Many emails you receive at work are transient records and thus can be deleted. Managing those emails properly can be done in as little as fifteen minutes a day. So where do you begin? You start by deleting emails that you know can be deleted such as unsolicited SPAM or distributed messages sent to groups.
Microsoft Outlook has tools that can help you capture SPAM messages before they reach your inbox. Those messages are stored in a special SPAM or junk mail folder. SPAM messages that arrive in your inbox can be flagged to help your account identify similar future messages, so they go directly to your junk folder. You should check your SPAM folder weekly to ensure that emails created in the ordinary course of business were not misdirected. Otherwise, you can delete your entire SPAM folder weekly to reduce your email account’s clutter and make more efficient use of your account space.
Once you have deleted your SPAM messages, you can then tackle a common transient email – the distributed list email. These are emails where you have been cc’d or bcc’d as part of a larger group of recipients such as all department/agency employees. Often, such messages originate within your immediate workplace and include mass reminders such as “cake in the break room” or “flu shots available today.” Such emails distributed to (not by you) are transient non-substantive messages of short-term usefulness and often are not created as part of the normal functions/activities of your agency. Transient emails can be deleted.
Distributed meeting minutes are also considered transient records. Usually after meetings, minutes are sent to all attendees. As a recipient of these minutes, you can delete those messages because the minutes should be preserved permanently by its creator – recipients are not obligated to preserve those emails because you are merely receiving a reference copy.
Email management is NOT saving all email forever. As email will not manage itself, you must be a proactive manager as email management is your responsibility. Don’t attempt to clean up your email all at once but set aside small intervals of time. See future blogs for additional email clean-up strategies.
For the Record 