Tips on managing high volume emails (Part 3)

Some further software applications I use to speed up my email handling workflow. As you might imagine, I've covered most (all?) of these applications as ScreenCastsOnline tutorials at some stage so I've included links to the tutorials and links to the vendors -

Note: None of the vendor links are affiliate links!

TextExpander - Vendor Link - Absolutely indispensable, not only in email but across the board on the Mac. Allows you to create small (or entire emails) in text snippets that you can call up by typing a few simple keystrokes or abbreviations. Handles plain and formatted text along with images. You can even use it to insert variables such as time, date or even access Applescripts. I use it a lot for common words I type a lot such as SCOn for ScreenCastsOnline, Cdon inserts an email sig with a graphic, boilerplate text, loads of things! Also great for automatic spelling correction or changing accented words automatically.

As can be seen below, TextExpander has saved me over 1,000,000 characters typing since installation, and that's on just one machine! ScreenCastsOnline tutorial - SCO0150 - TextExpander

Mail Tags - Vendor Link - Works either standalone or in conjunction with Mail-ActOn. Allows you to break away from the tyranny of complex hierarchical mailbox structures. Simply tag your emails with keywords or project tags and then retrieve of view using smart mailboxes. Really helps streamline the process of processing your inbox. There is so much more in this package! ScreenCastsOnline tutorial - SCO0174 - Organise Your Email - MailTags v2

OmniFocus - Vendor Link - I mentioned in part 2 of these email related blog posts that the secret to keeping on tp of your email is to process your inbox down to zero, not necessarily answering or actioning all your email. This is where OmniFocus helps me tremendously as I use OmniFocus to store all the emails that require action but not straight away. I move the non urgent emails from my inbox into OmniFocus, so I can then manage those emails, or more significantly, the actions the emails represent, in my trusted system. I can move the original email out of the inbox and know it's somewhere safe. Once in OmniFocus I can then plan or action knowing that I'm in control. The real beauty of using OmniFocus in conjunction with my email system is that I can copy the entire email directly into OmniFocus with a single keyboard combo shortcut. I can read the entire email in OF of I can retrieve the email from my mail system from within OmniFocus. Again, this is another app with hidden depths so checkout the tutorials - SCO0178 - OmniFocus Basics & SCO0180 - Adv. OmniFocus & iPhone Client

Of course, once the email is in OmniFocus, then you have the task of clearing your OmniFocus inbox but we'll perhaps look at that in a separate blog post!

MailSteward - Vendor Link - Although not strictly connected with managing your current inbox, MailSteward is a great way to handle your email archives and get your old emails out of your mail client and into a separate optimised SQL database for easy searching and retrieval - ScreenCastsOnline tutorial - SCO0189 - Archiving Mail with MailSteward

I hope you found this short series on handling email useful.

Feel free to leave any comments if you'd like to see more of this type of posting on the blog. Can you believe I'm up to day 13 of a new blog post every day for 30 days - nearly half way there!

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Tips on managing high volume emails (Part 2)

In the previous post I touched on some the technology behind how I manage my email. In this post I'll take a look at some of the software and my workflow.

What you have to realise, is that keeping on top of your email does not necessarily mean answering every email as it arrives, or even answering all your email within a couple of hours or even days.

Keeping on top of your email is to process it effectively so that you are in control and able to cope.

This is one of the main themes of the "Getting Things Done" methodology. I'm not a GTD expert and would suggest that you check out many of the resources available on the web. Just google "GTD" or checkout Merlin Manns 43 Folders site. Basically, the approach I take is to process my inbox using the following principles:

• Delete the email if I don't need to action or keep for reference
  
  
• Action the email if I can do it in less than a few minutes and file/delete it
  
  
• Defer the email for a later time if I need to think or its going to take me longer than a few minutes to respond, but remove it from the inbox to a trusted system
  
  
• Delegate the email if some else can handle it
  
  
• Archive the email for reference

The overall aim is to clear out your inbox so that only new emails are viewable. The inbox should not be your to do list or your filing system

So with that in mind, here are some of the tools that I use:

Apples Mail Client - This is the main email client that I use. Primarily due to its rules engine, smart mailboxes, support for IMAP and lots of third party tools available that integrate with Apple Mail.

