New job, change email habits?
March 22, 2023 9:19 AM Subscribe
I just started a new job and am at in box zero. In my previous job, I never deleted or filed any emails because I couldn’t keep up with a filing system, and it seemed easier to search for what I needed. Is this a bad habit? Should I take the opportunity to reform?
Did the old method work for you? If it didn't, what went wrong that you might thing you need to change?
I have moved over the years from filing things to just searching for them. Sometimes I have folders by broad category that I search in first if I think that is where I was most likely to have put them, but that is just so the search is faster.
posted by procrastination at 9:32 AM on March 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
I have moved over the years from filing things to just searching for them. Sometimes I have folders by broad category that I search in first if I think that is where I was most likely to have put them, but that is just so the search is faster.
posted by procrastination at 9:32 AM on March 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
I never deleted or filed any emails because I couldn’t keep up with a filing system, and it seemed easier to search for what I needed. Is this a bad habit?
It's not a bad habit presuming it works for you and you know exactly how search works and how to use it. I do sometimes feel like having some labels auto-assigned (I live in a gmail universe) can be a good balance between having too much fussy organize-y work to do but also having a bit more metadata to help search work well. Put another way, labels are one way that Search can help narrow down a search. May as well use all the tools available because if you are working with other people they may not be good at using vocabulary or subject lines and it may mean there's 1200 emails from Bob about a thing and you have to peek into all of them to find what you are looking for.
So, mostly no, if your old system worked well for you, no need to switch it up. However do a realistic assessment about whether there are any contexts in your new job which might make some amount of organization be useful.
posted by jessamyn at 9:37 AM on March 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's not a bad habit presuming it works for you and you know exactly how search works and how to use it. I do sometimes feel like having some labels auto-assigned (I live in a gmail universe) can be a good balance between having too much fussy organize-y work to do but also having a bit more metadata to help search work well. Put another way, labels are one way that Search can help narrow down a search. May as well use all the tools available because if you are working with other people they may not be good at using vocabulary or subject lines and it may mean there's 1200 emails from Bob about a thing and you have to peek into all of them to find what you are looking for.
So, mostly no, if your old system worked well for you, no need to switch it up. However do a realistic assessment about whether there are any contexts in your new job which might make some amount of organization be useful.
posted by jessamyn at 9:37 AM on March 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
I will tell you that every single one of my close coworkers who is a "delete the emails" sort of person has to come to me, a "save it all" person, at least once a month to find something for them that they've lost.
posted by phunniemee at 9:39 AM on March 22, 2023 [24 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 9:39 AM on March 22, 2023 [24 favorites]
If you like the idea of a clean inbox, then go ahead and create a 'processed' folder. Move everything out of your inbox after you have dealt with it. No filing other than one big folder. But still a clean inbox.
posted by hydra77 at 9:46 AM on March 22, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by hydra77 at 9:46 AM on March 22, 2023 [13 favorites]
Some employers have deletion and/or archiving policies for legal or financial reasons. Assuming that your own practices aren't in violation of those policies, I bless your habit of keeping everything. Like phunniemee, I've been the person saving other people because I archive everything and know how to find it again. I also try really hard to use descriptive subject lines and add them to my own replies if people didn't use them when emailing me, which makes searching my archive that much more effective. The one thing I'd do that you don't mention is some sort of time-based archiving, just to keep my inbox from being so huge that it slows to a crawl. This always requires trial and error to figure out how large the inbox and archive(s) can be, but year-based archives can be a good starting point.
posted by fedward at 9:46 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by fedward at 9:46 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am one of the most outwardly disorganized people I've ever met (example: I have a $200 check underneath my keyboard from December 11th that I keep forgetting to deposit), but I've managed to maintain Inbox (close to) Zero both at work and on my personal email for over a decade now. So I say: If I can keep up with a filing system, you absolutely can. The trick here is that keeping up with the filing system is not the hard part. The hard part is starting the filing system in the first place. This is where starting from scratch is nice. You don't have to actually create 100 different folders yet.
As you get emails (it should be comparatively a trickle when you're first starting), create categories. When you're only receiving ten email a day, you'll never have to create more than ten categories that day, and it'll probably be more like three or four. That's much easier than creating a couple dozen categories and then filing thousands of emails into them.
The first one you should create when you're starting a new job is Training. Anything you get specifically for the purpose of teaching you how to do your job goes in there. You can come back and organize this more later if you want. Right now, you just need some place to keep these reference materials that isn't your inbox.
