How to Organize Email

People always want to know how I can possibly keep all of my group, business and personal email organized. This is another one of those things in life that I have learned slowly through trial and error. After a few embarrassing moments of posting personal emails to a public group, I set out to find a method that would keep everything straight for me. Remember high school when you were taking several classes? If you just threw everything into one big notebook without a method to organize it all, things could end up in a mess very rapidly. You probably used one big notebook with dividers to separate the classes or you may have even used separate notebooks for each individual class. This is similar to the method I use to organize my email accounts. To prevent posting personal mail to a group or posting to the wrong group, I set up a separate email account for each group that I am a member of. Each of my email addresses has a specific purpose and are used only for that purpose. This should also be done for your personal and business email accounts. Since most Yahoo Groups will not accept email from a different email address than you have listed for that specific group, this will help prevent embarrassing posting errors to the wrong group. Each of us has different personal preferences and email programs that we find the most effective. Most of these programs have various methods of customizing them in a manner that will keep things more organized. Take the time to read the help files for your specific program, or search Google for tutorials. If you learn how to organize email now, it will save countless hours of frustration later. I use Outlook 2003 to organize email. When I create each new email account in Outlook, I select an account name that will easily identify which group or topic the email address is associated with. The first thing I did once my email accounts were set up was to create a separate folder for every group that I belong to. I also set up separate folders for my business email and my personal email. This allowed me to easily make rules that sends each email to the appropriate folder, instead of spending countless hours sorting through my inbox. When you click on "View Screenshot" a new window will open to display the step. Create Folders to Help Organize Email Accounts STEP 1 Open Outlook. Right-hand click on "Personal Folders". Select "New Folder". view screenshot Step 2 Enter the name selected for the new folder. Click "OK". view screenshot Repeat this process for each folder you need to create. Set Up Email Rules STEP 1 In the Tools menu, select Rules and Alerts. view screenshot STEP 2 Click on the New Rule Button. view screenshot STEP 3 If it not already selected, click the circle in front of "Start creating a rule from a template" and then click on "Move a message sent to a distribution list to a folder". view screenshot STEP 4 Click on the underlined text for "people or distribution list”. view screenshot STEP 5 In the new box that opened during step 4, enter the email address you are creating the rule for, next to the "To" button. If you are creating this rule for a Yahoo group, I recommend selecting the email address of the actual group, rather than your own email address. When you click “ok” this box will close. Select "Next". view screenshot STEP 6 Place check mark by "move it to the specified folder" view screenshot STEP 7 Click on the underlined text "specified". This will cause a new box to open. view screenshot STEP 8 Scroll to the folder you created for this email address or group earlier. Select the appropriate folder by clicking on it and click on the OK button. This box will then close. view screenshot STEP 9 In the remaining window, click on the "Finish" button. view screenshot Repeat this process for each email account or individual folder you have created. Organize Your Signature for Each Email Account or Group STEP 1 In the "Tools" menu select "Options". view screenshot STEP 2 If you are setting up this account for a group it is always best to use plain text for email. This will prevent strange formatting in your signature. Use the arrow down button to select the "plain text" option. view screenshot STEP 3 In the same small window, click on the "Signatures" button. A small window will open. view screenshot STEP 4 Click on the "New" button. A small window will open. view screenshot STEP 5 Enter a name for the new signature. I select the name of the signature based on the information of the signature, or the group. Make sure there is a mark in front of "Start with a blank signature" and click next. view screenshot STEP 6 Enter the text for your signature. If you are adding a link, make sure to include the http:// in front of the URL so that it will be a clickable link in your emails. Click on the "Finish" button. This small window will close. view screenshot STEP 7 In the remaining box click on the "OK" button. view screenshot STEP 8 In the small window that remains, you can select which email signature you want used for each of your accounts. Since I use a variety of signatures in each of my groups I selected "none". This allows me choose which signature I need, based on the content of the email. Once you have made your selection, click "OK". view screenshot Repeat this process for each signature you would like to use. Inserting Your Signature in Emails STEP 1 When you have completed your email, place the cursor where you would like to insert the signature. In the "insert" menu, select "Signature". Click on the specific signature you would like to use for this email. Hopefully you named each signature in a way that will make it easy for you to identify the content of each signature. view screenshot You can also use this method to organize responses you add to emails frequently. Anything I need to add to an email frequently, I make a signature for it. Final Notes on How to Organize Email Computer Basics offers additional tips and various tutorials on how to organize email using a variety of email programs. Over time, you will discover which techniques work best for your specific situation. The methods I have described to you makes it possible for me to keep track of the emails from more than 30 accounts. Using these techniques, I can be assured that I will never miss an important business email buried within the mass of other unrelated messages. I WILL SEE YOU AT THE TOP!