Managing Your Email: Files

In Part 1 of this series, Managing Your Email In-box: The 4 D's, I shared a method by fellow Professional Organizer Susan Culligan for how to Delete, Do, Delegate, or Designate incoming email. Today I’ll cover how to arrange your messages so you can MAINTAIN a clear in-box, yet be able to easily access your important emails for action or reference. The information is based on Susan's method, but I have modified her system a bit for how I prefer to work.

After you’ve cleared your in-box, it’s time to deal with emails you need to save, either to act on or to keep for reference.

Working with Folders

First, set up your preferences to keep a copy of previous emails in the email body below the current one, so you keep only the latest and most complete one (called “threading”). To set this up, go to Tools -> Options -> Preferences -> Email Options ->.  Under "On replies and forwards," select "Include original message" for both replying and forwarding.

Next, set up easy-to-remember folders. If you haven’t created folders yet in Outlook, right click on the parent folder, select "New Folder," then give the folder a name.

Level 1: In-box. I try to empty my In-box every day (using the 4 D's). The only emails I keep there are the ones that are urgent and need to be in front of my face to be dealt with as soon as possible and all others are filed elsewhere.

For each email I receive, I categorize it by color using the category button. My categories are Read (for newsletter emails I don't have time to read just yet) To Do (for emails requiring my action), Respond (for emails that need a response, but I don't have the time or necessary information to respond to right at that moment), and Wait (for items I'm waiting to be acted on by others; the email serves as a prominent reminder for me). This color-coded categorizing lets me scan my in-box quickly when I’m ready to process my emails. If these "Urgent" emails that are parked in my in-box go beyond one screen in length, everything else gets dropped so I can deal with some of them NOW.

Level 2: Action Folders. Within your In-box, make four sub-folders named Read, Task Support, Consider, and Waiting For.

• Read: Noncritical emails you want to read but don’t have time for right now. The great thing about this is that by the time you go to read them, many will be useless anyway, so they won’t take up much time to deal with.
• Task Support: As I mentioned in Part 1, this is for information relating to your designated tasks. When you begin the task, you’ll always know right where your supporting emails are. When the task is done, you can archive or delete the supporting emails.
• Consider: These are emails with non-critical information your are thinking about. My Consider file has an email about a workshop I may want to sign-up for, one about a product I'm thinking about ordering online, and one about a marketing strategy I may implement. Nothing with a deadline should go here—they should be set as Tasks with Reminders instead.
• Waiting For: This is ONLY for emails that you’re waiting for answers on from other people, such as answers to questions, info for tasks you need to do, or items you’ve delegated. As soon as the answers come in, either delete or file these emails. Keep them only if they contain info that isn’t available elsewhere.

Level 3: Reference Folders. Make a list of the broad categories of email you get. You can change these any time and create as many sub-folders as you like within each parent folder. Some of my folder include:               

• one for each of my volunteer committees and Boards that I serve on
• Clients
• Writing (with sub-folders for each product: Blog, Book, Newsletters, Articles)
• Speaking (all emails relating to my speaking events)
• Workshops (all emails relating to my free and paid workshops)
• Admin: (the business of running my business)

I sort my files alphabetically because that's just how my brain works when I go to look for something. If you prefer numbers, start each folder name with a number and order them according to how YOUR brain thinks. If you want one folder always on top, put a “@” sign before it, and it will sort above the numbered folders. Experiment with your folders until they fit your life perfectly. I revise mine as my involvement in things changes over time. The great thing about electronic folders is that they’re easy to change.

Tomorrow I have a Virtually Organized Product Review to post, but I'll continue this email organization series next week with some additional tips for getting your email under control.

Simply yours,

Comments

[Amy]

Oh my gosh Debbie!
I just emptied my inbox. IT SAYS
TTHERE. ARE. NO. MESSAGES.
It has not said that for a LONG time.
Thanks for the advice!
Amy

[Debbie Jordan Kravitz]

YEAH!!! Now the challenge is MAINTAINING the system, but with your folders and processes all in place,as long as you keep up with it you shouldn't have any problems. Congratulations!!!