A Few Tips on Effective Email Management
By CXOtoday Staff
Mumbai, Apr 8, 2008

Emails have made communications easier, connecting people irrespective of geographic distances. The value of emails is perhaps most felt in the corporate scenario, where quick communication, with clients or remote workers, or within the organization, is of paramount importance. There are various desktop email clients preferred by professional users.

Some commonly used ones are, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, IBM Lotus Notes, etc. Each of them comes with a number of features to make life simple. Most also contain extra features like, calendars, to-do lists, planners, address books, chat abilities, etc. However, their basic function remains handling the daily flow of mails to and fro from the computer.

Let's take a look at simple ways for better emailing:

* Get acquainted with your email client

Desktop email clients, nowadays, offer a staggering amount of functionality. With the variety of options available for the user, it does take time to get accustomed to them. As with any new gizmo, you will need to spend some time on it to get familiarized with the various options, and figure out what you can and can't do. Of course as time goes by, with daily usage, you are sure to figure out most of the available options by yourself, but this could take time. It's better to have fair idea of what your client offers you right from the outset.

* Check your inbox regularly

Check your inbox a set number of times everyday. If you are not able to do this, then authorize someone to do it for you. This way you will avoid getting bombarded with a cluster of mails every time you open your inbox!

* Cultivate a habit of deleting unwanted mails

No matter what precautions you take, spam is certain to get through to your inbox. Even if you are lucky enough not to face the problem of spam mails, it's always better to keep deleting unwanted mails regularly. This will prevent the inbox from filling up with mails. You can either do this daily at the end of the day, or on alternate days, depending on the number of mails you receive daily.

* Organize your mails and contacts

A useful feature found in most desktop email clients is the ability to create subfolders and folders for storing mails, and creating contact groups for people in the address box. By creating folders, you can keep similar mails in the same place, ensuring they are found quickly as the need arises.

Creating contact groups is especially useful, if you want to send bulk mails to a number of people. If you have already created a group with the people you want to send the mail to, it makes sending mails to multiple contacts easier.

For example, it makes sense to group your office colleagues according to their teams. If you now want to send a mail to multiple recipients in the finance division of your company, then all you have to do is - to select the finance group from the address book, and the mail will be sent to the selected contacts within the group.

* Make use of the various options available

There are a number of options available that can be used to create a better impression while sending mails. Some of the more frequently used ones are:

1. Carbon Copy (CC) and Blank Carbon Copy (BCC): The carbon copy feature allows you to send a copy of the mail to multiple recipients. Blank carbon copy is the same as the CC feature, the only difference being, it does not disclose to a recipient, the names of the other people to whom a copy has been sent.

2. Signatures: This is an easy way to give a personal touch to your mails. You can either use this feature to add your personal and contact details to the mail, or even a tagline. It's easy since you just have to create a signature once, which will then be added to all forwards and created mails (if you select this option). The option for digital signatures is found in the tools menu in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.

The exact steps are: tools--> options--> mail format--> signature (For MS Outlook)
and tools--> options--> signature (For MS Outlook Express)

3. Some other helpful tips: In case you want certain messages to go directly to a selected folder or subfolder, you can set a rule by which all incoming mails following that rule will go the selected folder. This can either be on the basis of subject-line, or on the basis of the sender. The option, called 'message rules' in MS Outlook Express, is usually found in the 'Tools' section.

While sending mails, you can set their priority (selecting between high, moderate, and low). This will appear to the recipient. Alternatively, you can either ask for delivery receipts (when the mail is delivered to the recipient), or read receipts (when the recipient opens the mail).

Most of the clients also allow a high degree of customization in the general view of the inbox and other folders. You can go to the 'View' section to arrange mails according to priority, received date, subject, etc. The customization options are far too many to be listed. Some clients also allow you to play music alerts for received mails, sent mails, etc.


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