Outlook Tips to Clean Your Inbox!
By Kristie Tamsevicius
One of the biggest distractions
for most business owners is email.
And when you get hundreds (or even
thousands) of emails a day, it's
really easy for it to quickly overwhelm
you. Just as it's hard to concentrate
in a messy office, a messy inbox
can send you running in a hundred
different directions if you are
not careful. Here are some power
tips to organize your inbox and
help you stay focused.
1) Create categories in your inbox.
! Inbox
! Act Now (items I need to do in
the next 5 minutes)
! Do (items I should do today)
! Waiting for Reply
! Quick Reference
! Ideas
! News to Read
! Delegate
How to create categories in your
inbox
Right click on any email in your
inbox
Click categories
Click master category list
Type the name of the new category
you wish to create
Hit add
Hit ok
H ok
If you put an exclamation point
before the category name, it helps
group your important categories
at the top of your category box.
Now, whenever an email hits your
inbox, you must drop it into a category.
This helps you because everything
that requires the same type of action
is in a "bucket" in your
inbox now.
To assign an email to a category,
right click on the email, right
click categories, find the category
you want to assign it to, and put
an x in that box
2) Use tasks to group your "to
do" items Items that I will
do in the next few days, weeks,
or months ahead, you can move to
your task folder.
If you customize the current view
to group it by high, normal, and
low priority it helps you instantly
identify which items need your attention
first. It follows the Franklin Covey
model of thinking of identifying
tasks as a A, B, or C.
Here's how to group your tasks
by priority.
Right click
Customize current view
Group items by - choose priority
Descending
OK
3) As you read your emails, click
and edit the subject line so it
says the action you need to take.
For example, when a person emails
me with a question, I would edit
the subject line of that email to
say, "Call Jim by Friday at
222-222-2222 about web design quote).
That way I don't even have to open
the email to have an instant reminder
about what action I need to take.
4) Personal Folders help organize
your "keeper" emails.
Here are personal file folders to
consider.
Sunshine File - testimonials and
"you are wonderful" notes
- this is great pick me up file
to look at when you get discouraged
Clients
Company 1 - your consulting company
Company 2 - your online community
etc
Products – your book, ebooks,
etc can each have a subfolder in
here
Speaking
Affiliate - your affiliate logins,
notes etc
Reference (this is where you can
file all the "how to"
tips etc I come across)
Marketing blurbs (article bylines,
product descriptions, professional
bio, text ads)
Vendors - vendor receipts, passwords
Documentation - any documentation
on "how to" that you create
for clients or VA's or people you
outsource to. That way you never
have to rethink it. Send click and
send.
That’s it, 4 quick tips to
conquer the pile of emails in your
inbox so you can get more work done!
Kristie Tamsevicius, is the author
of "I Love My Life: A Mom's
Guide to Working from Home"!
Thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs
have used her step-by-step home
business system to earn money working
from home. Get a free ecourse Home
Business Success Secrets at http://www.webmomz.com/ilovemylife1.htm
