Email Organizer - Virtual Assistant Forums

Maria · #1 (**permalink**) 03-05-2008

I find it so hard to stay organized sometimes with all the email I get. Sometimes my inbox has 50 emails in it that I can't manage to sort or that i don't want to get rid of because I might need them later. I found this tool which I'm hoping will help me stay organized.
http://www.caelo.com/index.php

Does anyone have any tips on how to keep my inbox organized? My inbox thanks you in advance.

Office Goddess · #2 (**permalink**) 03-05-2008

What email program do you use? I have filters that send emails from specific addresses (like this forum

) to their own folder when the mail is received.

Maria · #3 (**permalink**) 03-05-2008

Hi Lily

I use my Outlook for work emails. I also have a hotmail account that I use for all the other stuff.

Tess · #4 (**permalink**) 03-05-2008

I have Windows Mail and use filters as well to sort emails to specific folders - it's really the only way to go. I get so many client emails that I'm certain they'd get lost if I didn't have them set to sort automatically. I have Yahoo account that I use when I want to sign up for 'junky' stuff and I use mail2web.com when I'm away from my laptop but need access to email on the server.

I've not yet heard of this NEO program but it's cool that they have a free version.
Have you installed it yet? Let us know how it works for you!

AtlanticVA · #5 (**permalink**) 03-05-2008

I use Outlook for both home and my business. I have use a filter to put everything into proper mailboxes so that nothing gets lost. Working so far!

jeannedb · #6 (**permalink**) 03-05-2008

I use Thunderbird and have two gmail accounts and my domain based account running through it. Each account stays separate but viewable at the same time. I also run lots of filters.

I also like how Thunderbird will thread my emails so I can see how an email conversation runs (this is especially useful for email groups too).

Virtual Office Management · #7 (**permalink**) 01-24-2009

set up different client folders in personal files. Thats what I do. I also made a file folder for to do's here.

Rebecka Melson · #8 (**permalink**) 01-24-2009

Well, it just recently dawned on me that if I could print other documents to PDF then I could do that same with my emails. So, I setup a sub-folder for each client and now I print all the emails to PDF and store them in the sub-folders rather than in an email folder.

I previously had an email inbox folder for each client, but now I've got too many clients and it still was cluttering up my email.

Gems Virtual Office · #9 (**permalink**) 01-24-2009

I also use outlook and filters to set up email folders. Like your idea too Rebecka, I might try that when I have enough clients to clutter up my inbox

Glad to hear your business is going so well!! And with tax season upon us I would think you'll end up even busier.

JoCarole · #10 (**permalink**) 01-24-2009

I have Windows Mail (in Vista) and it gives you as many folders as you want and they come in different colors. So that is one way I organize my e-mail. Others ways are setting up different e-mail accounts (like gmail,hotmail,yahoo) and using each account for whatever you want. Whether its for clients, certain types of emails designated to each account, etc.....I also use gmail both on my desktop and laptop so I can access what I need when I am using my laptop remotely.

Jo-Carole

KAElliott · #11 (**permalink**) 01-24-2009

Lifehacker has an extensive amount of info on advanced Gmail organization.

At this point, I can't even to begin to picture my life without Gmail.

Rebecka Melson · #12 (**permalink**) 01-25-2009

Originally Posted by Jocarole

I have Windows Mail (in Vista) and it gives you as many folders as you want and they come in different colors. So that is one way I organize my e-mail. Others ways are setting up different e-mail accounts (like gmail,hotmail,yahoo) and using each account for whatever you want. Whether its for clients, certain types of emails designated to each account, etc.....I also use gmail both on my desktop and laptop so I can access what I need when I am using my laptop remotely.

Jo-Carole

I have multiple email addresses too. This does help in keeping stuff sorted out. I have my main business email for my clients, I have one main personal email, one for the tax division because I get a lot of email updates related to tax issues, one for the travel division and one general email for subscribing to newsletters and other online stuff.

It can get rather cumbersome, but I have all of the email set up in Windows Live Mail so I can check them all simultaneously.

Ivy Freelance · #13 (**permalink**) 01-25-2009

Thought I'd share a couple of email tips that I learned by accident. The best things I've learned have happened by accident!

As Rebecka mentioned, you can print emails to PDF and save them to your computer. In some email platforms (ex: Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) you can also just save the email directly to disk. When you have an email open, you can do a File-SaveAs, pick a format, and pick a folder on your disk. In some, you can just right-click on an email in the list and choose "save as" from there. When you want to look at it, double-click on the email file and it will open up in whatever format you saved it as.

In Outlook, it's even better - you can just drag emails from the Outlook list to a folder (in My Computer or whatever). AND you can do multiple emails at once - just use Ctrl or Shift to highlight as normal.

The only thing here is that, when it saves the email file, it gives it the date you saved it - not the date the email was sent/received. Those dates are still saved within the email, it's just the file date that is the save date. I usually add the date (yymmdd) to the beginning of the filename so they sort properly.

Another trick in Outlook is that you can change the "subject" of emails (for when someone sends an email with an irrelevant subject header or none at all). I use this ALL the time - I'll add something to it in brackets to make it make sense to me. And then I can do searches on subject headers for what I need to find. I don't know of any other email software that allows you to do that, but would love to know if anyone finds one.

So I use Outlook mostly. Not because I particularly like it any better - just because I can drag those emails and I can change the subject. It's a big help when you are working with a lot of emails.

Deb

JoCarole · #14 (**permalink**) 01-25-2009

Originally Posted by Rebecka Melson

I have multiple email addresses too. This does help in keeping stuff sorted out. I have my main business email for my clients, I have one main personal email, one for the tax division because I get a lot of email updates related to tax issues, one for the travel division and one general email for subscribing to newsletters and other online stuff.

It can get rather cumbersome, but I have all of the email set up in Windows Live Mail so I can check them all simultaneously.

For me, since I am one of those persons who is afraid of deleting anything,it does help. I also will store emails that I don't have time to read and have to go through them at another time. I try to do this on the weekends. But it least they are in the right place.

frsvirtual · #15 (**permalink**) 01-25-2009

Originally Posted by Rebecka Melson

Well, it just recently dawned on me that if I could print other documents to PDF then I could do that same with my emails. So, I setup a sub-folder for each client and now I print all the emails to PDF and store them in the sub-folders rather than in an email folder.

I previously had an email inbox folder for each client, but now I've got too many clients and it still was cluttering up my email.

I use filters/folders in Thunderbird for each client. However, I think I like the idea of PDF'ing old, but still impt. emails & storing them in my project *file* folders instead of leaving them to clutter up my email client... great idea!