It’s 8am on Monday morning. You’ve been out of the office for a week and your inbox says 198 new emails. Not to mention you’ve been looking for a sent email for over an hour (without any success). Don’t panic. Using tools to organize your email can help you prioritize, sort and manage email more effectively.
Build a Folder Structure
The point of building folders is making information easier to find. Take a piece of paper and map it out. What are the mail folders you need? Avoid creating people and project folders. This gets confusing down the line. Instead, choose one system or the other. If you recall information by remembering a person, use name folders. If you recall information based on project type, sort by specific project names.
For smaller projects or miscellaneous items, you may need to create a “misc” folder. This folder can be used for emails you probably won’t need again, but aren’t ready to delete yet.
File Sent Items
How many times have you searched for a sent email? Sent emails are just as important (if not more important) then incoming emails. Take a few minutes each day to file away sent items in the appropriate folders. This way, when you need to search for an email, you’ll only need to search through one folder. This will cut back on the amount of emails you’ll need to sort through. It may also be easier to creating “sent” folders for each project.
Throw it Away
Every email inbox has a limit. Once you sort and file emails, don’t forget about them. Yes, you may search for the email later to recall some information. But, holding onto hundreds of emails will eventually overload your inbox.
Dedicate a few minutes each day to deleting old emails. Set a rule for yourself. For example, if an email is over 12 months old, I don’t need it. Of course there may be exceptions to this rule, but having a general guideline helps.
Getting a handle on organizing your email will make days less chaotic. Spending time looking for emails eats away valuable resources and it’s frustrating. Creating organized folders will free up extra time.
By Nikki
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I really enjoyed this post a lot.There were a few things that I hadn’t considered, like throwing out old mail (which I probably won’t implement because I’m a pack rat) and there were also some techniques mentioned that I use.
In my line of work I deal with a lot of different businesses so I file by person/business name to keep things straight and it’s amazing, I also do it with my sent mail.If I didn’t file things in one simple fashion I’d probably go nuts.
I had never thought of most of these things. I end up with emails filed in multiple folders all the time because I file by name, project, work type etc… I never thought about the fact that I was really over complicating things by doing that.
that last line is so true nikki, creating organized folders will free up extra time and a lot of people don’t realize that. sure it take a few minutes to create the folders when you get started but after that you will notice a serious drop in search time and fewer “lost” pieces of mail.
it will save you a lot of time, stress and hassle overall.
This is just what I needed! I’ve been fighting through my email looking for things off and on for the past two weeks going insane. I never once thought about creating folders to stay organized. Thanks for the simple tips!
I also star or flag or use whatever symbol the mail system offers to mark really important mail and my most recent client update emails Folders are great but they can become cluttered so doing this helps me keep the most recent important messages all together in one place
Nice article..I tell my friend to read this and bookmark..