organizing email

[Diver0001]

I thought it might be fun to see how people organize their email.

heres my way.

1) The inbox emptied every day. I have 2 folders for whatever projects I'm working on. One is called the project name and a sub folder called "attachments" where I put documents related to that project that might need to be downloaded to the project archive.

2) why is my inbox empty? I read my email in the morning and handle all of it at once sorting it as I go. The rule is touch everything once. Completely do whatever needs to be done with it and then put it away. If for some reason (maybe I called someone but got a message and need to call back) then I make a note to call them back but the email is handled and archived.

3) I get a lot of background noise. All email with announcements etc that aren't related to my projects go into folder I call "digital landfill". All CC's go into a folder called CC by a rule and then sorted into the project folder or the digital-landfill folder as I see them. I use the preview to read CC items. I seldom open CC items and read them completely. I used to re-route the CC mail directly to the deleted items but people complained when I didn't see them... If I see several CC items from someone on my project team then I assume they're fighting in email with someone and go visit them in person instead of reading the mail. It's quicker and more effective.

4) project email gets saved for the duration of a project. The digital landfill I occasionally clear out so there's never more than a couple of months of old mail in it.

After dealing with my email then Outlook gets closed and I'll only open it again the next morning and/or if I'm really bored and looking for a waste of time. Most of my collegues know this and call me if they need me.

So, what do you do with your email?

R..

 

[Gen San Chris]

I have about 20 folders for different parts of my life so I am organized! Unfortunatly at present I have over 400 e mails in my in box which I will sort into their respective files tomorow, or the next day, or next week maybe if I can be bothered!
I have a hard life!!!

 

[toefa]

Yeah i use my Inbox as my to-do list - If it's still in there, then i haven't finished with it. I have sub folders for projects, important people etc so once the tasks are done, they get filed from the Inbox to the appropriate folder. From there, i have archive folders that are identical to my Inbox and sub folders, which i fill when i get the 'your mailbox is over the limit' message.

 

[maged_mmh]

I just leave everything there (Inbox) and make extensive use of the search/sort functions whenever I have to look some stuff back; also archiving every 3 days

 

[Rick Inman]

I am organizationally challenged and just leave the mess of emails until my IT guy comes over again and tells me to clean it up or he'll do it for me.

Right now I have more than 3000 emails in my IN box.

I do have one DIVING folder, and now a CCR folder where I toss good stuff I wanna keep.

I also believe that most emails, if left unanswered for 48 hours, become irrelevant and can just be deleted.

 

[Sas]

At work I have an email folder per customer and then I have generic folders such as 'General Testing Information' or 'Admin'. This applies to both Sent and Received messages.

At home I do not use many folders. I have a folder for work (my own business) which has subfolders per customer. I have a folder for newsletters I get (newsletters about tech news, the local Cinema deals, newsgroup emails, things like that) and the rest goes into my Inbox. My email search function is very good so I don't feel the need to sort further I rarely delete emails either and I have them going all the way back to 1999 when I got my first email address

 

[Diver0001]

Yeah i use my Inbox as my to-do list - If it's still in there, then i haven't finished with it. I have sub folders for projects, important people etc so once the tasks are done, they get filed from the Inbox to the appropriate folder. From there, i have archive folders that are identical to my Inbox and sub folders, which i fill when i get the 'your mailbox is over the limit' message.

Actually, in my opinion using your inbox as your todo list is a good way to always feel like you're short on time.

Time management principle number 1 is that if you have a task to perform you need time to perform it. Time doesn't come to you willingly so you have to claim it. So what I do with emails that will take more than a couple of minutes to deal with is to block out a time in my agenda to deal with it. You can do this in Outlook by draging-and-dropping the email straight to your agenda. If you have a few of these you can drag them into the same block of time to cluster them.

That way you've done two things. (1) You've decided exactly when you're going to deal with the mail so you can email the sender back and tell them the time and date that they'll get their action and (2) you've claimed that time so someone doesn't elbow their way into your agenda and cause you to give responding to emails a (too) low priority and losing credibility by saying you'll do somethign and then not getting around to it.

R..

 

[maged_mmh]

thanks for the tip Diver0001; never thought of that

 

[toefa]

Thanks Diver0001!! I hadn't really thought of doing that. I'm going to give that a go tomorrow.

 

[MartianBeerPig]

Very similar to you Diver0001. Check my emails in the morning and anything which can be done immediately and quickly gets done immediately and quickly. I will drag more important emails onto my calendar to book a time. Less urgent emails get dragged to tasks and get attended to as time permits. CC emails are scanned and filed. As a general rule, I will not respond to a CC email. I only close my email if I'm having a busy day.

Upon closure of a project, I will create a pst file and store any email related to the project in that file. The pst then gets stored to a project archive.