How to organize and manage your e-mails

Life seems to passing me by. The weeks go by extremely quickly. I’m still shocked that it’s April let alone almost the end of April already. At work everyday is a different day which I enjoy. At the beginning of the day, I look at my Weekly Activity Report which outlines my long-term and short-term goals. I write down my daily goals that I want to achieve along with the meetings that I have and the little things that come up. It seems that it’s the little things that come up and take a portion of my time. E-mail is a big part of that. Part of me thinks that it’s manageable and a useful tool but another part of me things that sometimes it can hinder my goals for the day when more urgent things take place which you find out via e-mail. When I really need to concentrate, I close Microsoft Inbox and focus at the task at hand. Sometimes I wonder how business was conducted before the invention of e-mail. Below is a list of things that I do to manage my e-mails. If you have any other tips or comments, please leave them. I’m always looking for a way to become more efficient.

• Review your daily goals and meetings before opening up your e-mail because sometimes it’s like Pandora’s Box
• Separate out e-mails either by person or project depending on your type of work
• Download or file things immediately from your inbox into your harddrive otherwise you’ll be digging through your e-mails later
• Be descriptive in e-mails so you know what to search for later on
• Try to keep e-mails brief
• Only copy people on e-mails that need to be copied on it
• If you can call someone instead, do it because it’s more efficient and it adds a personal touch
• Turn off your e-mail when you need to focus on a task
• Star items that require follow-up
• Set time aside every week to follow up with people and follow-up with the starred e-mails

I read a great Globe and Mail segment about e-mails where a personal organizers answers various questions:
How to organize and manage your e-mail

Happy Anniversary Blog!

It’s been a year since I started this blog! Happy anniversary blog!

My life is very different from what it was last year and part of it is the new job. I’m happy with the direction I chose and the people in my life. It’s all about positive energy and positive people in my life. It makes a world a difference.

One year = 72 posts. I’m hoping to keep this blog but I may be changing the tune in the future. Perhaps less about job search/Gen Y and more about thoughts about marketing. We shall see. The goal is to continue with a post a week.

Tools That Make My Life Easier

It’s been three weeks since my last post. Eeks! Life has been very busy and I still think about the blog. It’s about balancing everything together.

This post will be slightly nerdy but it’s about the tools that I use at work that make my life so much easier.

Yousendit.com

• It’s a great website to send large files to other people. You can sign up for free and send files for free. Of course there’s a paid membership but as long as your files aren’t too large and you don’t require a read receipt, it’s an awesome free tool.

Scanning files

• This is not a new tool but I love it so much. I use it when I need to send files such as signed documents, purchase orders, or revamped designs.

Sharpies

• Very useful when designs have to be changed.

Anyway, thought I would share the tools that make my life easier. It’s the simple things that make it so much better.

The other day my horoscope read:

“Make sure that what you have to do gets done properly. Don’t cut corners or your reputation will suffer in the long-term.”

I thought it was pretty good and very relevant to work.