Email Helpdesk

If you feel overwhelmed by trying to manage e-mails, here are a few tips.  

You decide when

• decide when you are going to check e-mails - turn off the beep that announces new mail.  Read mail when it suits you - maybe twice a day in the morning and late afternoon

• if you can deal with an e-mail in a couple of minutes (be realistic), do so
• if it's scam or irrelevant, delete - with Outlook or similar you can recover from the Deleted Items folder if you make a mistake
• only delay reading or responding to an e-mail if it looks important and you need time to read it properly or it will take time to consider a response

Move the back-log

• if your Inbox is full, create a new "Back-log" folder using New, New Folder or similar -  select all (Ctrl-A) and move the e-mail messages to the new Back-log folder using your mouse
• then make time each day (first thing, for say 30 minutes) to go through the list and deal with each, file as necessary or delete

File using folders

• create mailbox folders (in Outlook, Ctrl-Shift-E) and set up a file directory similar to what you use for Word documents
• drag relevant e-mails to the appropriate folder
• do the same with important Sent messages
  

Use Calendar and E-mail together

• if you use Outlook Calendar or similar, save a copy of relevant e-mails (e.g. Agendas and/or file attachments) with the appointment - and delete the original e-mail
• set a reminder and all you need for that appointment or meeting is in one place