Get Control of Your Email – Email Management, Part III
In Part I of this topic, we discussed some resolutions you have to make before embarking on a plan to take control of your email. We also talked about the fundamental ways to organize your view of your inbox, and the folders to use for processing and storing email.
In Part II of this topic, we covered how to manage your new email organization system, including tips and tricks for dedicating time to work your new system.
For Part III, the final installment in this series, we will cover tips and tricks for Microsoft Outlook that will help you speed up processing of email in your new system.
Setup Special Rules for Your New System
- As you probably know, rules in Outlook can be a powerful way to help you save time and process your email more efficiently.
- I do not recommend creating rules until you have worked the system for a couple of weeks. I know that may seem labor-intensive, but it will give you a great feel for what types of email you actually get. This is just like keeping track of every place you spend money when you are trying to create a budget!
- After a couple of weeks, it’s time to create some rules, so when you are spending your dedicated time processing your inbox, you don’t have a lot of “clutter” to deal with.
- I recommend setting up a folder within your “Archive” called “Alerts/Subscriptions” or something similar. Then, create a rule to send any “alerts,” “automated responses,” and email newsletters to that folder.
- That way, you have control over when you review those types of messages, and they are not in the way when you are working your system.
- Of course, if you get critical alerts that you must see the second they come into your inbox, do not create a rule for them.
Flag Emails Based on Priority
- In a previous post, I discussed a simple, but very effective technique for determining priorities on a daily basis. I use this prioritization system for to dos, callbacks, as well as email
- Using Microsoft Outlook rules, you can “flag” emails with a colored flag. Since some emails are more important than others, this coloring technique dramatically helps you when working your email system.
- Here’s how I color my emails, based on the priorities I’ve previously outlined:
- PRIORITY #1: Your Crew – Green flag: emails from my Crew appear with a green flag in my inbox
- PRIORITY#2: Your Clients – Red flag: emails from my Clients appear with a red flag in my inbox
- PRIORITY#3: Your Company – No colored flag: this allows me to focus on my “flagged email” first, and then my non-flagged, lower priority, email next
I hope these tips help you speed up the time it takes you to process your email. Good luck, and here’s to the freedom of an empty inbox!
See also:Posted in: Communication Skills, Internet Business Skills, Personal Development
I must say that implementing this series of tips has alleviated much of the stress that I used to experience from email. Every day, getting things done becomes easier and easier to do. Over time, I am sure that personalization of these suggestions will aid in the proper care of my communications and information consumption. In fact, I’ve implemented one change wherein I have a folder labeled “Waiting for Reply.” Here, I place entire conversations (so that I can maintain context) for which I am currently waiting for an update. That way, during the daily or weekly management of my emails, I can refer to the folder and encourage others to send their reply along. All in all, I just feel like I am breathing a little easier these days.
[...] by all of the requests coming at us. However, once we know who our Clients are, we can then prioritize tasks and projects using the following priority order: #1: My Crew (those people who help you get things done), #2 My [...]
OK, where is the part about coordinating the system I already have on Outlook (mandated use by my companty) to block all but priority emails which works fairly nicely (although frankly my msn email works even better at home) with the Blackberry which appears to let in all conceivable trash? This is not a time saver but a time waster.
Hi Cynthia – I would check with your IT team at work. I had similar issues with conflicts between Outlook rules and what I saw on my Blackberry. Our IT team was able to tweak some settings on the server about when certain rules are processed. That helped solve the problem for me, and I hope it does for you too!