2008.06.08 21:09:36

Claudia W

How do you deal with hundreds of emails that arrive in your inbox every day, every week, every month? If you are like me, unfortunately you find that you are inundated with emails pouring into your Inbox every day!

Do you know how long it takes you to actually read 30-40 email messages, then ponder on “should I delete it, move to another file to check later on or delete it?” It could take about 30 minutes or more of your precious time every day.

Fact is, emails are here to stay and we have to learn how to handle emails in an efficient and quick way and devise a method that works in dealing with emails straight away. There is a very easy answer.

A good system is to create folders in your Inbox and to name them for quick and easy identification, using the same filing method as your filing cabinet. Emails from family are set up to go directly to my “Family” folder. All of my clients have their own folders and any sites I subscribe to and receive newsletters from has its own “Newsletters” folder.

This system works well particularly if I have been waiting for a reply from someone it shows up in my nominated email folder as soon as it arrives without the risk of being overlooked amongst all the other emails.

I also have a “Pending” folder. I use this when I need to reply to someone later, action on it urgently, think about it, pay a bill, work on, etc. A simple drag and drop method works here.

How do you get your emails to go directly into those folders?

After you have created your folders under your Inbox (click on Inbox, right-click and select New Folder and name it), go into Tools, Message Rules, Create New Message Rules and set up your message rules as to how you either want to move, delete or copy messages into various folders. This will only work for new incoming emails.

You can decide later what you want to do it with any “old” emails and again a simple drag and drop will do it.

Last but not least and probably the most time effective secret is to try and handle all emails only once. Decide immediately if the email can be deleted, responded to or filed away. Once you think you could get back to it later, usually you end up having to re-read the email and then respond to it, taking more of your precious time.

Message rules | email filing | folders | effective time saving secret | inbox