How To Organize Office Emails In 4 Easy Steps
It happens to the best of us – we get buried under thousands of emails forcing us to spend more time than we originally planned going though each email and filing them accordingly. An overflowing inbox can actually cause a lot of problems for our productivity and will inevitably lead to more work.
Keeping your emails filed correctly and efficiently will save you the headache with all your other files when using a document management system. Everything is connected and it’s important to be on top of your game. Here are 4 quick and easy methods to keep your inbox from overflowing:
1. Inbox Sweep – Start by organizing your emails into file folders by day, month or year depending on how long it’s been since you’ve filed last. This is the first step to start categorizing your emails to make it easier to break them down into more specified folders and whether they need to be saved an/or deleted. Think of this step as the initial purge.
2. Delete – Any email that you do not need anymore, get rid of it! Most emails you can tell by subject line whether you need it or not, but just to be safe, make sure you carefully asses each email before deleting and/or filing. Deleting unimportant emails will clean up a majority of your inbox.
3. Develop a Naming System – When filing emails, categorize them by using a file folder naming system, whether that’s by client, the year, the month or project. Ex: “Microtek August 2014.” It’s simple and effective and it’ll be much easier to purge when you no longer need the files. Also, make sure you continue with this naming system so you can easily locate and retrieve your documents.
4. Implement a Filing Plan – Just like any other daily activity or overall wellness tip, you want to make sure to continue to practice positive habits. Adopt a filing plan that will hold you accountable to either delete or file your emails. This could be a reminder every Friday at the end of the day to go through your emails and place them where they need to be, or this could be done monthly or even daily depending on your email activity.
Once you’ve mastered these 4 simple steps, you should be well on your way to a much cleaner and more organized inbox. If you need additional tips or have any questions on how to keep your documents organized, please feel free to call Microtek today. We can help you with any or all of your document needs!
