6 Easy Ways to Organize Your Email

Everyone communicates by email today. It's quick and paperless. But because emails are so easy to send, they get sent out more frequently than snail mail. It's up to you to declutter your email box and make the most of this great technological tool. Here's what I do to keep my email box effortlessly organized.

1. Declutter your Inbox

To keep your inbox uncluttered, empty it daily. Create a folder under the inbox called "Pending" and file away items you can't attend to immediately (place your mouse cursor over the "inbox", right click and select "new folder", then name it "Pending"). Otherwise, delete or respond to emails in a timely manner, and file away items you wish to keep under your personal folders (see next point).

2. Create an Alphabetized Filing System

Under your "personal folders" create alphabetical folders labeled A through Z. Then, under each letter folder create subfolders for decluttering your email box. For example, under "F" create a folder for "Family", under "P" create a folder called "Pets". In short, establish an alphabetical repository for all the emails you wish to save for future reference. You can always add as many subfolders as you like, so there's no need to try and figure them all out at once.

3. Unsubscribe from Unwanted Emails

Help to keep your inbox clutter-free by reducing the amount of unwanted mails you get. Instead of instantly deleting an uninteresting mail in your inbox, scroll to the bottom of the mail and look for the "unsubscribe" link (required by law), click it and unsubscribe completely or reset your mailing-list preferences to fewer mails (once a week is best).

4. Bring Order to Your Junk Mail Box

To declutter your junk mail box, avoid deleting the mails without first glancing over them. Important mails will end up in your junk mail from time to time unless you mark them as "safe." To do so, right click the mail, select the "junk" option, then mark the sender as "safe." You can do the opposite with unwanted mails that end up in your inbox. Right click the mail and this time mark the sender as "junk". From then on those mails will go directly to your junk mail box.

5. Make the Most of Your Sent Box

Never remove mails from your sent box, as it should act as your database for sent mails. Instead, add your email address to the CC line of any mail you wish to receive a copy of. To declutter your sent box every month, create a sent box archive under your "personal folders" and every month copy all the sent mails into a folder named for the month followed by the year (for example: August_2011).

6. Declutter Your Deleted Box

Declutter your deleted email box folder by permanently deleting your deleted mails every few days. There's no need to delete the mails one by one. Instead, press CTRL "A" on your keyboard to highlight all the mails, then hit the key "delete".

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