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It’s Monday and I don’t know about you, but Mondays have a tendency to be VERY busy days!

Use Your E-Mail Software to the Fullest Extent

Your e-mail software can be your best friend!

I have message rules set up that automatically put certain messages in specific folders which further simplifies my task of sorting the wheat from the chaff. Almost every email software out there has some message rules capacity and I recommend learning how to set them up and utilize those rules to your best advantage!

Spam detection software is a must-have. If I haven’t logged into my work e-mail account over the weekend I usually have 100+ spam e-mails to get rid of. I truly wish my company would get better spam filtering software. We use Trend Micro which is just fine for antivirus, but their spamware leaves a LOT to be desired! At home I use Cloudmark Desktop and it’s really, REALLY good at detecting and removing spam.

Using the Calendar effectively can save you hours a day! Calendars that allow you to keep track of tasks along with meetings and appointments are the bomb! Once I’ve gotten all the trash out, then I have to look through what’s left to determine it’s importance.  Sometimes that’s based on who sent the email, but more often it’s based on content, so that means I have to actually READ the email. I’m pretty good at picking the ones I think will be most important by subject, so read those first. If I can fire off a quick answer, I will and that gets one out of the queue. Ones that require more research get flagged with a green flag and an estimated date/time for completion noted, ones that require a report be produced get a yellow flag also with date and time for completion noted and ones that are meeting requests get red flags (yes, because they always disrupt my days). Flagging messages usually gives you an option of setting a due date and time. Those get added to your calendar automatically. I look at my calendar to see if the meeting conflicts with anything else I have going on — I can see at a glance if I have something due that needs to be done before the meeting time or I can reschedule tasks to allow for the meeting and notify those who asked for the task that their results will be delayed (or sometimes given sooner) and why.

Which brings up the point that communication is the most overlooked but the most important tool of your work day. No one can read your mind and no one else has access to your calendar, so they don’t know what’s on your plate and without your telling them, won’t understand why their request cannot be honored immediately.  Keeping in communication with your boss and co-workers is paramount, but doesn’t have to be labor intensive. That’s where that calendar comes in handy again as you can set it to notify people of changes to your itinerary. It also helps you keep track of other important events such as birthdays, anniversaries and appointments.

Contact lists — another handy tool of the email software is your contact list. Here you can not only record names and email addresses, but physical address, mailing address, dates associated with the person, the company they work for, their phone, cell, and fax numbers. Taking the time to set those up properly saves you bundles of time later on when you have to correspond, phone or fax them a document.

All of these items come bundled with many e-mail software packages — even free ones and web based ones, so if you’re not familiar with these tools of your e-mail software, take the time to familiarize yourself with them as soon as possible.