Tips For Keeping Your Inbox Clean And Tidy
Randy Eadon
November 03, 2008
Anyone with an email address will tell you that they are very effective forms of communication, and that they don´t know what they would do without their account. Some are personal, and there are plenty more that people use for business. It is easy to keep your inbox cleaned up if you only get one or two emails a day, but most people get much more than that. When you are not sure what to do with them all, they tend to pile up in your inbox, which creates a huge mess.
You may not be too concerned about the state of your personal inbox, but if you have business communications coming into a business account, you want to keep it as neat and as tidy as you possibly can. This means you have to set up a system for saving your emails. If you let them pile up in your inbox, it could take you a long time to find one that you may be looking for. Hopefully, your account allows you to add folders for organizational purposes.
You want to set up folders for each matter or each client that you have. You want to be very specific about how you set things up so you have no question about which folder an email should go into. That way, you can read, respond, and then file it away. If you have to respond or take action, but not right away, you have two choices. You can flag the email so that it is easy to pick out in your inbox, or you can start a folder specifically for things that you must do soon. Just make sure you don´t ignore that folder. File away appropriately after that.
For your personal emails, you may want to use the same type of system. It is important that you get rid of emails right away if they are of no use. If you are not sure if you will need to reply or send on to someone else, give it one day and then delete. The best course of action would be to reply, delete immediately, or to file away in a folder. Once a month you can go through your folders and delete what you no longer need.
You should learn more about what you can do about each message in your inbox whether you are worried about keeping things cleaned up, or if you have more pressing concerns. Look around online for more tips.
You may not be too concerned about the state of your personal inbox, but if you have business communications coming into a business account, you want to keep it as neat and as tidy as you possibly can. This means you have to set up a system for saving your emails. If you let them pile up in your inbox, it could take you a long time to find one that you may be looking for. Hopefully, your account allows you to add folders for organizational purposes.
You want to set up folders for each matter or each client that you have. You want to be very specific about how you set things up so you have no question about which folder an email should go into. That way, you can read, respond, and then file it away. If you have to respond or take action, but not right away, you have two choices. You can flag the email so that it is easy to pick out in your inbox, or you can start a folder specifically for things that you must do soon. Just make sure you don´t ignore that folder. File away appropriately after that.
For your personal emails, you may want to use the same type of system. It is important that you get rid of emails right away if they are of no use. If you are not sure if you will need to reply or send on to someone else, give it one day and then delete. The best course of action would be to reply, delete immediately, or to file away in a folder. Once a month you can go through your folders and delete what you no longer need.
You should learn more about what you can do about each message in your inbox whether you are worried about keeping things cleaned up, or if you have more pressing concerns. Look around online for more tips.