Organizing Email Inbox Overload
The Best Email Organizers Use Search Functions and No Folders
Easing the pain of overflowing email inboxes involves dumping folders for search.
The traditional and most common approach for email storage and archiving is to create a folder for each topic, department, colleague, etc., followed by subfolders with more specific categories. Those who plan and implement their folders well can usually retrieve a given email in a short amount of time, and have a high level of confidence in the organization of their data. Nonetheless, there are inherent shortcomings in the structured folder approach, and these can only be solved by advanced search functions.
Inbox Volume and Multi-Category Emails
The sheer volume of emails moving through the inboxes of workers today is staggering. According to statistics provided by IDC, 2007 business email volumes would be double that of the previous two years. Just reading and analyzing these documents is a formidable task, but an even more daunting challenge is what to do next.
In addition, many emails can qualify for multiple categories when it comes time to store them. The detailed user is forced to store copies in different folders, or, for the most meticulous, implement a reference or shortcut system. This situation is amplified when the number of folders and subfolders becomes unwieldy. Finding, storing and tracking emails becomes a task unto itself.
Use Virtual Folders with Search Functions
With an April 1, 2004 press release, Google launched their Gmail application and promoted a novel organizational approach that favored search over folders. Users could utilize Google’s robust search functions to instantly produce what amounts to a virtual folder. While this term may seem like a stretch for search results, the refinement of search technology actually gave Gmail users more organizational control than folders could provide.
Other email applications followed suit and advanced search options were promoted to very functional and powerful tools. Even the ubiquitous Microsoft Outlook Email has an advanced search function with a long list of criteria allowing the user to implement just about everything that can be remembered about an email, including the ability to save a search as a search folder.
Advantages of Email Search Functions
Several other notable advantages go along with using search over folders:
- There is significant time saved in bypassing the creation of a folder structure and assigning e-mails to the right folders.
- Gone is the conundrum of an email that can be assigned to multiple categories.
- Creating custom email folders can prevent users from using default functions such as an automatic archive. There is great satisfaction in the ability to clean up the email box with the single push of a button.
As an addendum, those email users who must have some hands-on control over their inboxes can still use functions that assign priorities to emails. Whether a user's email application has a simple 3-level system or many colored levels to assign priority, the topical organization of documents will not be affected. Users who feel they can afford to work less and be more organized should give the email search approach a try.
