How to Organize Your Email to Save Time

It is easy to waste some of your valuable time constantly checking emails. Sending emails may also take more of your time than is necessary. There are some organization and time management tips and shortcuts that you can do to save your time when working with email.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Internet Service Provider
• Email Application on Computer or Internet

1. Remember you do not have to read every email as soon as it comes in. For most people checking business email can be done three times during the day: when coming in at the beginning of shift, before or after lunch, and before leaving work for the day. The old time management rule for answering inquiries was within 24 hours, however with the technological advances today, by end of business day or each work shift is a better practice.

2. You should not let your inbox get too full or clearing it out can take you too much time in the future. How do you keep the inbox clear? If the email requires a response, don't keep people waiting too long for an answer. If it does not require a response decide if you need to keep the email or trash it immediately. Clean your inbox out regularly at the end of each day. If you do not have an automatic timeframe set-up for emptying your trash folder, you may want to empty it out at the end of each day as well.

3. If you find yourself mass-mailing emails to a particular group or team of people often, then put their email addresses together in a Group ID to make completing the "To" field for outgoing messages quicker and easier.

4. Make folders for filing emails you want to keep for future reference. Having folders created for each project or team you are involved with makes it easy to quickly retrieve important communications and forward them if necessary. It is also easy to quickly remove all those emails when the project is complete or the team is dissolved by simply deleting the folder. Some email tools even allow you to have emails from particular people go directly to the folder so you can just check for items in that folder during times you designate to work on a particular project.

5. Not only can you set up folders, but most email tools allow you to filter your email into a specific folders based on the subject or the sender. For example if you find that you get lots of emails with the words "pill" or "pharmacy" in the title and you don't have nothing to do with mail order medication, you can filter those emails directly into a designated folder like trash or spam. If your email tool automatically filters emails into a spam or junk folder, learn not be afraid to toss those emails in the trash/recycle bin by empting the folder without checking its contents first.

6. If you do not answer an email on the day it is read because it requires intense thought that you currently do not have time to give, use the reminder or tickler feature on emails with deadlines so you don't forget to reply. If the email does not indicate a due date, ask for it or be proactively courteous and let the sender know when they might expect a well considered response. If you do not have the reminder feature in your email tool, put it on your to do list or calendar with a note of the due date, date of original email request, and the sender's name.

7. Finally, keep in mind that using proper email etiquette may take a little more time for you upfront when composing emails, but it can save time and confusion later. So when sending business emails, make sure you follow professional email etiquette rules.

Tips & Warnings

• People in a customer service or support job may need to check email hourly, such as at the beginning of each hour rather than every minute or only 3 times a day.

Resources

• How to Better Manage the Time You Spend on the Web with Organization
• How to Write a Professional Email
• Encouraging Email Etiquette - Do's and Don'ts
• How to Reply to a Business Email
• How to Create and Update a Group ID or Distribution List in Outlook
• Get Emails Out Faster Using Group Names as Addresses
• How to Create and Update Groups in the Meeting Wizard Address Book