 45-minute blocks, but it’s critical to not let your Inbox control you.

2. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize

When you do make it to your Inbox, it’s key to remember that not all emails are created equal. Most email clients give each email the same amount of real estate on the screen, making it hard for our brain to be discriminating, creating a tendency to give each email the same amount of attention upfront.

In reality, not all emails are created equal. Some need to be read and responded to right away (important and urgent priorities). Some can wait until later (important but not urgent priorities). Others should be archived or deleted in bulk.

Yes, some emails will never be responded to, and that’s OK in the world of limited time and resources. Start with your top opportunities, and make sure you dedicate enough time to them. Even if you don’t get to the smaller stuff, you’ll feel great that you went after your top leads and gave them your best.

3. Be decisive

When checking your email, decide what to do with each email immediately: