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Folders and Filters Guidelines

Purpose: Use this job aid to review the guidelines for using folders and filters to organize your e-mail.

Guidelines for folders

Ensure all your folders serve a purpose

Each folder should have a definite purpose, which is neither too specific nor too general. You should create a balanced number of folders, according to your needs, because this makes it easier to organize your e-mail.

Create folders based on action items

Folders can be based on action items relating to your work cycle. If many of the e-mails you receive can be categorized according to the different stages of your work cycle, you create a folder for each stage.

Create folders based on subjects

Folders can be based on subjects, depending on the different kinds of e-mail you receive. For example, you can create a folder for each client or project you're working on, a folder for administrative-related e-mail, a folder for company events, and a folder for newsletters and subscriptions.

File sent items into folders relating to their purpose

If you need to keep a sent e-mail for future reference, you should file it in an organized manner – just as you file incoming e-mail. You can either move the sent item to the relevant folder in your folder system or you can create sub-folders within your Sent folder, and file sent items accordingly.

Guidelines for filters

Be precise about your filter terms

To avoid e-mail getting misrouted, mixed up with unrelated e-mails, or lost, you use precise terms for your filters. Filter terms should specifically and accurately describe the criteria you are trying to find in e-mails.

Use filter terms specific to your e-mail folders

Sometimes, it's not effective to set a filter based on the sender's e-mail address, because one sender may send you e-mail on many different subjects. To avoid all these e-mails going to a single folder, you create filter terms specific to your e-mail folders. For example, you can set a filter that routes all e-mail with the terms "Sick leave" or "Vacation" to your "Days off" folder.

Ask your senders to use specific words in their e-mail subject lines

To make subject line filters effective, you need to ask those who e-mail you to use your filter terms in their subject lines. By using these specific terms, you're better able to organize e-mails from the same people according to the subject of the e-mail. This technique is useful when you work with different projects or where you receive e-mails related to commonly-repeated tasks.