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10 Ways to Manage E-mail Overload by Peggy Duncan

Believe it or not, you can prevent the E-mail avalanche. The key is to develop more efficient ways of handling it.

1. Choose your service provider wisely. Before you sign up for E-mail service, you should check the provider's privacy policy. Most of the free services (and some of the paid ones) sell your E-mail address to third parties. Read between the lines, and understand every word of their policy. Having free E-mail is not worth it if you can't stop the junk! Using Microsoft Outlook, you check E-mail from your computer desktop instead of being forced to go to a provider's Web site and deal with the pop-up ads and other distractions on their site (press Ctrl+W to close the pop-ups). Also, some providers are better at providing built-in filters to block junk E-mail that comes through the system.

2. Do the Inbox on a regular basis. You'll have to establish a routine for checking your E-mail once or twice every day so it won't pile up. Set aside a special time of day to check it, and deal with each message as you open it: delete it, forward it, schedule it, respond to it, file it, or pend it. Get organized so you can find answers to requests quickly!

If you have a tendency to keep too many messages in your Inbox, set up special folders to move them to. If you put a number in front of the folder name, you can have them appear in a particular order. For instance, if you keep messages coming from your clients, create a main Inbox folder called "1Clients." Then, create subfolders for each client (or put all messages in the Clients folder if you won't have many).

If you have messages you need to follow up on later, either create a "2FollowUp" folder in your Inbox (or desk), flag the message for follow up, or drag the message to your computer calendar icon or folder to set a reminder (Outlook has all these features. Close the message before you attempt to drag it).

Putting the number "1" in front of Clients will make that folder appear first in your Inbox folder list. Putting the "2" in front of FollowUp will make it appear second in your folder list, and so on.

If you’re keeping E-mail messages to “CYA,” instead of leaving them in your Inbox, create a folder to drag all of them into. If you ever need one (which is doubtful), you can use your software’s Find feature to locate it. Purge this folder often.

3. Have replies to your messages sent to someone else. In Outlook, if you’re sending an E-mail message and you want the replies to go to someone other than yourself (e.g., your virtual assistant), from within the New Message dialog box, click View, Options. Click inside the textbox to the right of "Have replies sent to." Either type the E-mail address you want replies sent to, or click Select Names, find the address in your Address book, and double-click the name. Click OK. (This will only apply to the current message.)

4. Let people know upfront that you do not want to receive certain types of messages. A lot of people absolutely do not enjoy receiving jokes, thoughts for the day, chain letters, and all those other E-mail messages so many of you feel compelled to send. They want you to stop, but they're too embarrassed to say so.

Create an automatic signature that will go out with every E-mail you send that says something like: "Please do not add my name to your distribution list for jokes, prayers, thoughts for the day, chain letters, etc. Thanks!" (Also include your full name, address, Website, and a blurb about your business in your signature.)

5. Ask people you know to stop sending you junk. Develop a spiel to send to people you know who are sending you junk that goes something like this: "I appreciate your thinking about me, but in an effort to streamline my E-mail messages and manage my time, I have to ask you to remove my name from the distribution list that you're using. Thanks!" If this doesn't work, call them and be firm.

6. Use a junk E-mail filter. Use feature-rich E-mail software such as Microsoft Outlook. Its junk E-mail feature searches for commonly used phrases in your incoming messages, and will automatically move the message from your Inbox to any other folder you specify, including the trash folder. It can also change the color of a message it suspects of being junk so it's easy to recognize.

7. Don't respond to spammers. When you get unsolicited E-mail that is clearly junk, don't respond. Responding only verifies to the sender that you're a valid E-mail address. Instead, add them to your Junk Senders list if your software has one, and delete the message without opening it. The Junk Senders list will block any future E-mail coming from that sender.

8. Change how you view your Inbox. Changing the view of your Inbox will help you see your messages without opening them. In Outlook, try the AutoPreview option (click View, AutoPreview or Preview Pane), if you would like to see a few lines of an unopened message. (Viewing messages using the Preview Pane could activate a virus if it’s in an E-mail message so keep your antivirus software up to date.)

9. Set up a separate E-mail address. Don't leave your main E-mail address on sites for Newsgroups, free services like greeting card companies, online membership directories, etc. Instead, set up a separate E-mail account (maybe one of the free ones), and leave this address on the site instead of your main one.

10. Use Autoresponders. Use autoresponders to distribute common E-mails you send (e.g., information on how to order your products)by setting up special E-mail mailboxes to handle certain requests. This is how it would work: if someone sends an E-mail to your company at info@acompany.com, they will get an automatic response with whatever information you wanted to make available. You could set up different mailboxes for each type of request (check with your service provider to set this up).

You have important work to do. Creating systems for everything you do, including managing E-mail, will help you get a lot more work done than you think you have time to do.

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Peggy Duncan is an enthusiastic productivity trainer and author of Put Time Management to Work. Her workshops for busy professionals cover organization, time management, and tips and tricks in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. For more timesaving tips, visit her award-winning Website at www.peggyduncan.com.