10 Ways to Manage E-Mail Overload
by Peggy Duncan
Believe it or not, you can prevent the e-mail avalanche.
The key is to develop more efficient ways to handle it.
1. Choose your service provider wisely. Before you
sign up for e-mail service, you should check the provider's privacy policy.
Most of the free services (and some of the paid ones) sell your e-mail
address to third parties. Read between the lines, and understand every
word of their policy. Having free e-mail is not worth it if you can't
stop the junk! Using Microsoft Outlook, you check e-mail from your computer
desktop instead of being forced to go to a provider's Web site and deal
with the pop-up ads and other distractions on their site (press Ctrl+W
to close the pop-ups). Also, some providers are better at providing built-in
filters to block junk e-mail that comes through the system.
2. Do the Inbox on a regular basis. You'll have to
establish a routine for checking your e-mail every day so it won't pile
up. Set aside a special time of day to check it, and deal with each message
as you open it: delete it, forward it, schedule it, respond to it, file
it, or pend it. Get organized so you can find the answers quickly!
If you have a tendency to keep too many messages in your
Inbox, set up special folders to move them to. If you put a number in
front of the folder name, you can have them appear in a particular order.
For instance, if you keep messages coming from your clients, create a
main Inbox folder called "1Clients." Then, create subfolders
for each client (or put all messages in the Clients folder if you won't
have many).
If you have messages you need to follow up on later, either
create a "2FollowUp" folder in your Inbox (or desk), flag the
message for follow up, or drag the message to your computer calendar icon
or folder to set a reminder (Outlook has all these features. Close the
message before you attempt to drag it).
Putting the number "1" in front of Clients will
make that folder appear first in your Inbox folder list. Putting the "2"
in front of FollowUp will make it appear second in your folder list, and
so on.
If you're keeping e-mail messages to "CYA," instead
of leaving them in your Inbox, create a folder to drag all of them into.
If you ever need one (which is doubtful), you can use your software's
Find feature to locate it. Purge this folder often.
3. Have replies to your messages sent to someone else.
In Outlook, if you're sending an e-mail message and you want the replies
to go to someone other than yourself (e.g., your virtual assistant), from
within the New Message dialog box, click View, Options. Click inside the
textbox to the right of "Have replies sent to." Either type
the e-mail address you want replies sent to, or click Select Names, find
the address in your Address book, and double-click the name. Click OK.
(This will only apply to the current message.)
4. Let people know upfront that you do not want to receive
certain types of messages. A lot of people absolutely do not enjoy
receiving jokes, thoughts for the day, chain letters, and all those other
e-mail messages so many of you feel compelled to send. They want you to
stop, but they're too embarrassed to say so.
Create an automatic signature that will go out with every
e-mail you send that says something like: "Please do not add my name
to your distribution list for jokes, prayers, thoughts for the day, chain
letters, etc. Thanks!"
5. Ask people you know to stop sending you junk.
Develop a spiel to send to people you know who are sending you junk that
goes something like this: "I appreciate your thinking about me, but
in an effort to streamline my e-mail messages and manage my time, I have
to ask you to remove my name from the distribution list that you're using.
Thanks!" If this doesn't work, call them and be firm.
6. Use a junk e-mail filter. Use feature-rich e-mail
software such as Microsoft Outlook. Its junk e-mail feature searches for
commonly used phrases in your incoming messages, and will automatically
move the message from your Inbox to any other folder you specify, including
the trash folder. It can also change the color of a message it suspects
of being junk so it's easy to recognize.
7. Don't respond to spammers. When you get unsolicited
e-mail that is clearly junk, don't respond. Responding only verifies to
the sender that you're a valid e-mail address. Instead, add them to your
Junk Senders list if your software has one, and delete the message without
opening it. The Junk Senders list will block any future e-mail coming
from that sender.
8. Change how you view your Inbox. Changing the view
of your Inbox will help you see your messages without opening them. In
Outlook, try the AutoPreview option (click View, AutoPreview or Preview
Pane), if you would like to see a few lines of an unopened message. (Viewing
messages using the Preview Pane could activate a virus if in an e-mail
message.)
9. Set up a separate e-mail address. Don't leave
your main e-mail address on sites for Newsgroups, free services like greeting
card companies, online membership directories, etc. Instead, set up a
separate e-mail account (maybe one of the free ones), and leave this address
on the site instead of your main one.
10. Use Autoresponders. Use autoresponders to distribute
common e?mails you send (e.g., information on how to order your products)by
setting up special e?mail mailboxes to handle certain requests. This is
how it would work: if someone sends an e?mail to your company at info@acompany.com,
they will get an automatic response with whatever information you wanted
to make available. You could set up different mailboxes for each type
of request (check with your service provider to set this up).
You have important work to do. Creating systems for everything
you do, including managing e-mail, will help you get a lot more work done
than you think you have time to do.
________________________
Peggy Duncan is combination professional organizer, project
manager, and computer trainer. She's the author of "Put Time Management
to Work: Get Organized, Streamline Processes, Use the Right Technology"
and "Just Show Me Which Button to Click!: Computer Training for
Busy People." For more great tips and to subscribe to her free
monthly Webzine, visit her award-winning Web site at www.peggyduncan.com.
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