Note that the Apple Mail application can be used with many different mail systems, not just MobileMe mail. You can use it with Google mail (both IMAP and POP), your ISPs email system, basically most third party email systems based on POP or IMAP.

Mail Act-On - Link - This is a fantastic tool to help you process your emails. It allows you to apply rules to emails based on keyboard shortcuts. It's so difficult to create completely automated rules for every eventuality.

Invariably, you will need to manually process emails but once you've had chance to review and/or action them, there is usually some common action you need to do to the email. It could be file it within your email folders, add tags (see later), colour the email, reply or forward the email even run an Applescript based on the email. Mail-Acton allows you to create specific rules with associated keystrokes.

It's amazing how much muscle memory you can develop within a short period of time.

So if I read an email and there is no action and I want to move it to my archive mailbox, I just hit CTRL and A and it's gone.

If I read a mail and it's related to a specific project, I just hit CTRL and P and the mail is moved to my Archive mailbox and the special tag I've setup is attached to the email so I can search for it later or even create a Smart Mailbox to view all the related emails in one place.

Mail Act-On is probably top of my list for speeding up my email processing. I have covered Mail Act-On in a previous ScreenCastsOnline show - SCO0176 - Organise Your Email - Mail Act-On v2

More applications in part 3!

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Tips on managing high volume emails (Part 1)

I get a lot of emails, a lot!

In order to keep my sanity (and to run my business efficiently), it's pretty essential to keep on top of of your email, especially when running a service related business. This has two benefits:

• Firstly, people are really amazed if they receive a response to an email in a timely fashion. I can usually respond to an email within a couple of hours, even a couple of minutes in some cases. This sets you apart immediately as someone who is efficient and on top of things - a real boon.
  
  
• Secondly, it gives you peace of mind and can de-stress you. It's only one element in a number of things, but knowing you've on top of your email and might have even reached the holy grail of "Inbox Zero", it certainly gives you a lift.

So this post is just a brief summary of some of the things I do to keep on top of my emails.

I'll split it into several parts so I don't spend all morning writing this blog post! In this first part, I'll look at some of the mechanisms that I use, in future posts, I'll cover some of the applications.

Single InBox - All my emails from legacy systems and Gmail are all forwarded to a single MobileMe mail account. This allows me to see all emails in a single place and I don't need to keep switching email accounts. It also allows me to see all my email from anywhere in a single mailbox on my iPhone.

iPhone Triage - I've heard a lot of people complaining about accessing emails on the iPhone. I've never had an issue and find it's a tremendous tool for triaging your email. You can quickly scan and read through new emails in your inbox. If an email doesn't need a response, it's really simple to move the email from the inbox into an Archive mailbox with a few simple clicks. Read it, file it, just get it out of the inbox. If it does need a response, I tend to leave it in the inbox, and respond when I get back to my desk or the laptop.

IMAP - Apples MobileMe is an IMAP mail system in that all the emails are stored on the server and are accessible via my iPhone, the web, my laptop or my desktop. If I read an email on one machine, those changes are replicated back to the server and if I move to another machine, the email shows as read on that machine.

Apple Mail Rules - Rules are a fantastic way to handle email automatically. I've a number of rules set up based on various parameters such as the senders email addresses, words contained in the subject, all sort of things. The rules are implemented to process email that doesn't need a direct response and move it out of the inbox. The rules can either move the emails to specific mailboxes or more recently I've been starting to tag emails. With having a MobileMe account, all my rules are replicated across all my desktop machines.

24 Hour Processing - Because I rely on automated rules (plus additional spam filtering) to keep my inbox fairly clean and only have emails that need to be read or actioned, it's useful to keep the rules running 24 hours a day. The issue is that the rules engine runs locally on the desktop machines, not centrally on the MobileMe server. To get around this I've taken a fairly "non green" approach by ensuring one of my desktop machines are running 24 hours a day. Consequently, if I'm out and about, and check my email via the iPhone, I see only emails that need to be seen in my inbox. Non urgent or informational emails are archived by the rules engine back at base. And because it's IMAP based, all email clients see the changes!

I'll do another post tomorrow on some of the other tools and techniques I use to keep on top of my email.

PS By the way, I'm no productivity expert so be gentle with me, after all, I'm no Merlin Mann :-)

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