Emails…get them before they GET TO YOU

If you emails appear overwhelming and you don’t know where to start in going through them, try these tips:

1. Create subfolders and filters so emails go straight into them.

 In MS Outlook 2003 -
A. To create a Subfolder, right click on the Inbox and go to New Folder. A new box should pop up where you can name your new folder. Once you start doing this, you can create subfolders inside folders, increasing your ability to organize and keep track of things. Once you go to Step B below and create your new filters, any folder that has new emails will automatically pop open and tell you how many new emails are in there, so the chances of missing something in that folder is minimal, as long as you check which folders have popped open before collapsing the entire tree of folders and subfolders.

B. To Create a Filter – Go to Tools, Rules and Alerts, Click on New Rule and the Rules Wizard will come up. Make sure the “Start creating a rule from a template” button is highlighted to make it easier to do.

Go through Step 1 and Step 2, then click the Next button at the bottom of the window and follow through to the end of the wizard.

When you get to the end, be sure to check the “Run this rule now on messages already in “Inbox”" option on Step 2 to get that mess under control in the Inbox.

Do this with all your incoming newsletters, friends and family emails. Then theoretically, the only incoming email that should hit your inbox and stay there will be important new correspondence, spam filter summaries (if you get those), the occasional spam that slips through the ISPs filters and anything you have not created a filter for yet. All of these can be either deleted and/or or new filters and subfolders can be created for them so they won’t hit the inbox next time and stay there.

BUT…

…you can create Subfolders for existing clients, but I would not recommend creating Filters for them. If you do, you might just miss their emails if they aren’t right in front of you when you open the Outlook program, and…

…do not do this technique if you tend to let the mail that gets filtered pile up in those folders, or at least, go through those subfolders at least once a week/month and delete what you haven’t read. This way it will be easier to see what you really don’t read and could probably do without getting.

Good luck, cowboy, and be sure to come back and give us a battle update after you try this!

Kristine