Dear Brother: This is how I tamed my email

So I'm at dinner with my brother and dad last night, and my brother mentions the email problems at work. I let him know in my old job I had about 750-1000 messages permanently in my inbox. I changed my thinking when I came to Microsoft. As of right now, I have 52 emails in my inbox, including one from my brother asking me for some of those reminders. Well, he should know that I want to help more than him, so instead of an email, bro, you can read a blog post. 

1. Use the delete key.

2. Use the Auto Archive function in Outlook. Right click the folder and click Properties. Set up how often you want to “clear” the folder, a day, a month, six weeks, or never. So if I have deleted an inbox email (see #1), I can still find it in my deleted box for 21 days (my default). You can “archive” these emails and save disk space. I did that at my previous job, but never dug into those folders. Now I simply select “permanently delete.”

3. Set up a few folders to automatically send system emails to: status reports, system issues. Set up a few folders for key projects, key emails from your managers, personal emails, FYI's. But limit yourself. Say, no more than 12.

4. If you have Office 2003 or 2007, you can prevent folks from using the forwarding or reply all buttons. Just click on the link for the version you have to read how.

5. Turn off all email notifications, they interrupt your work too much. (see my earlier blog post to read how).

If your team likes to read about things like this, hey, I happen to work at a site that has such things! Send them to Office Online’s Outlook help page with links to top issues, trainings, demos, and more. –your loving brother, Doug.