Organizing Your Incoming Email

Author: Janet L. Hall

Everyday your electronic inbox is flooded with new email. Some of these emails might be spam or newsletters you have subscribed to. Yet other emails might be of importance and need your immediate attention, say from your boss, an order, a subscriber, a co-worker. Regardless of whom it is from you most likely receive email that needs to stand out from the rest of your incoming email because you want to make sure it doesn't "slip" through the cracks and it grabs your attention

Did you know in most email programs (NOT AOL, sorry) you can color code your incoming emails?

Did you know in most email programs you can have certain emails automatically stored (moved) or copied into other folders, you've created, until you have time to read them?

Did you know you can have your email program automatically delete incoming email and you don't even have to look at it?

Did you know you could have an email from someone else to you automatically forwarded to someone else?

Did you know that you can automatically "follow" email conversations?

Knowing how to use and implement the following conditions of just one of these "rules" can help you keep your email organized and your attention on what's important.

It is sooo easy you will kick yourself for not knowing about these features, yet be thrilled to have discovered them.

Outlook Express: >>Open Outlook Express >>You must know the person's email address or you can select from your address book

>>>>Click on TOOLS at the top of your screen >>Move your Pointer

to Message Rules; slide the Pointer over to Mail and Click

>>>>Click New

You will be presented with a new window that has 12 Conditions and 12 Actions to choose from:

12 Conditions for Your Email Rules:

1. Where the From line contains people
2. Where the Subject line contains specific words
3. Where the message body contains specific words
4. Where the To line contains people
5. Where the CC line contains people
6. Where the To or CC line contains people
7. Where the message is marked as priority
8. Where the message is from the specified account
9. Where the message size is more than size
10. Where the message has an attachment
11. Where the message is secure
12. For all messages

After you click on one of the Conditions, you now must select one of the twelve Actions for your rule.

Twelve Actions for Your Email Rules:

1. Move it to the specified folder
2. Copy it to the specified folder
3. Delete it
4. Forward it to people
5. Highlight it with color
6. Flag it
7. Mark it as read
8. Mark the message as watched or ignored
9. Reply with message
10. Stop processing more rules
11. Do not Download it from the server
12. Delete it from the server

EDITORS NOTE: To view all the different options you will have t0 scroll down through your lists.

After you click on one of the Actions, you are presented with a Rule Description, with underlined values, which you will click on to apply values.

The last step would be to assign a name to the rule you just created and then click OK.

As you can see from the above choices, there are MANY things you can do to organize your incoming email.

Let's do one together, don't worry, you can always change this later.

Exercise: Let's say you want your OverHall IT! issue to stand out from the rest of your emails when it is delivered, you know you don't want to miss a single issue <g> so you have decided to COLOR CODE this incoming email.

>>>>Open Outlook Express >>Click on TOOLS at the top of your screen >>Move your Pointer to Message Rules; slide the Pointer over to Mail and Click >>Click New >>In the Conditions, Click in the box: Where the From Line Contains people. You should now have a check mark in that box >>In the Actions, Click in the box: Highlight with color. You should now have a check mark in that box

Did you notice each time you clicked on a box a value popped up in the Rule Description area with your chosen Conditions and Actions underlined? This is where you enter the values you want to apply. Now we are going to go there and work:

>>>> Click on the underlined condition CONTAINS PEOPLE >>Here you would type in overhall@chesapeake.net OR you can choose someone from you address book >>Click ADD >>Click OK >>Now, back at the Rule Description, Click on the underlined action COLOR >>In the Select Color Box click on the little black down arrow to view and select your color choices >>Select red >>Click OK

The last step is to assign the rule a name, although you may leave the default name already provided.

>>>>Type in OverHall IT! newsletter >>Click OK >>Click OK or continue creating other new message rules for your other incoming email

I hope you explore this wonderful way to organize your email and have fun!

Outlook and most other email programs also provide message rules, although the steps and wording might be somewhat different. Just check out the help section for steps you'll need to take in your email program.

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Copyright 2001 by OverHall Consulting P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676 All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute so long as article is kept intact, this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached.

About the author:
The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional Organizer, Speaker, and Author. She is the owner of OverHall Consulting, and Organizing By Phone. Subscribe to her FREE organizing newsletter at http://www.overhall.com/newsletter.htm or visit her web site at http://www.overhall.com