Top ten tips on making the most of your email
Email is an extremely powerful tool and having
the correct functionality can enable you to achieve more in a
smarter manner. You may find the following tools useful to
implement, to help improve your businesses
communications.
1. File your emails
Existing email as it
stands consists of a variety of folders which include: Inbox; all
incoming messages, Outbox; all outgoing messages, Drafts: messages
you’re working on and Sent; all messages which you send. The
existing email storage set up is a great way to organise your files
however try taking this one step further to help you prioritise
your own emails with individual folders, this could include
department filing, project filing; allowing you to stay on track
and access that important information in a much smarter manner.
2. Manage your emails more effectively -
flagging
Filing your emails is one thing but knowing
when to action them is another option to help you manage your
communications more effectively. Taking an action on your emails
when they first arrive can sometimes be distracting; to overcome
this, try flagging your message to remind yourself to follow up on
it later. These flags provide reminders to allow follow up at a
time convenient to you and can be colour coded should you require
further categorisation.
3. Make use of and share your calendar – work with a
diary that reflects your schedule
Managing your
calendar inside of Outlook is a great way to manage your time and
others. Try scheduling appointments, meetings, tasks; daily,
weekly, monthly or at recurrences relevant to you, to suit your
work pattern and agenda with reminders (that you can snooze!) to
keep you focused. There’s also the option to integrate with
colleague’s calendars to help stay on track with meetings and be
up-to-date on what other members of your team are doing.
4. Manage and share your tasks
Instead of
those multiple to-do lists, start managing your tasks inside your
email application to help keep it in one place, as well as giving
you the option to view the status, due date and percentage complete
at the click of a button. Outlook can also help you to get rid of
those post-its, voicemail or email tasks. Assigning tasks to others
is as simple as assigning tasks to yourself, helping you and others
to stay on track without the headaches.
5. Manage and share your contacts
Manage
your contacts, addresses, phone numbers and other relevant contact
information in one place, to remove those out-of-date paper
business cards and help keep you up-to-date with the latest contact
information. These contacts can also be organised into categories
that best suit you; whether it’s by company, location or just as a
phone list. What’s more, you are also able to share your contacts
with colleagues, saving you time, effort and removes any
miscommunications of contact details.
6. Manage your email delivery – filter out the
junk
Managing your email delivery can sometimes be a
job in itself. Try setting up rules to help you organise your
incoming and outgoing emails when they first arrive and are sent,
enabling you to prioritise those emails from important people into
relevant folders. Managing your mail delivery could include options
such as filtering unknown attachments, newsletter subscription
information, or just individual contacts so you don’t miss an email
from that important person; perhaps your boss!
7. Keep notes
Instead of having multiple
notebooks (of which some probably have a lot of typing up required)
and pieces of paper all over your desk, start to use the notes
folder to keep track of your information. This will then allow you
to print those notes, email them or just save them as a soft copy
to your machine; allowing you to quickly and easily share notes and
keep track of all those little bits of important information.
8. Send emails to more than one recipient without
individual recipients knowing
Sometimes you may need
to send bulk emails out but without all the recipients knowing the
distribution list. Use Outlook to send emails blindly to the full
distribution list at once, rather than individually; saving you
time and effort, with just one sent item rather than tens or
hundreds which you have to keep a track of.
9. Manage your emails on the move
When out
of the office, stay connected to your emails to ensure people can
get in contact with you and that you don’t miss anything. This can
be achieved through taking a copy of your existing inbox offline,
accessing your emails in real time through the use of an internet
connection via your laptop, PC or mobile device.
10. Archiving your emails
Instead of
deleting those important emails which although are important and
should be kept, need to go due to your mailbox space restrictions,
use archival to help you store those old emails for future
reference. It’s also a great way to keep your inbox tidy but hold
on to those important messages which you know you really shouldn’t
get rid of!