Tips for Keeping your e-mail Inbox Clean
https://www.computersprofessor.com/2017/06/tips-for-keeping-your-e-mail-inbox-clean.html?m=0
Tips for Keeping your e-mail Inbox Clean:
These
days, the majority of our most personal and important digital correspondence
happens through email, so it's important to keep it organized. Here are some
tips for cleaning up your inbox.
Setup
rules, filters, or labels
Today,
all e-mail programs and online e-mail services have rules, filters,
or a labeling system that allows you to
move and otherwise organize incoming e-mail. Use these features to organize
your e-mail and get to what is most important first. Below are some suggestions
for rules we suggest trying first.
- Move important and unimportant
e-mails to a folder of their own.
- Highlight or set priority to
certain addresses. For example, a rule could be created to highlight any
user in your address book.
- Filter out common spam words that
get into your inbox, e.g. Viagra.
- In programs that support rules,
mark messages that are not important to keep your inbox clean and prevent
you from getting overwhelmed when you first open e-mail.
- If you are getting lots of spam filter your
e-mail through Gmail.
Do
not be afraid to delete
After
reading e-mail, always take action on that e-mail. Do not save it for later or
move it into a folder to deal with later. If you are unable to take action on
the e-mail, delegate it to someone else, or postpone it for later that day
delete it. Every e-mail does not need a response and there is no reason to save
e-mail that is going to be deleted later.
Automatic
replies, FAQs, and canned responses
If you
find yourself using the same reply over and over again, consider creating a
list of your frequent replies that you can copy and paste. Or, try using a tool
such as one of the ones listed below to help make replying to these e-mails even
faster.
Thunderbird Quicktext -
Fantastic Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail add-on.
Lifehacker Texter - Easy
to use script tool that can be used in anywhere in Windows including e-mail.
AutoHotkey - Another great tool although much more advanced. However, this tool can be used to automate anything on the computer.
AutoHotkey - Another great tool although much more advanced. However, this tool can be used to automate anything on the computer.
Keep
it simple
Many
times people over complicate their e-mail by creating dozens of different
folders to help organize their e-mails. Keep it simple do not have dozens of
different folders to organize your e-mail into.
If
there is no way getting around your need for folders in e-mail use the rules to
filter your messages into the folders. Folders can save hundreds of hours you
may be spending thinking about and organizing each of the e-mails you receive.
Always
do quick short replies
When
replying to any of your e-mails try to keep the reply as quick as possible and
do not spend too much time on an individual e-mail. We suggest spending no more
than five minutes on a single e-mail and avoid anything longer than three
paragraphs.
You
are e-mail is not a calendar or to-do list
Many
times a person’s inbox is full because they are treating it as a calendar of
things that they need to do. Do not use your e-mail for this. Have a separate
program or text document that keeps a list of things you need to do or that
keep track of your calendar of events.
Unsubscribe
from newsletters and disable notifies
Although
you may have had good intentions when subscribing to a newsletter or other
e-mail list these are often distracting and often clutter your e-mail.
Unsubscribe from any newsletter you have not been reading.
The
same is true for notifications from social network sites such as Facebook,
MySpace, and Twitter you may be receiving. Disable all notifications about
posts made on your wall, new friends, or followers, which clutter your inbox
and distract you.
Do
not reply to spam
If spam
sneaks past your protection or rules never reply to it; just delete the
message.
Keep
at it but not too much
Try to
read your e-mails at least once daily or every hour, depending on how much
e-mail you receive.
However,
do not live in your e-mail. Create a schedule where you check your e-mail in
regular intervals and then ignore it all other times. If you have any
notification about new incoming e-mails disable these or close your e-mail
program or e-mail web page.
Delete
some more
Finally,
if after following all the above steps you still have e-mails that are weeks
old delete them. If you have a hard time deleting e-mails create a folder and
move all old e-mails into that folder. After a few weeks have passed the e-mail
becomes too old for a reply.