In the last tip, we showed you how to configure Outlook to make it easy for you to drag and drop emails out of your Inbox to dedicated client or project folders.
Your inbox should not be your filing cabinet or storage folder… it should be more like your To-do list or Actions folder.
Your Inbox should only have e-mails that you need to take action on!!!
Once you have your folder structure in place, you are ready to shift e-mails out of your Inbox.
If you have left your e-mails in the Inbox until now, it may take you some time to move all the e-mails out to the appropriate folders. You can do it now or do it later but DO IT.
In the meantime make sure that at least the new e-mails that you receive are filed properly.
Ideally, you should move your e-mails out of your Inbox IMMEDIATELY after reading them… unless it’s urgent and you will be taking action (reply, forward or delete) on them in the next few minutes.
Drag and drop the e-mails from the Inbox to the appropriate folder.
To drag and drop the ORIGINAL email:
- Left-click on the mouse and hold the button on the e-mail that you want to shift.
- Drag it to the appropriate folder on the folder List.
To drag and drop a COPY of the email:
- Right-click (instead of Left-click) and then drag and drop. When you drop the email (release the right mouse button) you will get presented with the option to Copy or Move. Click on Copy.
If you think Drag and Drop is tedious and you always need to remember which folder a particular email needs to go to or even where the project folder is located in the first place?
I would recommend you give our QuickFile for Outlook addin a try.
QuickFile automatically learns and recommends to you the correct folder to which you are likely to file an email from a client or related to a project… just a click of a button and the email is filed to the correct folder.
You don’t need to take my word on this… try QuickFile yourself by downloading the fully functional 30 day trial version from our website.
Time to join the conversation – what do you think?
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. Feel free to share your own experience and the filing system that you use to keep your inbox clean and organized with our readers.
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Here are links to the earlier tips we have discussed so far in case you missed out:
Tip #1 of 8: Turn Off Auto-Archiving in Outlook
You should archive e-mails as projects are completed. Don’t disorganize yourself by archiving based on dates.
Tip #2 of 8: Think carefully before using Outlook Rules
Rules can cause you to miss taking action on certain e-mails and also filing them into incorrect folders.
Tip #3 of 8: Find out where your Outlook data file is and backup regularly
How can you be sure that your Outlook data is being backed up if you don’t know where it is?
Tip #4 of 8: Split your Outlook data into more than one file
This technique will stop your e-mail file from getting bloated, slow and eventually corrupting itself and dying.
Tip #5 of 8: File your e-mails using the same folder structure as you do for your paper files
Filing e-mails into folders makes it much quicker and easier to file, find and archive e-mails later.
Tip# 6 of 8: Setup Outlook so that it is easy to drag and drop e-mails to the correct folders
