Getting Control of Your Email Inbox
by Communications Staff
December 13, 2005 -- In today’s practice environment, email is an indispensable tool for many psychologists for connecting with colleagues and sharing professional information and resources. However, managing email can also be a burden, consuming practitioners’ time and taking them away from other important business and professional activities. This article offers some simple tips for getting control of your email inbox and processing your email more efficiently.
Tip 1: Schedule Dedicated “Email Time”
Some practitioners find that setting aside a chunk of time every day to read and respond to email is a more efficient way to tackle their email inbox than reading and responding to messages throughout the day. Handling email in one or two sittings each day can free up time during the rest of the day to focus on and accomplish other tasks.
Depending on your schedule and how much email you receive, you may decide to reserve an hour at the beginning of the day—or half-an-hour in the middle of the day and half-an-hour at the end of the day—for processing emails.
During this dedicated “email time,” try to address every piece of mail in your inbox. Decide whether you should delete, respond to or file each message.
Try not to leave messages languishing in your inbox. If you decide to keep a message for future reference, store it in a folder in your inbox (see “using folders to screen and sort mail,” below) or print and file a paper copy of the message. If a message requires a response but you aren’t ready to respond right away, “flag” the message with a deadline in your inbox so you can return to it in a reasonably short period of time.
Even if you address your email in batches, you may still want to monitor your inbox throughout the day if you are expecting an urgent message that will require immediate attention.
Tip 2: Fight Spam
Spam, or unwanted junk email, can clutter your inbox and exacerbate the challenge of sorting through your email. Use anti-spam software, which comes with some email programs or may be purchased separately, to help block junk messages and make your inbox a more secure and manageable environment. Depending on how your anti-spam program works, you may want to regularly check the e-mail that has been marked as spam to ensure that important messages are not mistakenly filtered out of your inbox.
Tip 3: Use Folders to Screen and Sort Mail
Most email programs allow users to set up folders to organize and process email. For example, you can create a folder to store email messages that focus on a particular topic. When you receive a message related to that topic that you’d like to keep, drag the message out of your inbox and into the appropriate folder so that you can attend to or refer to it later. This way, you can quickly find the message at any time, rather than spending time searching for it in an email inbox cluttered with old messages.
You can often automate this process by setting up a “message rule.” A message rule is an email filter that you can set up to handle incoming messages in a certain way, based on conditions that you set. For example, you could set up a rule to send all incoming messages from particular sender or with a particular subject line to a designated folder. To set up a rule, most email programs require users to set the conditions for the rule (e.g., if a message is received from jdoe@apa.org), set the action that needs to be taken (e.g., send the message to the folder marked “Jane Doe”), and name the rule (e.g., Jane Doe Rule).
Tip 4: Manage Listserv Messages
Some practitioners subscribe to listervs, or email discussion groups. Setting up a message rule can be especially efficient way to handle listserv messages, which can number in the dozens per day. Rather than letting listserv messages overwhelm your inbox, arrange for the messages from particular lists to go directly to designated folders in your inbox, where you can access them at any time.
Another option to consider if your inbox is overwhelmed with listserv messages is to set your listserv subscription to “digest” mode. When you choose this option, all the messages from a particular list are compiled into one daily email message. Instead of opening dozens of messages from that listserv each day, you can open one message containing the entire day’s messages.
Note: The Practice Directorate has established the Practice e-mail list to allow member psychologists to communicate with each other on issues related to professional psychology. To join the Practice listserv, go to www.apa.org/practice/listserv.html.
Tip 5: Archive Old Mail
Another way to save room in your email inbox is to store, or archive, old email messages. Moving old messages out of your inbox and into storage keeps the messages available for future reference, and it frees up space in your email program, which can improve the performance and reliability of the program.
Some email programs, such as Microsoft Office Outlook, come with built-in archiving capabilities. Depending on your computer configuration and the archiving program that you use, you may be able to archive email on your computer, on a networked drive, or on removable media such as disks, tapes or CD-ROMs.
For some practitioners, backing up email messages is part of complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If you are bound by HIPAA regulations, you will need to back up, or save and retain, email messages that contain electronic protected health information and ensure that privacy is maintained. If that is the case, be sure that whatever backup system you use meets HIPAA Security Rule requirements. Additionally, you may need to consider adding a copy of the email communication to the patient’s record, or making a notation in the record that the email communication occurred. For more information, visit the HIPAA Privacy Rule section of APApractice.org.
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