Organizing Your Email And Increase Your Productivity

Organizing your email can be a challenge for anyone. Email has
taken the place of memos in business, correspondence in your
personal life and direct mail marketing. There are newsletters,
special announcements, updates and of course the dreaded spam.
It's easy to just open an email, think to yourself "I'll answer
this later this afternoon," and then go on to the next email. Of
course the email doesn't get answered and it starts to pile up.

When paper starts to stack up, it nags at us to do something with
it. Either file it, read it or throw it away. Email doesn't have
a physical presence, so the tendency is to let it pile up in our
inbox.

Important business emails can be overlooked. Dates can be missed
and opportunities lost because the important email is sitting there
in virtual stacks of the other emails. When you go to look for an
email about the luncheon meeting this afternoon, it could have been
unintentionally deleted, in the spam folder, or caught between two
announcements of Junior's soccer game.

Organizing your email can be accomplished using the same methods of
organizing hard copy papers. Set up folders on your email program
under main categories. For example you could have Personal,
Marketing, Newsletters, Family, and Important - Needs Attention.
This is an over simplification, as there are probably 10 to 15
different categories for each of us that would make sense. Those
categories depend on your work, business and personal interests.

If you get a lot of email, say more than 50 (not counting spam) a
day, go through the new email at set times of the day, once in the
morning, once after lunch, and once around about an hour before
you're ready to quite work for the day.

Answer the email immediately upon opening if it's just a simple
request or requires an easy response, then file it under the
appropriate folder. A lot of email is just an update that doesn't
require any action on your part so file that in the correct folder
immediately as well.

If the email requires research before responding put it in the
Important- Needs Attention folder. Every morning go through that
folder and address the unanswered emails and then file in the
appropriate folder.

Every week go through each folder and delete those emails that have
been answered and don't require any follow up. If you prefer you
can move the email to a holding folder for 30 days and then delete.

There is another way to organize your email quickly and
efficiently. There are software products which let you sort
through and organize your e-mails. Their comprehensive filing
system can help manage inbox and folders. Users who are on the
move, constantly receiving and sending e-mails will find email
software organizers beneficial.