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Practice Tip ' Sort out your emails

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19th Oct 2005
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I met with someone last week who almost never answers my emails. I told him I found this quite annoying. His answer was 'phone me, please ' I can't manage the number of emails I get and am block deleting them'.

Now that's worrying. He might be missing important stuff. In fact, I know he is ' I've sent him some stuff I think quite important by email. And if I'm irritated you can be sure I'm not the only person to be so.

What was odd was that he seemed to think all emails had pretty much the same status. They don't. I'm quite sure there are people he wants to hear from ' and there is a lot of rubbish in his inbox. Candidly, my ratio of desirable to acceptable to undesirable emails is about 10 : 20 : 70 these days (and that's after servers delete quite a lot of spam before it reaches me). I'd be surprised if he couldn't also give a good stab at this ratio.

And like me I bet he only really wants to give time to the first two groups. I don't have time for much of the rest. I solve this fairly simply.

First of all, of course, I filter spam. That seems so obvious now that it amazes me some people still don't do it.

Then I filter the rest, which is much more unusual. But, whatever email package you use you can write simple rules that let you sort your incoming mail. All you need to do first of all is set up a range of in-boxes. Mine cover:

1. regular contacts. About ten people send me most of the stuff I really want to read. They get highest priority. Their stuff goes in the number 1 inbox;
2. the number 2 inbox covers known client contacts who regularly mail me (which is actually my default inbox);
3. then there's a family and friends box, because I wouldn't want to miss them;
4. next I have news feeds. Maybe you aren't subscribed to a pile of newsletters ' but if you're reading this there's a good chance you get AccountingWeb emails for starters, and maybe quite a lot more. I have a box for these. In fact, I get so many I have more than one box so I can prioritise them ' which also makes bulk deleting of those I never seem to read easier;
5. then there's a mail box for the email account which I use when having to give an address on the web ' and which picks up a lot of the rubbish and junk mail. I'd really strongly recommend you have a mail account just for this purpose ' it's amazing how much time it saves ' I only look at this box once a week or so, and then in page views at a time ' and almost always delete it all;
6. finally, there's the spam box ' and I can't remember the last time something I really wanted got in there.

Of course it's a bit cumbersome to set this up at first ' especially if you have hundreds or even thousands of email addresses in your inbox. But it's not that difficult to do ' you'll find the option to create message rules in most systems under the message tab. You can even make a rule every time you open a mail to make sure it goes to the right place in the future ' but making rules in bulk is also fairly easy in most systems.

I strongly recommend you do it. Your productivity could increase enormously as a result. And you might even stay in touch with people who really want to get things to you. Which has to be a bonus.

Richard Murphy
AccountingWEB contributing editor Richard Murphy is a sole practitioner chartered accountant but was previously senior partner of a firm for 11 years. He has also been chairman, chief executive or finance director of 10 SMEs. A collection of previous articles by Richard on practice management themes is available in Practice Management Zone

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By hermit104
31st Oct 2005 18:52

re emails again
Delighted I could help, Anthony. I just discovered this site by chance yesterday.

Before you get too wound up, I don't have 200 close friends who e-mail me every day!!!! I subscribe to 4 active interest groups so it soon adds up.

Regards.

Rona

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By AnonymousUser
31st Oct 2005 16:08

Many thanks, Rona
Yup - that works, thank you. (And I must say having done it, it seemed embarrassingly obvious. Having said that, not all software is that intuitive - sometimes you just have to be told.)

Re: "I get around 200 e-mails a day at home". I think that must make me Billy no mates.

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By hermit104
30th Oct 2005 11:01

Re multiple inboxes
"If I create a new inbox (e.g. inbox: regular contacts) it lists that folder alphabetically in my long list of specific email folders rather than immediately following the default inbox. Any elegant workaround?"

When you open a new folder, Outlook Express asks you where you want to create it.

Why not create your various inboxes as separate folders within the default Inbox with the other folders you use moved to within Local Folders?

I also make use of folder names starting with "aa" or "zz" so they go to the start or end of the list.

With Outlook Express you can redirect e-mails very easily using Tools>Message Rules>Mail then you can move them by sender, whether the e-mail was sent to you or just cc'd to you, subject, etc. I get around 200 e-mails a day at home from various groups I am connected with and can easily keep on top of them using this method (also a number of different addresses but this isn't essential). It is the sort of thing that you assume everyone who gets lots of e-mails does unless you find out differently!!!

Good luck.

Rona



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By AnonymousUser
24th Oct 2005 12:49

Multiple Inboxes?
Many thanks for a helpful article, Richard.

One point, however, Outlook Express appears only to allow one default inbox. If I create a new inbox (e.g. inbox: regular contacts) it lists that folder alphabetically in my long list of specific email folders rather than immediately following the default inbox. Any elegant workaround?

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