February 2005

Handling Your Email

A few folks have asked me how I handle my email.  I am no expert, but I will share with you how I keep my Inbox under control  (well -- at least it gives me the illusion that it is under control  ;-)  These methods work for me, and with modifications for your own personal and unique situation, can work for you.

In most instances I will just use my own setup as an example.  You will most certainly have different needs, and a different idea about what your email management folders should be.  Feel free to create your own folder structure to suit your requirements.

Before we dive into the main discussion, I'd like to address briefly  (because it demands it's own topic, and much more thorough coverage) the topic of Spam -- the scourge of the Internet.  It is conservatively estimated that 80% of all email traffic is Spam!  This is an astounding figure.  Spam costs all of us -- not only in actual dollars, but also in lost time, inefficiencies of the email system, clogged bandwidth, and on and on.

Your ISP should be your first line of defense against Spam arriving in your Inbox.  Many, if not most, ISPs nowadays have in self-defense installed Anti-Spam filters on their email servers.  Who can blame them?  If you think you hate Spam -- how do you think the ISPs like handling mail where 8 out of 10 pieces is junk that nobody wants, and does not appreciate getting.  It's a Lose-Lose situation for them.

The problem comes when you examine more closely the details of how your mail is filtered.  There is a wide variance in the performance of Anti-Spam measures that any individual ISP might employ.  Some of them are so broad and heavy-handed that there is a likelihood that you are NOT receiving some mail that you wish you were.  This is a common problem with email newsletters that you may subscribe to.  Still, with vigilance  (and often after a few emails to support and perhaps configuration setting changes) you can have a large amount of Spam stopped in it's tracks by your ISP.  You'll never see it.

But even the best Spam filters are going to miss some.  Spam will still show up in your Inbox.  Many of the modern email clients have their own Spam filters, or you can install any of a large number of 3rd.-party Spam filters.  I use a freeware Spam filter called K9 which I find very effective.  It is what is known as a Bayesian filter, and uses advanced logic to determine what is Spam and what is not.  You train it, continually improving it's results.  After using it for awhile and indicating to it what is Spam, it gets smarter and smarter and makes fewer mistakes.

With your ISP filtering the majority of your Spam, and your own Spam filtering catching most of what gets through -- you will have very little actual Spam messages arriving in your Inbox to deal with.  And it will be a quick and easy matter to delete those.  As we will see in a moment -- deletion is one of the only 4 things you will do with every piece of mail -- and for me, the first and easiest and most satisfying!

We're almost ready to talk about handling your email -- but we need to make one more short diversion.  The methods I will be discussing all involve the management of your email by placing each message in various organizational folders that you create.  I will not explain how to make those folders and sub-folders in your email program, but it is necessary for you to know how to do so.  Consult the documentation for your specific email application.  Every single one of them allows the creation of mail folders  (and sub-folders) to manage your email.

The creation of a logical folder structure -- one with an organization and logic that suits your needs -- is critical.  What we will be doing is moving email messages from your Inbox to various other folders.  Some of these folders will just be temporary holding places, as we process them according to their urgency.  Others will be the final repositories of the message -- at least until we back it up onto a CD, and can then clear that folder.

This is something that you will want to do on a regular basis, as every single email application will eventually start giving you problems if you let your stored messages grow too large.  The solution is to archive those messages somewhere else  (and a removable CD is just perfect) -- then clear the old messages out, providing an empty folder to start filling up again.

OK -- we're finally ready to discuss my email handling procedure.  Key to the whole process is keeping your Inbox empty.  Like many of you, my previous crude method was to not remove an email from my Inbox until I had taken care of it in some manner.  This way, I figured, everything important would not get lost if I placed it somewhere else, and my memory failed  (hey -- it happens  ;-)  Plus, it would always be there to remind me that action was required.

This is all fine and well, but in the process, my Inbox was continually growing, often with non-critical items -- and having to continually sift through it was a chore.  One of the really great advantages of my method is that you keep a clean Inbox.  It is hard to express the great feeling that gives you.  At the same time, you establish a logical method for sorting and handling your email in a timely manner that gives you a sense of control.

First off, you need to make a top-level folder called "Temp".  When I say top-level, I mean a folder on the same level as your "Inbox", "Outbox", and "Deleted" folders.  You might also have folders on this level such as "Sent", "Drafts", or others.  You will then create 3 sub-folders under the "Temp" folder.  These will be "Now", "Soon", and "Readme".

