Effective Mail Management

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Effective mail management is simple!

When we had only paper and no email, we used to manage all incoming paper in the in-tray. If someone’s in-tray had lots of pending papers, it would mean the person is not handling work effectively.

Although we have internet and email and all the computerization, this simple method of handling work effectively is still the same.
Mail is used to communicate with each other. If you have mail pending in your Inbox it means you have not done a good job of handling communication.

Therefore, the simplest way to ensure that you are managing mail effectively is to make your Inbox empty. Given below are a few simple steps which will make you easily achieve this task – every day! These steps should be followed in the specified order.

Prerequisites

1. The use of Outlook 2003 is assumed.
2. Some menus may have different names depending upon the version of Outlook you use.
3. Some features require MS Exchange as the messaging server.

The logic

· We do not get enough time to handle all the mail which is received.
· Therefore, we need to reduce the workload of manually handling mail.
· Many tasks can be automated great features of Outlook
· There are two types of mail – junk and real mail
· There are three types of real mail, depending upon where your name appears – To, CC or BCC
· Based upon these simple facts, a it is possible to handle very large volume of mail effortlessly.

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Making the inbox empty –

The steps
You can do it in just 9 steps. Some of these steps are one-time tasks. The one-time tasks are shown in Blue color

1. Put strong junk mail filter
2. Redirect cc mails
3. Differentiate To and BCC mails
4. Handle BCC mails first
5. Read and delete / archive non-action mails
6. Reply and delete / archive
7. Set follow up actions and archive
8. Convert to tasks
9. Delegate from tasks

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Put strong junk mail filter

Junk mail can be automatically detected and redirected to the Junk Mail folder.

· Choose Tools - Options - Preferences - Junk mail .

· Enable this feature and set it to highest level.

· This is a one time task.

· Sometimes, the filter can move valid mails to the junk email folder. So it is a good idea to periodically check this folder.

· If you find a valid mail which is marked as junk, right click on it and choose Add to Safe Sender's list

· Now what remains in the inbox are junk mails. You get only three types of mails, depending upon where your name appears – To, CC or BCC.

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Redirect CC mails to another folder

· Your priority is mails where you are on TO list.

· When you are on CC, you need not give immediate attention to the mail.

· Instead you can ask Outlook to automatically transfer these mails to another folder. You can look at these mails whenever you have spare time.

· Use Tools - Inbox Rules to set this feature.

· Create a new rule - When my name is in CC list - move the message to a folder called CC (or any other name you like). It is better to create a new folder for this purpose.

· You can run this rule immediately on the mails already in the inbox.

· Thereafter all further incoming mails will be automatically redirected to the cc folder.

· Now your inbox has mails where your name is on TO list of BCC list.

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Differentiate TO and BCC mails

· When a sender decides to put your name on the BCC, there is always something ‘different’ about the mail.

· Ideally you would have liked to handle BCC mails by identifying them quickly.

· But this is not possible because there is no way of identifying BCC mails directly. So we will use a smart trick.

· We use another Inbox Rule where the condition is “When my name is NOT on TO and CC” (which means it is on BCC!)

· The action for this rule should be “Flag Message”, and choose some flag color (for example, Blue). Do not choose flag color RED. This is the default color used when you click on the flag for some other purpose.

· Now all the mails which have a blue flag are BCC mails!

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Handle BCC mails first

· Remember that BCC mails have a some hidden purpose. So handle these first.

· Follow the same methods given below for handling these mails.

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Read and delete / archive non-action mails

· Now the mails that are remaining are the REAL mails – where your name is on TO list

· Some mails do not require any action from your side.

· So read them and then decide what do with the mail further.

· If you do not need to store mail for future reference, delete it immediately.

· If you want to store it, make relevant folders and classify the mail at the time of storing it.

· Now you have only those mails which require action from your side

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Reply and delete / archive

· When you need to reply to a mail, you need to decide whether to keep or delete the original mail

· Follow the same steps as mentioned in the previous section.

· Now the mail which remain in your Inbox are ACTION mails.

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Convert to tasks

· These require some action from your side. Either you can take the action or you can delegate it.

· Actions have deadlines and you need to monitor them. So it is better to convert these mails to a task in the Tasks folder.

· Doing so is very simple. Drag a mail from inbox and drop it onto the tasks folder. Put a deadline and save.

· Monitor the Tasks folder everyday. Ideally you will want to sort the tasks based upon dates.

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Delegate tasks to subordinates

· There may be some tasks which you want to delegate to someone else. Usually we just forward the mail to someone else and ask them to do the job. This is not effective because you have no clear record of who was asked to do which task and when. Thus you lost control and accountability.

· First drag the mail from Inbox and drop it on the Tasks folder, as specified above.

· Use Assign Task button from the toolbar of the new task and specify the email id of person whom you want to delegate it to.

· Now click on Send button. It will be sent as a mail to that person. The task becomes a regular entry in your Tasks folder. If he/she accepts it, it will become a task in their folder. When the task is marked as complete, your task folder will also be updated automatically.

· This feature makes it extremely easy and fast to track progress of work which is being executed by your team, without manual follow up.