Stop Email from Killing Me - Part 3

Here’s tip 5:

I categorize and color code my email. I have five groups:

1 The Cabinet (the President, VPs, AVPs…)
2 DCs (other Department Chairs and Directors, as well as key people around the School)
3 Depart Staff (the Chair, Associates, Department Manager, and her assistant)
4 Students and everyone else
5 Emails from outside The School

I really can scroll down the page and see what’s most important this way by color.

Here’s how you can do it too:

First, to create a category, choose “Edit” from the top menu, then “Categories” in the drop down. In the Categories window, choose “Master Category List.” Create whatever categories you like in the master list.

Second, click “Tools” from the top menu, then “Organize” in the drop down. In the “Ways to organize…” box, choose “Using Colors” on the left, and then “Automatic Formatting” on the top right. This opens the Automatic Formatting box.

From here, click “Add” to create a new rule, and name it after the category you created. Next choose “Condition…” then the “More Choices” tab. Click “Categories” to choose the category you created, then OK. You return to the Automatic Formatting box.

Next choose “Font” and choose the font, weight, size, and color you want apply to your category. Click OK to return to the Automatic Formatting box, and OK again to finish.

Finally, click “Tools” from the top menu, then “Rules and Alerts…” from the drop down.

• Click “New Rule” and start from a blank rule. Leave “Check messages when they arrive” as the default and click next.
• When asked “Which condition(s) do you want to check?” select the first option “from people or distribution list” in the Step 1 box, and select these people in the Step 2 box.
• When asked “What do you want to do with the message?”, select “assign it to the category category” in the Step 1 box, and select your new category in the Step 2 box. Click “Next” twice.
• When you reach the “Finish rule setup.” box, you can choose to run the rule now. This rule will color code all new email, but checking to run the rule now color codes all existing email.

Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler - Einstein