Do you know that there is a simple e-mail filing technique (that you have probably been using for years) that will virtually guarantee that all your work e-mails are super easy to find and archive in the future?
With almost 80% of business correspondence now taking place by e-mail, you NEED a good system for filing your e-mails.
Do you, like many other Outlook users, print and file paper copies of important e-mails because you don’t trust your electronic filing system?
There lies the secret to your e-mail filing system. You already TRUST your physical paper filing system so …
Duplicate your Paper Filing System INSIDE Outlook.
File Emails Using Same Folder Structure as Paper Emails
How should you file your e−mails?
The same way you file paper documents − create a separate folder inside Outlook for each project and then file all e−mails for the project into the folder.
That’s it, that’s the big secret… create folders inside Microsoft Outlook following the same folder structure that you have for your paper folders (most probably by client or project).
Not sure how to create folders in Outlook? Check out this article: How to Create Folders in Outlook.
Once you have your Outlook folders setup, file all e-mails (incoming and outgoing) that you need to keep for future reference into the correct Outlook folders.
Folder Structure you can create
We recommend the following folder structure:
- Active Projects
- Completed Projects
You can have other top-level folders for other important areas of your life called Personal etc.
Under the Active Projects folder create separate folders for each active project that you are working on. Whenever you receive or send an e−mail that you want to keep, move it to its appropriate project folder.
Name the folders anyway you like. The three common ways are:
- Have a separate folder for each client
- Have a separate folder for each project
- Have a separate folder for each client and then have folders under it for each project for that particular client.
We use project-based filing (and not client-based filing at our office). However, we name our folders in a way that makes it very easy to know both the project and client. Our folder naming convention is:
<Client>−<Project>
Using the above naming convention, your folders will look something like this:
Note that the user is working on two projects for Andrew Smith.
This structure works well because:
When you open the Projects folder, you get to see a list of all current projects in one place.
Multiple Projects for a client are shown right next to each other because of the way the folders are named.
It is easy to archive old projects − When a project is completed simply drag its folder from the Projects folder to the Projects Completed folder. You don’t need to then find the client folder first.
Benefits of Filing your Emails in Folders
BENEFIT 1: You don’t have to learn anything new to use this filing system (chances are your office has been filing your paper files using this system for years).
BENEFIT 2: You can quickly see all e-mails for a client or project in ONE PLACE. You can use Outlook’s built in sorting to see the time-line of e-mails etc.
BENEFIT 3: It is super-easy to export or archive projects. By filing in this way, you can use Outlook’s built-in tools to easily export e-mails out into a separate file if you need to. You can now file an electronic copy of all e-mails with your Word and Excel documents once a project is completed.
Remove all effort required to file e-mails to the correct folders
Most E−Mail Filing Systems FAIL because of the extra time and effort needed to move e−mails to the correct folders − particularly from the Sent Items folder.
The filing method outlined in this blogpost is based on creating and using separate folders for each of your e−mails. The standard method to move e−mails into these folders is by dragging and dropping.
Unfortunately, this takes a lot of effort, and many users find themselves slipping back to their old ways. The Sent Items folder is particularly easy to ignore as it isn’t as “in your face” as the Inbox.
We created QuickFile for Outlook to solve this very problem.
QuickFile for Outlook is an inexpensive Outlook add−in that works inside Outlook by adding a few buttons to your Outlook.
It doesn’t change Outlook in any other way.
It won’t force you to change the way you have always used Outlook. It works on both incoming and out−going e−mails.
QuickFile is a fantastic time−saver for anyone who wants to use a client or project-based filing system in Outlook.
Learn more about QuickFile and download a fully-functional trial.
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