PAPERmaking! g FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY ® Volume 9, Number 1, 2023
How to organize your email inbox Here are some steps you can take to learn how to organize your emails: 1. Sort your emails into folders
When you're able to sort through and prioritize emails, you can improve how quickly you respond to the most important messages. For example, if you create a sorting system that puts all of your must-answer emails in one folder, you can focus just on getting through that folder and reduce distractions from non-urgent messages. Being able to communicate efficiently shows your time management skills and respect for people's time. 2. Create a to-do list from your emails If you receive emails with calls to action, you can use email organization to create a to-do list out of these messages. Then, you can see how many tasks you have and estimate how much time it will take to complete all of them. This allows you to dedicate specific amounts of time to each task, helping you plan your day. Once you have an established email organization system, you're also less likely to sift through email messages to determine what needs to be answered and when, what actions you need to take or whether the email is important. This is especially true when you effectively implement automated sorting functions in your email inbox. 3. Use tags and folders to make searching for emails easier Using tags, filters and folders can help you search for messages faster. For example, if you use client tags, you can more easily search through just the messages that have a certain client tag. This can reduce the time you spend looking for important emails, including those you've already answered, have yet to answer and already archived. Tips for organizing your email inbox Consider using the following tips to organize your email inbox: Create actionable folders for incoming emails This process involves moving emails into folders marked with specific task priorities. First, make a new folder and title it "To-Do." Then, create sub-folders to separate the emails on which you need to act based on how soon you need to complete the tasks. You might title one sub-folder "ASAP" for emails you need to address the same day, another folder "Follow Up" for tasks delegated or that need to wait to do until you've heard from someone else and another "Someday" for would-like-to-address emails you want to review within the next few weeks. Try the auto-sort function You can also have emails automatically transfer to specific folders based on certain criteria. You can create filters and auto-route rules, which are orders you give the email provider to move a message to a certain location, by assigning certain folders to emails that contain specific keywords in the subject line or are from certain senders. Once this system is in place, an incoming email that contains the keywords or is from that sender will automatically appear in the right folder instead of your general inbox. For example, you might create a rule that routes emails containing the word "invoice" in the subject line to a folder titled "Monthly Invoices." Many providers sort messages based on suspicious messages and unknown senders, like spam. Use your email provider's task list function You might use a provider that has the ability for you to mark emails as to-do list items and give them a deadline. This functionality often provides a reminder pop-up and may even add these to-do list items to your connected calendar. Other providers may allow you to set reminders instead of creating a to-do list, which may take the place of this function. Make templates for frequently used responses If you frequently send emails with the same content, consider using your provider's functionality for saving segments of text as quick response additions. The process typically involves highlighting the text you want to use in the future, clicking a button for saving the highlighted text as a quick response insert or email template and then finding it later in your quick response collection when drafting a new message. You can use this
Article 9 – Organising Emails
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