To complete my top-level folders, in my own setup I have one more top-level folder called "Archived" where all of my filed messages are stored.  There are further sub-divisions of this "Archived" folder  (such as "Internet", "People", "Website Clients", etc.) sometimes several levels deep, that organize all of my email.  Having this one "Archived" folder makes it very easy to periodically back up my email -- a discussion of which will be presented in another entry.  Email is so important to most of us, especially if it is business-related -- that multiple backups should be made.  Few things are more frustrating than to have your email unavailable due to an application error.  It happens all the time.  Backup today!

As you have probably realized from the names we have given these new folders we created -- one of the ways we are going to start organizing our email is temporally -- by time -- and more specifically, by how urgent it is to respond to the message.  After you have made your new "Temp" folder with it's sub-folders, you can immediately move everything from your Inbox into the Temp folder.  We will process these initial emails from the Temp folder, but in the future you will be using the procedure we will be discussing for processing all of your mail as you receive it in your Inbox  (The Temp folder itself will see little use at that time -- but the sub-folders will be busy!)

Take a moment to enjoy the feeling of a totally empty Inbox!

Now -- let's discuss how you are to process your email -- this first batch, as we wade through all of that mail you dumped into the Temp folder -- thereafter, as you process newly arriving mail from your Inbox.  This is sort of a "triage for email".

Key to understanding this email management process is that when email comes in there are ONLY 4 things that you will do with each message.  Simplified  (I will expand on each option in a moment) these 4 things are:  Read it, Take action, File it, or Delete it.

1. Read it:  If it takes you less than 15-30 seconds, and does not require action or storage, you are going to read it and then delete it.
2. Take action:  In 15 seconds you should be able to scan who sent it, the Subject, and the first sentence of each paragraph  (or, read the first paragraph), and know if it requires action  (a longer reading, a reply with comments, delegation to someone else, or the creation of a task).
3. File it:  If you know you will need to save it for future reference, or retrieval later on.
4. Delete it:  If it is Spam that slipped through, you are going to delete it immediately without reading it.

So -- let's try this out on the mail you placed in your Temp folder.  Go through your entire Temp folder using the rules.  Try not to spend more than 15 seconds or so on each message.

• If you can read it and delete it in 15 seconds -- do it.
• If it requires a reply or action on your part, make it a task.  Tasks generally have a deadline and a priority indicating how urgent or important the task is to you.  I have found that the 3 sub-folders we created under Temp are adequate to handle my tasked email:
• "Now" is for that mail which I deem is urgent and important -- that I need to act on in some manner "Now"  (or, as soon as I can get to it)
• "Soon" is for that mail, which requires action, but can wait until I get around to it.  Often it is important, just not urgent.  I used to include another folder called "Whenever", but found that "Soon" worked for them both.  Essentially this is all email that is not deemed urgent, or that goes into the "Readme" folder.
• If it's a newsletter or professional reading, do NOT stop and read it now  (no matter how interesting).  Place it in the "Readme" folder.  You can then block out an hour at a time, at your convenience, to read through all the stuff in your Readme folder.
• If you scan it and it looks like something you may need to refer to later, or find, then file it in one of your "Archived" folders  (And you will be best able to determine what those folders might be, from past experience.  And you can always create new sub-folders for new categories.)
• If it requires an appointment -- schedule it.
• If it is Spam -- delete it.

All done?  All of your messages should now be organized according to your priorities.  You will have filed important information.  You will have set up appointments, with reminders.  And you will probably have plenty to read -- when it is convenient for you.

Block off an hour of time to process messages in your "Now" folder -- those deemed "urgent and important" by you.  If you can't get through them in an hour, don't fret -- but also, don't move on to your "Soon" folder until your "Now" folder is empty.  Handle your "Readme" folder as discussed -- block off a convenient hour and read through them, archiving as appropriate.

Continue blocking off 1 hour chunks of time as you are able, until you work your way through all of your folders in Temp.  Don't feel bad if it takes some time.  I urge you to give this email management system a try.  I guarantee that at the minimum, it will give you a much greater sense of control over the increasing amounts of email that you are receiving.  (And you're gonna love that empty Inbox  ;-)