The second one should be HR/Benefits, because you're going to get a lot of those at the beginning and that'll be an easy way to keep your inbox clean. I have an HR folder with two subfolders. One is for anything benefits-related, and the other is for personnel matters (salary, job title, organizational stuff regarding me specifically - my "permanent record" so to speak). Anything that doesn't fit into either of those categories (e.g., the "refer your friends" emails that HR sends out periodically) goes into the general HR folder.
Since I don't delete anything, I keep a Setup folder where I can file all my "welcome to [software application]!" emails, password reset emails, stuff like that.
Then pay attention to the automated emails you receive, and create folders for those. I have one for Jira notifications, one for automated emails from our health insurance, one for daily processing tasks, etc. Again, it's pretty easy to organize or combine these later if you find you need to, but for now, if you get an email that wasn't sent by an actual person sitting at their keyboard and writing to you specifically, create a folder for it. (You might end up creating rules to automatically file or delete these for you, but it's probably not a good idea yet, until you have a better sense of what happens with them.)
This will leave you with actual human-written emails relating to your ongoing job responsibilities. These the ones you most need to refer back to later, and so paradoxically, they're the ones you're most likely to leave in your inbox. Bad place for them. Creating special folders for them actually makes it easier for you to find them again. (Kind of like how just leaving a check sitting by my keyboard doesn't actually make it more likely for me to do anything with that check.) If your job is project-based, create a folder for each project. If it's client-based, one for each client. Down the road, you can create sub-folders if you need to, or you can create a folder for completed projects and moved a completed project's emails to that folder, but for now, this will get you set up.
Then, file your emails as you read them. For things like automated emails, you can file them in bulk at the start and/or end of the day without even opening them. For ones that don't require a response, file it as soon as you're done reading it. If an email does require a response, and that response takes less than five minutes, respond immediately and then file it away. That'll leave stuff that requires actual ongoing work for you (and is the reason why my inbox is never actually at zero).
Once again, I don't delete anything, no matter how trivial. Occasionally, I'll get an automated message from Outlook that my mailbox is close to full, and then I'll go delete Jira notifications from like three years ago. But otherwise, everything is there, and fairly easy to find. There have been plenty of times where I've been on a call where a bunch of people were looking for an old email, and I, a famously disorganized person, was the one who found it first. This is helpful for me, because it makes people think I'm less disorganized than I am. When you see my actual desk and there's crap piled everywhere and it looks like I'm a hoarder, you might think I don't know what I'm doing, but if I can actually find things, it makes people think there's a method to my madness, that I'm not just sticking things in random piles, even when sometimes I am.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:51 AM on March 22, 2023 [9 favorites]
As you get emails (it should be comparatively a trickle when you're first starting), create categories. When you're only receiving ten email a day, you'll never have to create more than ten categories that day, and it'll probably be more like three or four. That's much easier than creating a couple dozen categories and then filing thousands of emails into them.
The first one you should create when you're starting a new job is Training. Anything you get specifically for the purpose of teaching you how to do your job goes in there. You can come back and organize this more later if you want. Right now, you just need some place to keep these reference materials that isn't your inbox.
The second one should be HR/Benefits, because you're going to get a lot of those at the beginning and that'll be an easy way to keep your inbox clean. I have an HR folder with two subfolders. One is for anything benefits-related, and the other is for personnel matters (salary, job title, organizational stuff regarding me specifically - my "permanent record" so to speak). Anything that doesn't fit into either of those categories (e.g., the "refer your friends" emails that HR sends out periodically) goes into the general HR folder.
Since I don't delete anything, I keep a Setup folder where I can file all my "welcome to [software application]!" emails, password reset emails, stuff like that.
Then pay attention to the automated emails you receive, and create folders for those. I have one for Jira notifications, one for automated emails from our health insurance, one for daily processing tasks, etc. Again, it's pretty easy to organize or combine these later if you find you need to, but for now, if you get an email that wasn't sent by an actual person sitting at their keyboard and writing to you specifically, create a folder for it. (You might end up creating rules to automatically file or delete these for you, but it's probably not a good idea yet, until you have a better sense of what happens with them.)
