Email Clutter

Tips for organizing your e-mail.

The following steps when practiced daily will help you keep your inbox organized and clutter free. Just a bit of discipline is all it will take to reduce your time dealing with emails and will free you up to respond to emails.

1. Use your DELETE button!!! If you do not recognize the sender or the SUBJECT field is alpha-numeric gibberish or makes no sense, do not open but delete the email.
2. Filter you mail by setting up email folders. Filters, or Rules as they are called in Outlook, allow you to organize as you download your email.
3. Use your filters or rules to send certain emails directly to the trash. No more offensive emails!
4. For the “orphaned” emails that have no where to go – if needed, stop right there and make a folder and set up a filter, or rule, to accommodate any future emails.
5. Read and delete any email that doesn’t have content worth keeping for future reference. Then empty your trash daily.
6. While reading your email, prioritize when you want to address them. Most email programs allow you to label email by color as you read them. For example, red is for urgent response, blue for later, and yellow for maybe. At a glance you will know which email you have to address and which can wait until later.
7. Empty your trash daily but be sure to quickly review the trash in case your filters inadvertently pickup up on some terms that were included in an email that you may not want to trash.
8. Create a folder called “follow-up”, “interesting”, or “to do”. This is where you will move an email that peaks your interest but you don’t have time to read the details. Later you can take the time to check into the emails worth keeping. Once you review them, either send them to another folder for keeps or send them to the trash.
9. Clear you inbox each day to avoid email backup. Move email to trash, a specific folder or your “to do” folder, and then empty your trash. If an email is older than 90 days in your “to do” folder, send it to the trash as the information or offer is more than likely out of date.
10. Have as many folders as you like and call them whatever will intuitively work for you at a glance. This is your system so make sure it works for you.