How do I organise my emails?
Once you start using email, you will soon find messages clogging up your Inbox. Once you’ve read them, you might want to organise your email by storing messages, deleting them, archiving them and moving them elsewhere.
It can be useful to think of your email in the same way as paper correspondence. You probably already have a system for organising that or you would pretty soon be overwhelmed!
Storing messages
You may have box files or folders for different categories of mail such as personal correspondence, bills and so on. Some you bin immediately, others after a time. Perhaps, sometimes, you move a letter from one folder to another.
As with so-called ‘snail mail’, the same applies to email. All decent email programs provide an option to create folders for storing mail. If you use basic software that lacks this facility, it could be time to consider upgrading.
It’s worthwhile creating folders to store emails, unless you want to delete them. You could create folders based on the category, for a particular person, or for a particular occasion. It is entirely up to you. If you decide you don’t need a folder any more you can easily delete it – just remember that its contents will be deleted too.
In most email programs, you can create a folder by right-clicking on the top level of your mailbox, clicking ‘New’ and naming the folder. In most programs, you can also click on the ‘File’ menu and then click ‘Folder’ and ‘New’ . There could also be a small button with a picture of a folder on it.
You can also create sub-folders within folders in the same way.
Moving messages
To move messages from one folder to another – for example, from your Inbox to a folder you have created - you can usually ‘drag and drop’, or highlight the message and use the menus.
Organising how you view your mail
You can view the contents of your folders by date, sender or subject. You can also sort them in ascending or descending order. Personally, I prefer to view by date, with the most recent messages at the top. But if I am looking for messages from a particular person, in quite a full folder, I sort by sender to make the job easier.
Archiving
Over time, your folders will grow both in number and size and archiving will help you manage them. Some do this automatically, but with others you will have to archive manually – create your own folders and move messages into it. You could also create a file outside the email program altogether, or store messages on a CD-ROM or memory stick.
Saving
Folders tend to become unstable if they grow too large and it is a good idea to save attachments elsewhere, on a disk. You simply need to open the attachment and save it where you like - then delete the message from the folder to save space.
Deleting
Periodically, it is a good idea to delete unwanted emails to save space. There is also a risk with some email programs and webmail that your allocated space will become full and leave no room for new messages. You can delete emails by dragging them into the ‘deleted items’ folder or clicking on the delete button. You can delete an entire folder and its contents in the same way.
Andrew Stucken
Andrew cut his journalistic teeth with the local press, and has since moved on to writing for major national websites specialising in technology and money-saving. He has also written for The Times and other national newspapers.
