Each day billions of e-mail messages zap across the Internet. If it seems that most of them make their way to your Inbox, you're not alone. "Overwhelming" is how many people feel about this electronic communication. The bad news is that it will only get worse as the popularity of e-mail increases. The good news is that you can avoid drowning in a sea of messages by following some simple steps.
Establish separate business and personal accounts.
Keep your personal and professional lives separate, especially since employers in many countries can legally review messages on company mail servers. Do you really want your boss reading those off-color jokes? Having a separate personal account also means you aren't dealing with personal business on company time.
Develop a routine.
Answer your e-mail at set times during the day--perhaps the first thing in the morning, then mid-afternoon. This prevents incoming mail from interrupting other things you may be doing.
Set up your e-mail software for rapid review.
With e-mail programs such as Microsoft Outlook, you can customize the multi-pane display for quick viewing. Ideally you want to see who the sender is, the subject and be able to read the first few lines of the message. That way you don't have to open every message to discern its content.
Scan new messages and delete spam immediately.
Junk e-mail has become a fact of electronic life, so turn them to your advantage. Quickly review the message subject line and scan a line or two to identify spam. Now use the Delete key. Weeding out spam reduces your Inbox by half or more, providing a psychological boost when you only have fifty messages to deal with, instead of one hundred!
To further reduce the volume of mail, use filtering tools built into your e-mail program. They let you block messages sent from certain addresses, an excellent way to reduce spam. You can also automatically route messages from certain addresses into folders you set up. For instance, if you belong to a discussion group, messages will go directly into that folder, instead of your Inbox.
Organize messages into folders.
Create a series of folders to categorize your e-mail, using action items (pending, review etc.) and subjects (travel, newsletters, etc.). After you receive messages, file them away for later action and reference. Messages remaining in your Inbox are those requiring immediate action. Reply, then file them too.
Use short responses.
Everyone is pressed for time, so keep replies brief and to the point. E-mail has developed its own shorthand that doesn't require the formal response of a letter.
Prepare boiler plate responses.
You may find that you are often asked the same questions. To save time and avoid retyping the answers, just cut-and-paste a prepared reply. You can then edit it as required.
Establish separate business and personal accounts.
Keep your personal and professional lives separate, especially since employers in many countries can legally review messages on company mail servers. Do you really want your boss reading those off-color jokes? Having a separate personal account also means you aren't dealing with personal business on company time.
Develop a routine.
Answer your e-mail at set times during the day--perhaps the first thing in the morning, then mid-afternoon. This prevents incoming mail from interrupting other things you may be doing.
Set up your e-mail software for rapid review.
With e-mail programs such as Microsoft Outlook, you can customize the multi-pane display for quick viewing. Ideally you want to see who the sender is, the subject and be able to read the first few lines of the message. That way you don't have to open every message to discern its content.
Scan new messages and delete spam immediately.
Junk e-mail has become a fact of electronic life, so turn them to your advantage. Quickly review the message subject line and scan a line or two to identify spam. Now use the Delete key. Weeding out spam reduces your Inbox by half or more, providing a psychological boost when you only have fifty messages to deal with, instead of one hundred!
To further reduce the volume of mail, use filtering tools built into your e-mail program. They let you block messages sent from certain addresses, an excellent way to reduce spam. You can also automatically route messages from certain addresses into folders you set up. For instance, if you belong to a discussion group, messages will go directly into that folder, instead of your Inbox.
Organize messages into folders.
Create a series of folders to categorize your e-mail, using action items (pending, review etc.) and subjects (travel, newsletters, etc.). After you receive messages, file them away for later action and reference. Messages remaining in your Inbox are those requiring immediate action. Reply, then file them too.
Use short responses.
Everyone is pressed for time, so keep replies brief and to the point. E-mail has developed its own shorthand that doesn't require the formal response of a letter.
Prepare boiler plate responses.
You may find that you are often asked the same questions. To save time and avoid retyping the answers, just cut-and-paste a prepared reply. You can then edit it as required.