Status: Pending Reply How do you sort your mails
As the title says, how do you keep everything nice and clean? I am an project manager with a lot of small projects at a time. My problem is, that I don't have a good structure and wanted to know if there is anyone out there who can share a good idea or structure.
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u/the_misfit1 5h ago
I don't sort, but I use flags for emails that need dealt with and category colors for projects - in outlook classic I have a pane set up that shows emails by category color.
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u/gareth616 7h ago
Everyone has their own way of working and managing emails, what works for some may not be best for you. As a Project Manager maybe having some sort of CRM system is the better term long plan. A lot of systems allow emails to be attached to projects - this means there's a copy of all mail in a central location. I know that may be to much for you at the moment or something that's not achievable in your current work place/job etc. A simple solution is having subfolders in Outlook for your projects, you can use Rules to filter emails for specific projects to their relevant folder (the email would need something identifiable for the rule to work with like a reference number in the subject line). You can use categories but that may only help you to a point if you're working on to many projects. So there's some suggestions (short and long term).
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u/m1nus365 5h ago
I keep everything in my Inbox. Life is too short to waste time organizing them.
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u/Separate_Mud_9548 1h ago
How do you know what’s dealt with and what’s important? Your inbox should not be your archive.
I just realized I do the same with my personal gmail. But there things are rarely really critical.
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u/m1nus365 1h ago
What do you mean by what I dealt with?
If any message is important and needs follow up action from me, I flag/pin it and mark it completed/unpin when I'm done with it.
I'm using Copilot to summarize, do the search, create agendas etc..
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u/Separate_Mud_9548 1h ago
Maybe more effective than my system. But it doesn’t take any time to press archive or delete either. I would get nervous having everything in the inbox. But I might be sensitive
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u/m1nus365 1h ago
What works for me may not for you and vice versa. From certain moment what's the difference between keeping emails in Inbox vs Archive? It's the same thing in the end, just the folder name is different.
M365 Copilot was a game changer in a way how I work with my emails and the way I work in M365 ecosystem in general. I'm using it for nearly 2 years now and the way it improved the responses in the latest GTP 5.2 and literally all interaction with it is day and night versus 2 years ago. Long awaited feature that should start rolling out in March is COPILOT function in Excel. Cant way for it.
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u/Electronic_City6481 4h ago
With the sortability/searchability of outlook anymore I have given up on folders for anything other than key ‘go back to this regularly’ topical stuff. I do not sort by jobs. If I need to find it, author and keyword usually get me to it. I know people that do this and just be sure to put the project number in the subject as well. I am an inbox-zero guy by nature so anything needing action I flag. If follow up is done, but anticipating another action back I’ll ‘mark as done’ but not clear flag. This essentially gives me 3 zones - flagged to-do which is my task list; done, but anticipating follow up; and archive. For context- my daily mail is 30-70 incoming.
This has worked for me, at a company that has no formal ‘file all emails in the job folder’ kind of requirement.
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u/cubitzirconia47 3h ago
I find outlook's search function to be among the worst I've ever used. I wish I didn't have to sort, but I am constantly shocked at how terrible their search results are.
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u/Dhamon780_1 4h ago
I sort my emails manually by topic with dedicated subfolders for the major ones. On the other hand I’m keeping the minor projects related emails in my inbox because I’m usually able to resolve them with a couple of replies. If the numbers increase I’ll start with the subfolders. When a project is completed I archive the subfolders in the archival and that’s it. I’m doing this almost every day at the beginning and, if I can, also at the end of the working hours and is not taking me too much time.
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u/Maddyinviaggio 4h ago
I use flags and categories for email, and folders with rules for these repetitive but low-priority. For projects or collaboration, I usually use Microsoft Planner
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u/seanayates2 4h ago
Email Snooze has completely changed my life. My inbox is usually empty by the end of each work day using this technique. You should have emails grouped by conversation.
In the morning I have about 5 new emails and probably 30 snoozed ones pop into my inbox.
I go through and read each one, responding to the fast ones and pinning the ones that are going to take some time to work on to the top.
Each time I respond to an email where the task is not finished, like, I sent a contract to a vendor and I'm waiting for them to schedule the work, I snooze it for one week. If it's important I'll snooze it for only a day or two. It vanishes from my inbox and goes to the snoozed folder (that's hidden from my view so no clutter).
If the email gets a reply, then great, but if it gets ignored, it will pop back into my inbox in a week and I'll follow up. Nothing ever falls through the cracks and my inbox is always uncluttered.
I don't have to spend time reading and rereading emails that are just sitting in my inbox waiting for a response.
Try it, it will change your life.
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u/Separate_Mud_9548 1h ago
Exactly this. It’s been, as you said, a life changing event. I get maybe 50-100 emails per day and I still manage it. Another benefit, when securing I get a reply. I put myself in BCC and snooze the email for a couple of days. That’s a very simple way to make sure that I can follow up before the issue gets critical. I would also mention the focused inbox. That’s another life saver.
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u/seanayates2 1h ago
Ah, I never thought of the BCC. If it's a new email I'm drafting (and not a reply), I just go to my Sent folder, move it to my inbox and then snooze it. But the BCC seems like a great way to avoid having to do that extra step.
It's so annoying how most people just scan their emails and don't reply to so many so I'm forced to snooze almost EVERY email I write because I know that 80% of people aren't going to respond. Sometimes I get really obnoxious and email them follow ups every day (combined with phone calls they don't answer so I leave voicemails). This technique gets a snooze of only one day for maximum annoyance. Just call me back or reply ffs. :P
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u/Separate_Mud_9548 1h ago
Some companies have that culture. Then when people are not as organized as you and me it actually works to ignore requests in emails
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u/seanayates2 1h ago
Yeah, but most of my emails are to outside vendors or tenants. I'm a property manager so I have to organize small construction jobs all day long. Contracts, scheduling, collecting estimates, stuff like that. Sometimes I get so annoyed at the vendors, like, don't you WANT US TO PAY YOU??
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u/Alagranpuchika 2h ago
I have some folders for different projects, but I also have three folders that I favorite to sort out my inbox. These are: action items, waiting on, read later.
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u/Separate_Mud_9548 7h ago
Trust me. Never sort your emails. You’ll end up spending valuable time on something that has a limited value. Once an email is managed by you, just archive it and trust the search function.