Discover How To Use Email Effectively
By Stephen Fasenfeld   ©2004 All Rights Reserved

As you undoubtedly know email is the backbone of the internet. Email is already having the same effect in the 21st century as the fax had in the 20th century.To succeed on the Internet, it is essential that you you learn to use email effectively and efficiently. You would be absolutely amazed at the amount of time people spend on email.

Lets assume that you only receive 50 emails a week and it takes 3 minutes to deal with each email. That adds up to 2.5 hours of work that you must perform every week. This is the equivalent to over 3 weeks per year at 40 hours per week. I know most of you reading this will get a lot more, just do the math on the amount of email you receive and the time you spend on it based on the above figures. Next, just take a couple of moments to think about what you actually use email for. Here are just a few to get you started. You probably subscribe to newletters like this one (how many newsletters), you receive personal email and business email.. The likelihood is that people request information from you, you also have to deal with web form requests,invoices etc. The list just goes on and on. Your worst nightmare is probably when you come into your office and download your email every morning. You are probably asking yourself how cluttered up your inbox is going to be. Unsurprising as this may sound, you need a system that will automate as much of your email as possible. It is essential that all of your email is kept in an orderly fashion so that you can focus on what is important. You want to track your various contacts as well as being able to subscribe and unsubscribe at the drop of a hat. So what is the secret of effective email management. It will come as no surprise to you that the answer is folders and filters or maybe we should call it your filing cabinet online. 99% of people know this but few actually spend the extra 20 minutes to familiarise themselves. This 20 minutes spent would be one of the most productive you will ever spend. Surprisingly, the word filters instils fear into the hearts of most people. They are terrified that they will have to spend hours reading manuals or sifting through the help files of their respective email program. This is not the case though. The power of filters can not be emphasized enough. PIcture this, you come into the office first thing in the morning and you decide to download your email. Rather than waiting for all your email to download, you decide to brew yourself a big mug of coffee, tea if you are a tea drinker. You come back 10 minutes later and you find that all your email is neatly organised into folders and you are given a filter report of where every email went. The ones that need dealing with straightaway are very obvious. With filters you can

• Automate your customer service so you can spend more time marketing your products or services
• Reduce spam by as much as 90%
• Redirect email that is sent to the wrong person in your organisation
• Open messages that can play sounds or speak when you receive messages from important people. That way you are more likely to see the messages and reply promptly

The only area that you cant use filters is due to your imagination. The possibilities for filters are endless. As time elapses and email becomes more and more critical, managing your email will even become more crucial. There is no time like the present, just spend those twenty minutes and familiarise yourself with filters. It will be the best twenty minutes you have spent this year.