This will leave you with actual human-written emails relating to your ongoing job responsibilities. These the ones you most need to refer back to later, and so paradoxically, they're the ones you're most likely to leave in your inbox. Bad place for them. Creating special folders for them actually makes it easier for you to find them again. (Kind of like how just leaving a check sitting by my keyboard doesn't actually make it more likely for me to do anything with that check.) If your job is project-based, create a folder for each project. If it's client-based, one for each client. Down the road, you can create sub-folders if you need to, or you can create a folder for completed projects and moved a completed project's emails to that folder, but for now, this will get you set up.
Then, file your emails as you read them. For things like automated emails, you can file them in bulk at the start and/or end of the day without even opening them. For ones that don't require a response, file it as soon as you're done reading it. If an email does require a response, and that response takes less than five minutes, respond immediately and then file it away. That'll leave stuff that requires actual ongoing work for you (and is the reason why my inbox is never actually at zero).
Once again, I don't delete anything, no matter how trivial. Occasionally, I'll get an automated message from Outlook that my mailbox is close to full, and then I'll go delete Jira notifications from like three years ago. But otherwise, everything is there, and fairly easy to find. There have been plenty of times where I've been on a call where a bunch of people were looking for an old email, and I, a famously disorganized person, was the one who found it first. This is helpful for me, because it makes people think I'm less disorganized than I am. When you see my actual desk and there's crap piled everywhere and it looks like I'm a hoarder, you might think I don't know what I'm doing, but if I can actually find things, it makes people think there's a method to my madness, that I'm not just sticking things in random piles, even when sometimes I am.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:51 AM on March 22, 2023 [9 favorites]
I've followed the same system you have for years, and can count on one hand the number of times I haven't been able to find what I needed.
That being said, just within the last year I have started to use some folders for email organizing. The role I'm in now is very different than what I've done before, so this is what's working for me now.
So, in summary, if that works for you, keep doing it. Your method is valid and not strange or wrong. Keep an open mind as you get further into this new job, and make adjustments as necessary.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 9:54 AM on March 22, 2023
That being said, just within the last year I have started to use some folders for email organizing. The role I'm in now is very different than what I've done before, so this is what's working for me now.
So, in summary, if that works for you, keep doing it. Your method is valid and not strange or wrong. Keep an open mind as you get further into this new job, and make adjustments as necessary.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 9:54 AM on March 22, 2023
I find one folder really useful: Follow Up. That's the folder where I store emails where I am waiting for follow up. At least once a week I go through it and either it's been dealt with or I send another email to follow up. That folder's saved me a bunch.
After that I basically have archive and search.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:59 AM on March 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
After that I basically have archive and search.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:59 AM on March 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
As long as you're not also using your inbox as your to-do list (a common strategy) I don't think it matters. I file my stuff because it makes it easier for me to process new emails, but honestly given the way Gmail works it'd probably work exactly the same if I just archived it into the general archive.
posted by restless_nomad at 10:02 AM on March 22, 2023
posted by restless_nomad at 10:02 AM on March 22, 2023
I keep inbox zero because I don't like using my inbox as a to-do list. Things get lost that way, and I sometimes forget who it was who asked me for something and so can't use search. I try to keep my folders to a minimum, and honestly you could probably get by with "Reference" and "Tasks" - Reference for the things I want to be able to consult later, and Tasks for things that require action on my part. If the task isn't obvious from the header, and sometimes even if it is, I add it to my list of things to do. I an religious about marking spam as spam and it seems to work with my accounts (I have a POP3 mailbox for my website, a Gmail account, and a Yahoo account, the last of which is just for vendors who insist on having my email when I order something). I'm extremely ADHD so having that empty inbox makes the noise in my head go away :)
posted by Peach at 10:04 AM on March 22, 2023
posted by Peach at 10:04 AM on March 22, 2023
I don’t delete or label anything. I use the “star” feature to track emails that still need a response or are connected to an action item that I haven’t done yet. This works for me unless I get more than about 15 starred emails and then I get a bit overwhelmed. But it’s the best system I’ve come up with.
posted by mai at 10:13 AM on March 22, 2023
posted by mai at 10:13 AM on March 22, 2023
I would not create an entire filing system but just one or two archive folders. Email search is pretty good now. I'd have one personal/payroll/benefit type folder and one folder for business messages.
posted by soelo at 10:41 AM on March 22, 2023
posted by soelo at 10:41 AM on March 22, 2023
Just use search. If you have to ask someone to re-send something, that's fine, they didn't send you literal word of God, it was just some policy about the paradigm of analytics pipelines or whatever.
