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Hi all, need 11 hearts to dm. Please help
Any civil engineers here?
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Kewl flatbill in the office, intern.
Role call: shamelessly drinks airplane coffee
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I struggle with this also. I use one inbox, no folders because it would drive me nuts to categorize everything and I'd rather see all my emails in one place for searchability. I remember people who send me emails and search/sort by name when I need to find something. If I have multiple distinct projects running at the same time I'll set up categorization rules with different colors.
I do what C2 does. I found that even if I could build robust rules that categorized with 100% accuracy - which is not a given - it creates a separate thought process/work flow for each folder. I found that more distracting than just having one inbox. I leave anything requiring further action in Unread, then use unread and sort by date and sender if I need to find something.
Inbox only contains active action items. Deleted items from people go to an Archive folder with infinite retention. Deleted items from computers go to the Deleted Items folder. Accolades and reference emails go to the Saved Messages folder. Yes I’m an Inbox Zero practitioner and I couldn’t live any other way
Microsoft has some amazing outlook best practice tutorials - highly recommend
Inbox - pending action from me
Otherwise archived into folders by person for people I interact with frequently, and miscellaneous folders for categories such as HR, IT, T&E, etc.
The by person thing works for me because have decent memory that helps me recall exactly who sent a particular message
Create a folder for project, admin, and notifications.
Drill further down in the folder structure to fit your needs.
Create folders and rules that can automatically put certain crap into folders. For example, I have a Corporate Communications folder and all 20,000 stupid emails that I get a day go into that folder. I have one for industry news, HR/Benefits, Technology, Meetings and Meeting Responses, etc
Give up on folders and search only
One folder with a rule set for internal emails to go directly there. Check it twice a month. One for inbox, one to archive to from the inbox. I inbox zero every week.