The biggest complaint one hears about productivity in small business is the overwhelming amount of email that comes in during the day. Short of asking people to stop, there’s little you can do to stem the incoming tide. However, there are ways to configure your email client to help deal with email effectively.
Here are seven tips to do just that. These examples may have menu paths that are different than the version of Outlook that you’re using but the concepts are the same across all versions of Outlook.
- Set A Reminder
- Create Distribution List
- Use Bcc To Hide Recipients
- Create Blind Distribution List
- Automatically Route To Folders
- Color Code Inbound Email
- Add Your Signature
Set A Reminder To Read, Reply or Followup
An effective strategy for dealing with large amounts of email is to scan your inbox just a couple of times a day and take action only on what needs to be done right away. However, email that doesn’t need immediate attention sometimes gets lost without a good plan for follow through.
So here’s a tip for setting a reminder for email that you’re not ready for. Right click on the email that you want to take action on at a future time, and click on Follow Up | Add Reminder and select your desired date and time.
At the appointed time your reminder will pop up. Click on Open Item to read, reply or take the appropriate action for that message.
While you’re setting up your reminder, pick a reminder flag color to whatever has meaning to you. I like to set mine to purple – because that’s how I roll.
Create A Distribution List
A distribution list is just the ticket when you have multiple people to send to regularly. Instead of typing all their names each time, create a distribution list and enter just one name.
Click File | New | Distribution List and give your distribution list a meaningful name. A name like Fred probably won’t work since you probably know a Fred. Try something like Denver Mortgage Brokers or similar based on your target.
Add your email recipients with either Select Members or Add New.
When you’re ready to send to your distribution list, it’s just like sending to any other email address. Just enter the list name and voila, email sent to all the recipients.
Don’t Give Away Email Addresses
Sometimes you don’t want everyone to see the recipients you’ve addressed. To send a message to one or more recipients without showing their email addresses, use the Bcc line in the message.
Bcc stands for blind carbon copy and has been dubiously used to copy in executives for years. By adding an email address to the Bcc line a copy of the message is sent but the name is not visible to other recipients. Great for not giving your sources away.
Try it today. Send an email to your associate thanking them for a job well done and Bcc their boss. Nothing dubious there.
Create A Blind Distribution List
This is a power combo tip (I love when people say power combo).
Use tip number 2 and tip number 3 together to reach many people at once without them knowing who else received the email.
Great for those you send email to all the time, for example banks and real estate agents. You don’t want them to know they’re not getting an exclusive right?
Route Mail To Folders
Do you get a lot of mail from certain individuals or companies? Want a way to find their email easily without having to look through all the mail in your inbox?
Set up a rule to move all email from a person or distribution list into a folder of your choosing.
Here’s how. Under Tools | Rules And Alerts select the E-mail Rules tab and click on New Rule. Choose ‘Move messages from someone to a folder’ and click on Next.
Make sure ‘from people or distribution list’ is checked then click on the links in the Step 2 box to select the people or distribution list. Lastly, choose the folder that will receive the email from those recipients.
Now all your email from those individuals will be delivered to a folder.
Color Code Inbound Email
If you prefer to keep all your email in your Inbox instead of using rules and folders but would like some organization, you can color code messages based on who sent them.
Click on Tools | Organize then select Using Colors. On the Color messages section, choose your color and who to apply it to.
Try Fuchsia for anything that comes from REAFFINITY. Cause that’s how you roll.
Now anytime an email comes in from the person you’ve selected, all email will be that color making it easy to pick out.
I know, names are easy enough to pick out, but still…
Add A Signature To Your Outbound Email
Do you find yourself typing the same information at the bottom of every email you send out? Do you find yourself typing the same information at the bottom of every email you send out? Do you find yourself typing …
Many people put no more than their name and phone number at the bottom since it’s too much trouble to type anything more.
Why not create signatures that contain all your contact information? It’s easy to do and you can create different signatures useful for different recepients.
To create your signatures select Tools | Options from the menu bar then click on the Mail Format tab and you’ll see Signatures at the bottom. Click on the ‘Signatures…’ button and then click on New.
Create as many signatures as you need, each with their own format and information.
Using your new signatures is now as easy as creating your email as before, then clicking on Insert from the toolbar to insert your signature. If you’ve created multiple signatures, then simply choose the one most appropriate.
Outlook has many cool little features like these to help you organize your email. The one feature that’s missing is an add-on that will perform any requested actions, like running to the store to pick up the milk. I hear that’s a feature coming in Outlook 2050.