My favorite is when someone forwards me the email they already sent me, as though I give a fuck. I couldn't find it in search because there were no good words in the subject line or attached file names - just "hear you go" or "tmp.xlsx". That's on them.
When someone asks me to resend something, I just re-send it. I don't get why it's such a big deal.
posted by everythings_interrelated at 10:51 AM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
My favorite is when someone forwards me the email they already sent me, as though I give a fuck. I couldn't find it in search because there were no good words in the subject line or attached file names - just "hear you go" or "tmp.xlsx". That's on them.
When someone asks me to resend something, I just re-send it. I don't get why it's such a big deal.
posted by everythings_interrelated at 10:51 AM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
I read everything, I don't file anything, but I 'mark as unread' anything that I need to follow up on. even if i'm just waiting for a reply from someone else. Works for me.
posted by greta simone at 11:04 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by greta simone at 11:04 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have a folder for each year I'm at my job, and in each folder, I have 12 folders, one for each month (01-jan, 02-feb, etc). When I am finished with an email (replied or entered the details onto my Trello board) into the correct folder it goes. Nothing is deleted except for newsletters I subscribe to. Last month I had to refer to an email from 6 years ago in order to straighten something out. I never delete email for that exact reason.
The exception to my dated folder system is my 'rockstar' folder where I file all of the "Kim thank you you're a rockstar" type emails so I can refer to them when my annual review rolls around.
posted by kimberussell at 11:11 AM on March 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
The exception to my dated folder system is my 'rockstar' folder where I file all of the "Kim thank you you're a rockstar" type emails so I can refer to them when my annual review rolls around.
posted by kimberussell at 11:11 AM on March 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
I pretty much only make folders for things I will want at my fingertips in mobile situations (so trips get their own folder); things that I set up automatic rules for (Github notifications mostly); and things that make me feel nice (praise, basically) that I can look at when I am sad or when working on a promo doc. I delete things I really don't need any more (spam, newsletters, password resets which expire and definitely don't need to be kept!) But as long as you can find stuff and you are happy, you don't need to change.
posted by dame at 11:24 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by dame at 11:24 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
my 'rockstar' folder where I file all of the "Kim thank you you're a rockstar" type emails
Everybody really ought to have one of these. Not just for reviews, even if you're just having a tough day, it's nice to look back at a time that wasn't as tough.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:41 AM on March 22, 2023 [12 favorites]
Everybody really ought to have one of these. Not just for reviews, even if you're just having a tough day, it's nice to look back at a time that wasn't as tough.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:41 AM on March 22, 2023 [12 favorites]
I started a new job last year, and I took this time to utilize outlook rules to move things into their own folders.
I am a tiny piece of a much larger system so I get all kinds of emails. When I get an email that comes often, it gets its own special folder, and every message that meets those rules goes there immediately.
I have a folder for staffing updates that are sent every day. There is a status update folder. Scanned documents have their own folder. I get lots of alerts from portals I use and the alerts have their own folders . My inbox gets the email that's not categorized, and everything else is in its place when I need it. I went from having 50 to 100 unarranged emails in a day. To just 10 to 15 which are usually direct questions that I actually need to respond to.
I've also got a folder for memos, and other rule documentation changes, a folder for professional development stuff too that I drag and drop when needed. It has made my life so much easier.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:54 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am a tiny piece of a much larger system so I get all kinds of emails. When I get an email that comes often, it gets its own special folder, and every message that meets those rules goes there immediately.
I have a folder for staffing updates that are sent every day. There is a status update folder. Scanned documents have their own folder. I get lots of alerts from portals I use and the alerts have their own folders . My inbox gets the email that's not categorized, and everything else is in its place when I need it. I went from having 50 to 100 unarranged emails in a day. To just 10 to 15 which are usually direct questions that I actually need to respond to.
I've also got a folder for memos, and other rule documentation changes, a folder for professional development stuff too that I drag and drop when needed. It has made my life so much easier.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:54 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I find gmail to be annoying at organizing. Search Don't Sort is not useful to me, esp. now, when I'm running out of space. When I used an email client that did better sort, I organized email by quarter - Q12022, etc. Maybe a separate folder for a project, whatever. At the end of the year, I'd sift out the most delete-able stuff, put it all in the 2022 folder, start over.
posted by theora55 at 12:04 PM on March 22, 2023
posted by theora55 at 12:04 PM on March 22, 2023
You can have both, perhaps, if your new job's email administrators archive all email for legal or other purposes. Let your email be aggressively archived: let it archive everything in the inbox to the archive every day, but only let it delete what has been read and is over 'n' days old (whatever 'n' works for you) . Choose whether or not to do the same for any folders you set up. Use the archive as the 'pile' you search when looking for something.
