Organizing Email

Believe me, I know how bad email can get. I get over 1,000 messages on many days - and that doesn't include spam messages that my system automatically puts into a spam folder. I run many websites and am the primary point of contact for them.

The key to organizing email is to get your mail package to help you out as much as humanly possible. Here is what I do.

First, set up a TO-DO folder and organize it into categories. When mail first comes in, set up rules as much as possible to auto-sort the mail into to-do folders. You can sort by the sender, by key words, and by other criteria that suits your needs. The more that mail can auto sort, the easier it is for you to take care of all "student email" at once and then move on to a new task.

Make sure your spam filters are always up to date. On my BellaOnline website, over 90% of all incoming email is spam right now. That is a HUGE volume. I have an anti-spam filter that catches that all. The better your anti-spam filter can help you out, the less junk you have to weed through on your own. The same is true for virusses. Make sure your system is set to update daily to know about the latest virusses.

Anything that's left, throw it into to-do folders yourself. Get your mail all sorted. Once it is sorted, then you can work through it topic by topic. That way you can work on all related items, and get those cleared out. It's much easier to do that then to leap from area to area based on the date received.

Have another set of folders for storing mail once you've processed it. Don't just keep it in your inbox! Create folders based on topic for storage. Archive those messages out every 6 months to a year, to keep your mail folder small. That way your mail runs quickly and efficiently. On my system I have to archive every 3 months, because I hit the maximum file size for Outlook within that time.

Finally, unsubscribe from any list you really do not need. If you must have a subscription, set up a fake Gmail or Hotmail account to get the mail on. That way if the company sells your name and you start getting spam, you can easily cancel the account, set up a new one and create the subscription again if you really need it. It helps to ensure that your real address does not become a spam magnet. Lisa's Organization Tips Main Page

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