Four quick ideas to help your email software deal with your inbox.

Outlook (and Notes and Groupwise) have a largely overlooked feature called “Rules” which can help deal with your inbox.  Rules give your email software the ability to handle certain emails on your behalf with specified outcomes.  The function works differently in each software, but is relatively intuitive.  So rather than provide specific directions, here are some concepts to try out…

Move all emails you are CCed on from your inbox to a folder called CCed

• Benefit:  Reduces inbox clutter.  Reveals just how much you are CCed on.  Helps discipline around only checking CCed emails once a day.

Move all newsletters, reports, updates from specific emails/domains to specified folders

• Benefit:  Reduces inbox clutter.  Reduces chance of getting distracted by “info” emails while checking inbox.  Reveals how many “info” emails we can subscribe to (and never read).  Keeps “info” emails in a central location for review when you need a break.

Categorise incoming emails automatically based on sender or keywords

• Benefit:  If you use categories in your email, tasks or calendar, you can have those categorised automatically.  This allows quicker prioritisation when choosing emails and skips a step if you convert an email into an task or appointment.

Visually highlight new emails from specified people (clients vs staff vs friends)

• Benefit:  Helps prioritise client emails for immediate action and saves non-work emails for when you need a break.