Recently a colleague opened their email in front of me. I was amazed! I thought "This guy is the most efficient person on the planet." It was something to behold. Everything was in a folder and he had like 4 emails in his In Box. We work together so I know we each had 20 emails already that morning. There was no way this guy had time to review them and respond to them unless he had super powers.
My colleague, who we will call Rob shared a few of his "secrets" and after a 10 minutes applying some of the "secrets" my In Box is 100 times more manageable.
Below are a few tips from the Microsoft website that may be helpful to you. I did not write the tips just wanted to share them.
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/productivity/emailtools.aspx#fbid=D_tGGcHapt8
Get organized: 7 ways to better sort, store, and search your email
A cluttered and unorganized mailbox can make it difficult to find the email you need. This messy situation can be remedied. Microsoft Outlook offers great tools that help you sort your email and organize your messages in meaningful, easy-to-control ways. Outlook can even help increase your efficiency and productivity. Whether you're using Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003, you'll be better able to stay on top of your mail.
1. Sort messages quickly
Outlook 2010 has a great new feature for organizing messages by date and arranging them by Conversation. Using this feature, messages that share the same subject appear as Conversations that can be viewed and expanded or collapsed by clicking the icon to the left of the Subject line. The messages within each Conversation are sorted with the newest message on top. When a new message is received, the entire Conversation moves to the top of your message list, helping to make tracking email threads a snap.To turn on Conversations, on the View tab, in the Conversations group, select the Show as Conversations check box. You can reduce the size of a conversation with the Clean Up feature, which deletes duplicate messages in the Conversation. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Clean Up, and then click Clean Up Conversation.
2. Group similar messages in folders
By creating new mail folders, you can group messages related to each other.3. Create Search Folders to find messages fast
Search Folders are a quick and convenient way to look at predefined collections of email messages. They don't actually store any messages themselves but, instead, are virtual folders that offer a view of all the messages stored in your mailbox depending on the attributes you've defined.4. Route mail efficiently using mailbox rules
By creating rules for Outlook, you can automatically perform actions on both incoming and outgoing messages based on criteria you establish.5. Reduce unwanted email with junk filters
Keep distracting and unwanted messages out of your Inbox by using Outlook Junk Email filters. These filters send email flagged as junk to a separate mail folder in your Mailbox.6. Assign a color category
Assign a color category to a group of interrelated email messages and to other items in Outlook, such as notes, contacts, and appointments, so that you can easily identify and organize them.7. Flag for follow up
You can use the Flag for Follow Up feature to flag email messages and tasks to help categorize them or to mark them for action.
Here is the link to the microsft website for more details. http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/productivity/emailtools.aspx#fbid=D_tGGcHapt8
Having an organized In Box allows me to be deliberate about what I am reacting to. This saves time and energy and allows me to focus on important things like getting deal done. Hope this was helpful.
