Email seems to be consistently overwhelming. One of the strategies we talk about in our 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity workshop for alleviating the volume of email is to win without fighting. The idea is that the wisest warriors can win the fight without fighting. They use their minds and the tools at hand to accomplish their goals without having to resort to fighting. Those email messages come in looking for a fight, but we can help ourselves by using Rules within Microsoft Outlook. First, when you see that email from a vendor or someone whose messages you always delete anyway, why not win without fighting? Right-click on the email and go to Rules and then click on Move Messages From …, then select “deleted items.” This creates a rule that will send any message from that person in the future straight to the deleted folder without you having to do anything. No fighting necessary. Repeat for any other messages/senders you never read.
The second idea is similar, except instead of automatically deleting the email, you will just direct it to a specific folder. Maybe you have a weekly newsletter that you want to keep but fall behind on reading. Create a folder for those newsletters, maybe something like “Read Later.” Right-click on the emails with the newsletter, click on Rules, click Move Messages From …, and then click on “Create Rule”. Select or search for your new folder and from now on, all those emails will go straight to that folder without you having to do anything. No fighting necessary.
These are just two examples of how you can use Rules in Outlook to lighten the load in your inbox. There are lots of creative ways to use Rules with your email. Most other email programs will have a similar function, so no need to feel left out if you don’t use Outlook. Creating rules is a great example of taking a little time up front to save lots of clicks later. What other ways have you found to win your email, without fighting?