Just like the rest of us, Outlook user Scott Hanselman gets too much email, and he’s come up with some rules that auto-prioritize incoming email into folders before he even looks at it. Scott uses Outlook at work, and messages from his co-workers inside his company are higher priority; also, he gets invited to a lot of meetings via Outlook. If this is similar to your situation, check out Scott’s strategy. He set up three rules which separate incoming email into 1.) messages that were sent directly to him (he’s in the To: field), 2.) messages he was CC:’ed on, 3.) messages from outside his company, and 4.) meeting invitations. Hit up Scott’s full post for step-by-step directions on how to set up these rules.
As always, your preferred email processing system depends on your situation. As a freelancer who doesn’t use Outlook, rarely gets meeting invitations, and almost always gets messages from outside my non-company, this strategy doesn’t work as well for me, but for a nine-to-fiver inside a corporate firewall, it makes a whole lot of sense. Thanks, Scott!
The Three Most Important Outlook Rules for Processing Mail [Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen]
2 Comments
openid.claimid.com/emtshea
I do something similar to this, but I use 4 sub-folders. Anything I’m CC’d on, goes to CC’d. Change management requests go to Change Req’s. Anything that requires an action on my part goes to Follow Up. Last, but not least, if it has to do with something I need to wait on someone else, then it goes to the Hold folder. Otherwise, it’s in my Inbox. This may not be the most efficient method, but it seems to be working for me so far.
MikeTorres
I have a hard time automatically putting “somewhat important” messages into another folder. Turns out there’s almost always something in those emails someone wants me to see ASAP, and other people don’t always view CC in the same way I do. And for people who don’t have as much inbox discipline, I think it teaches bad habits (it’s just another thing to ignore).
It also makes it much more of a pain to catch-up in the “gaps” with a smartphone – constantly switching folders to see your entire inbox.
I wrote up some of my Outlook tips and tricks here for anyone interested:
http://www.refocuser.com/2009/05/staying-focused-with-microsoft-outlook-email/
As a Microsoft employee who gets hundreds of non-spam messages/day, I know we need them 🙂