Email In-box Management
Tips on managing large volumes of incoming work emails
Emails are becoming the preferred method of communication in business today. How can we manage the deluge of emails in our in-boxes? Read on for tips and tricks.
It is not uncommon for workers today to receive 100 or more emails in their in-box in the course of a day’s work. Some emails are directed at you, others are for your information only but they all arrive in your inbox. Here are some tips that can help you manage the high volume of emails.
RULE #1: Read the email once and file, flag, delete or reply.
RULE #2: Delete emails that do not contain important information
Sorting by sender using colour
Most email programs have a feature that allows a user to colour code a sender or group of sender’s incoming emails in an in-box list. To keep it simple, assign colours to a maximum of three colour categories, for example: red for your supervisor and other high level people, blue for colleagues, green for your assistant(s).
Flagging
Flagging is also a great way to manage emails. When you flag an email, keep it in your inbox or file it. Some flagging features let you type in a note to yourself regarding the reason for your flag e.g. “Sent to George for follow-up”. Flag by colour choosing: red indicating high importance within 1-2 days, purple indicating high importance next week, green indicating moderate importance when you have time, blue indicating delegated to someone else or waiting for information from someone else and white indicating information only emails. Some programs only offer three colour choices. If that is the case, streamline your sorting to high priority, medium priority and information only/delegated. Most programs give you an option for selecting only flagged emails including ones you’ve filed away. This can be a great email management tool as you can file away emails keeping your inbox clear for new emails and yet still retrieve emails you need to act on using this feature.
Sorting into folders
This can be done automatically by setting up a rule where certain sender’s emails are automatically filed into a folder, or you can do this manually with incoming emails. This can be a great way of sorting out emails that need a common action e.g. proof reading or invoicing, or emails that are pertaining to a certain project.
Attachments and storage limitations
Save all important attachments as you open them. If you can save the body of your email without the attachment, that will save you some storage room. To help keep your storage limit under control, periodically sort your emails in your sent file by size and delete any emails with large attachments that you have saved on your hard drive.
Do you have a tip for managing your in-box that works for you? Other readers would be very interested in your comments! If you have comments or suggestions on this article, please start a discussion
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