Going away on a trip always provides challenges in work. And, for web workers, the biggest challenge is one’s Email Inbox. Mine’s always a mess when I get back from a trip or even a short break.
So, how do YOU handle your email? What are your best email organisation tips?
Some great email tips I’ve heard over the years include:
1) Open and Action. Basically, if you open the email, you must do something about it – respond, delete, forward… This is a very useful tip, but I often find it difficult to follow in certain circumstances when I feel I need to think things over first before doing anything about it. But, for the most part, I do try to keep this tip in mind.
2) Filter, filter, filter! Make sure you activate your filters – put certain emails in some folders; kick most spam out of your inbox automagically…
3) Create autoresponders. If you are able to send auto email responses to certain mail that come your way, then by all means use that feature.
4) Label things! This is one of the reasons I’ve fallen in love with Gmail when it first came out a few years ago – the ability to label emails. I’m particularly fond of this for emails that I cannot follow Tip #1. If I can’t get to it quickly, it helps to add a label to it that will remind me to do something about it as soon as possible.
Any other email tips you’d like to share?
Image Source: Microsoft Stock Photo; Edits: Shai Coggins
Great tips..simple but useful. I always use autoresponders when outstation..