Keeping the Inbox Under Control
May 27, 2010 by admin · 249 Comments
In most workplaces, email is vastly overused, creating an ever increasing burden on users as well as the organization. A disorganized email inbox is unproductive and stressful but keeping it under control is doable if you follow these tips.
Your internet email account can filter out much of the spam you receive on a daily basis. Client software like Microsoft Outlook allow you to set up rules based on the content of the email, automatically moving it to a specific location or delete it.
The Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service provides detailed information on how to unsubscribe from annoying mailing lists.
Set up a separate browsing email address. Reserve your email address for personal correspondence. Keep separate personal and work email accounts.
Get in the habit of taking immediate action on new emails. Use your inbox as a “to do” list and nothing more. Some email clients allow you to mark individual emails by their level of importance but go one step further and set up folders based on the level of action necessary such as “urgent”, “under consideration” and “awaiting response”.
By taking immediate action on all incoming email, you are helping those who you correspond with avoid the same issues. Email that lives in your inbox for over a month is most often of low importance and should be routinely deleted.
Don’t keep the entire string of emails on one subject. If you have quoted subsequent emails, the current email will contain all of the previous content. You can file or delete the others.
When filing emails, use a minimum number of subfolders to minimize the time spent on organization. Using the search feature to locate specific emails is a huge timesaver.
Make every email count before you hit the send button. A 2 minute phone call can cover what would normally take 20 round trip emails.
This should be a no brainer but don’t send email to co-workers sitting across the cubicle from you. Enough said.
To summarize, delete emails that require no reply or have been responded to- and categorize the rest by level of importance.
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