A system you can keep up

Module 5: Organising and finding · Reading time: 8 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can choose and set up a simple way of working for your mailbox, so you can see what still needs doing and find mail again without sorting every day.

Key concepts: Inbox as a work tray, four choices, flagging, unread, archive, fixed moments, shared mailbox

Why a system

A full mailbox is rarely the problem. The problem is that you can no longer see what still needs doing. A question from a customer gets lost between newsletters, and an invoice you still have to pay is on page four. A system solves this with a few fixed agreements with yourself. It doesn't have to be complicated. Above all, it has to be so simple that you are still doing it three months from now.

There is no best method. People work differently, and a sole trader gets different mail from a club or association. This lesson gives you the building blocks and the choices. You pick what fits.

Inbox as a work tray

The core of almost every workable system: your Inbox is a work tray, not an archive. Whatever is in your Inbox still needs something from you. Whatever is done goes out. That way, one glance at your Inbox tells you straight away how much work is waiting.

To make this work, you make one of four decisions for every message:

1. Gone. You don't need it. Delete it, or report it as spam if it is spam. A newsletter you never read: unsubscribe, so it doesn't keep coming back.
2. Archive. It's done, but you want to keep it. One click on Archive (lesson 5.1) and it's out of sight, but you can find it again by searching (lesson 5.3).
3. Do. Something needs to happen that takes more than a few minutes. Leave it where it is and give it a flag (the Flagged flag), so it stands out. If it takes less than a few minutes, do it right away and archive it afterwards.
4. Waiting. You're waiting for a reply or a payment. You can flag it, or move it to your own Waiting folder that you go through once a week.

The most important thing is not to click on without making a decision. Every message you open and leave without a choice is one you will have to read again later.

Few folders and searching, or lots of folders

How many folders do you need? There are two schools of thought.

Lots of folders: a folder per customer, per project, per supplier. Advantage: you see everything from one customer together. Disadvantage: every message needs a decision about where it goes, and an email about two customers fits in neither folder. After a year you often have forty folders, of which you use five.

Few folders and searching: one archive, perhaps split by year, and searching for the rest. Advantage: archiving is one click, with no thinking. Disadvantage: you need to be good at searching. Lesson 5.3 shows that this works very well in webmail: by sender, recipient, content, in all folders at once.

A middle way works best for many people: a few folders for things that really need to be kept separate (for example Invoices for the bookkeeping), and one archive for everything else. Folders that a filter fills automatically (module 6) cost you no work, so you can have a few more of those.

Flagging, unread and filtering the list

A few tools in the webmail make the system easier:

• Flagged. With Mark > As flagged, a message gets a flag and turns red in the list. The flag is stored on the server, so your mail program and your phone see it too (there it is often called a star or a flag).
• Unread. With Mark > As unread you set a message back to unread. Handy as a reminder, but unreliable as a system: a phone that briefly opens a message marks it as read again.
• Type in the search options. Under Type, choose for example Flagged or Unanswered. The list then shows only those messages. Unanswered is useful in your Inbox: these are the messages you haven't replied to yet. Note: the webmail only knows whether you clicked Reply yourself. If you replied from your phone or called back, the message still counts as unanswered, unless your mail app also marks it as answered.

There is also a pitfall: automatically marking as read. If the webmail is set to mark a message as read as soon as it appears in the preview pane, unread loses its meaning. Under Settings > Preferences > Mailbox View you choose after how many seconds a message counts as read (lesson 2.1).

Fixed moments

If you respond to every new email all day long, you won't get much other work done. A system works better with fixed moments: for example in the morning, after lunch and at the end of the day. At each moment you work through your Inbox with the four choices. Once a week you go through the flagged messages and the Waiting folder. How often you check depends on your work. An online shop with customer questions checks more often than a club. The point is that you choose, instead of letting every notification choose for you.

A shared mailbox

If several people work in one mailbox, such as info@, you need agreements, otherwise two people reply, or nobody does. For example:

• Whoever picks up a message flags it straight away (everyone sees the flag, because it is stored on the server).
• After the reply, the message goes to the archive, so the Inbox shows what is still open.
• Replies go out from the same address and with the same signature (module 4).
• Each day, one person is responsible for getting the Inbox empty.

Also agree on what you don't do: nobody sets up a mail program with POP on this mailbox, because then mail disappears for the others (lesson 1.2).

In practice: how it works in the webmail

You'll find Mark in the toolbar above the message; Archive appears as a button once you have chosen an archive folder under Settings > Preferences > Special Folders. Type and the other filters are in the search options (the small arrow in the search field). The steps are in the Roundcube manual under Marking, moving and deleting and under Archiving messages. Other webmail works in a similar way: Gmail has an Archive button and stars, Outlook.com an Archive button and flags.

Summary

• Your Inbox is a work tray: whatever is in it still needs something from you.
• Make one decision for every message: gone, archive, do (flag) or waiting.
• Few folders plus good searching takes less work than lots of folders; folders that a filter fills cost nothing.
• Flags and the answered status are stored on the server, so colleagues in a shared mailbox can see them too.
• Work through your Inbox at fixed moments and make agreements if you share a mailbox.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise D5.2: Your organising plan. Open your own mailbox in the webmail. Count how many folders you have (Settings > Folders) and how many unread messages are in your Inbox. Then choose a system: few folders plus an archive, lots of folders, or a middle way. Set it up: choose an archive folder under Special Folders if you don't have one yet, clean up folders you haven't used for a year (move the mail to your archive first) and work through your Inbox once with the four choices. Then answer for yourself: how many folders did you have, and how many do you have now? How many messages are still in your Inbox, and do they all really still need something from you? At which fixed moments will you check your mail from now on? And if you share a mailbox: which two agreements will you make with your colleagues?

Further reading

Where steps in the webmail are described, they apply to the WebOké webmail; other webmail works in a similar way.

• Roundcube Webmail 3.3: Flag, move and delete messages
• Roundcube Webmail 6.2: Archiving messages
• Roundcube Webmail 2.2: The message list: sorting and threads
• Folders in your mailbox: Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Trash, Junk and Archive