How do you focus on your urgent e-mail and organize the rest
for your review? Think about how you handle your paper mail.
You probably sort your paper mail quickly before you read it
to figure out what to look at first, what to read later, and
what to throw away. Here are some similar ways to automatically
process and prioritize your electronic mail for better and faster
results:
(Although the following tips refer to Microsoft Outlook, many
of these features are similar to those found in other mail systems.
For specific how-to steps, and more e-mail and Outlook tips,
visit The Software Pro website.)
1. Color Code to Identify Key Messages
Color code priority messages to quickly identify e- mail from
your most important contacts such as management, staff, or team
members. To apply colors in Microsoft Outlook, highlight a message
from a contact, choose Tools > Organize, select the option
Using Colors and pick how you want to color- code your incoming
messages from the specific contact.
2. Streamline with Categories and Folders
Stop using your Inbox as a reference system filled with messages
that don't require an immediate action. To further organize your
messages, create categories and folders with useful labels such
as Team Members, Projects, Personal, and others. The Categories
feature in Microsoft Outlook, for instance, helps to organize
and view active messages into groups within your Inbox. Create
and use e-mail folders to store messages that you have already
handled and wish to keep for history or folders for e- mail that
contains informational reading and general reference.
Note that folders and categories sort in alphabetical order
which is not likely to place your priority items at the top.
Adding a letter or number at the beginning of a label, such as
a-Team Members and b- Projects, will sort these towards the top
of your Inbox.
3. Filter with Rules
Rules are instructions or filters that automatically categorize,
organize, and prioritize messages based on conditions that you
set. As new messages are received in Microsoft Outlook, right-click
on the message and left click on the command Create a Rule to
apply a category or move the message to a folder. If all you
do is apply rules, you may be able to get through e-mail in half
the time it took before.
4. Learn Easy Navigation
Stop wasting time by moving in and out of each message and start
applying simple navigation tricks. In Microsoft Outlook, for
instance, you can move in your Inbox with the up or down arrow
key to select a message. Then press [Enter] to open the message.
To move to the next message directly from the current e-mail,
look for toolbar buttons with arrows or press [Ctrl] + > for
the next message and [Ctrl] + < for the previous e-mail. Press
[Esc] to close the active message.
5. Sort to Find Messages
To quickly sort your e-mail messages, click once on a column
heading for the new order you want such as sender, subject or
date. For instance, to sort messages by the sender, click once
on the Sender heading. By clicking twice on a column heading,
the sort order changes from ascending (A-Z) order to descending
(Z-A) order. By the way, the abbreviations RE and FW in the Subject
line are ignored when you sort messages alphabetically by subject.
Implementing these ideas for overcoming e-mail overload can
help you become more productive and free you from your Inbox.
Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro and a certified Microsoft
Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor.
Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software
and technology through her work as a speaker, trainer, and
consultant. Visit http://www.SoftwarePro.com for great Microsoft
Office software tips and tricks or to contact Dawn.