If they don't archive, and you are allowed to install it, I recommend MailStore. There's a free Home addition. It will archive from multiple email platforms. You get to set archive and delete criteria. Its search is fast in my opinion. As a bonus, you can archive from one email package (Outlook for example) and restore to a different one (Gmail, Thunderbird, or other)
posted by TimHare at 12:32 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
If they don't archive, and you are allowed to install it, I recommend MailStore. There's a free Home addition. It will archive from multiple email platforms. You get to set archive and delete criteria. Its search is fast in my opinion. As a bonus, you can archive from one email package (Outlook for example) and restore to a different one (Gmail, Thunderbird, or other)
posted by TimHare at 12:32 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have 2 folders: done and in progress. If an email is in my inbox, I need to act on it. If I’m waiting to follow up (so, someone else’s action), the email goes in “I’m progress”. Everything else is in done. I archive every few years, so outlook doesn’t drag too much. In theory, I check in progress weekly, but lately it’s been less often, so I need to work that in more.
If I want something for reference, I save it as a document, or dump it into my OneNote notebook or reference documents. I delete nothing but spam, as I have a public FOI-able position, but in my personal email I’m merciless in deleting.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 2:26 PM on March 22, 2023
If I want something for reference, I save it as a document, or dump it into my OneNote notebook or reference documents. I delete nothing but spam, as I have a public FOI-able position, but in my personal email I’m merciless in deleting.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 2:26 PM on March 22, 2023
There was a study a few years ago that said it was better not to file emails - people who used search found what they were looking for faster than people who used folders. And that doesn't even include the time it takes to file the emails in the first place.
And yet for some reason I still file my emails.
posted by misskaz at 2:44 PM on March 22, 2023
And yet for some reason I still file my emails.
posted by misskaz at 2:44 PM on March 22, 2023
I would like to see that study, misskaz. Outlook search is garbage and my impression is that the average bear does not use PoweShell for mailbox searches (which is even more of a pain for shared mailboxes.)
But to answer the question, as long as you are in compliances with your workplace, do whatever works for you and pledge to never, ever come to me or phunniemee for an email you cannot find.
I have at least five layers of folders but this Byzantine graveyard is mostly at the service of archival requirements. However, it does saves my bacon year after year when people want same-as-last-year or I need to know how the Masters of the Universe and the lawyers answered a question most recently.
Rules are great for fixing things you have to keep but probably don’t need to read. Also rules based-formatting will make those import emails, like from the God Kings of your work world, stand out.
Not unusual for me to log in, and be greeting by 200 emails so I a very on the offensive.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 4:07 PM on March 22, 2023
But to answer the question, as long as you are in compliances with your workplace, do whatever works for you and pledge to never, ever come to me or phunniemee for an email you cannot find.
I have at least five layers of folders but this Byzantine graveyard is mostly at the service of archival requirements. However, it does saves my bacon year after year when people want same-as-last-year or I need to know how the Masters of the Universe and the lawyers answered a question most recently.
Rules are great for fixing things you have to keep but probably don’t need to read. Also rules based-formatting will make those import emails, like from the God Kings of your work world, stand out.
Not unusual for me to log in, and be greeting by 200 emails so I a very on the offensive.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 4:07 PM on March 22, 2023
I have a folder named "No Action Needed" and EVERYTHING goes in there except for whatever I still need to follow up on. Whatever's in my inbox is an action. One there's nothing else for me to do, I move it to my one folder, where I can still find everything if and when I need to. I used to file emails under different categories but it made it harder to find emails because I'd forget which category I'd put them in. Plus it was more effort because I needed to decide how to sort and label emails in the first place.
posted by mkdirusername at 4:13 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mkdirusername at 4:13 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
I’m a save em all in one giant inbox kind of person but I do have one special folder for “summary emails” - you know the ones, the critical meeting minutes and actions that I know I’ll refer to later. About one email a month goes there.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:28 PM on March 22, 2023
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:28 PM on March 22, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by alex1965 at 9:32 AM on March 22, 2023 [6 favorites]