How to organize your inbox: what folders and organization do you use?

[hejduk]

Right now, I'm sure we're all faxing inbox overload. What organization scheme do you have to quickly and efficiently organize your emails?

I'm using Microsoft Outlook at work, and currently I have:

• Advising
  
• Classes (Enrolled-in and teaching)
  
• Dissertation
  
• Faculty
  
• Friends
  
• ListServs
  
• Personal
  
• Staff
  
• Teaching (I'm pursuing a teaching certificate)
  

anyone have recommendations on how to better organize this, or want to share how you organize your inbox?

[Eigen]

As easily as Outlook is searchable, I don't split much off. The only folders I have are Schedules and Cumes. The former I use for the few schedules I get sent- group meeting schedules, departmental seminars, etc. The latter contains the results (we get e-mailed) of all the cumulative exams I've taken, and it's nice to have them there as verification that I'm done with them all.

Otherwise, I find it really easy to search my inbox and find what I need.

[rising_star]

My school uses Google for email so, again, it's highly searchable. That said, I love labels. So, my school inbox has labels for each class I've taught/TA'd (makes it easy to find student emails and also to ignore them until I want to answer them*), department listserv, other campus listservs, Fellowships/Grants, Official Campus email, job adverts, Committee (for things committee members send me), reading groups, research, conferences, friends, teaching (for workshop announcements and the handouts they email us), housing (for my lease and house hunting searches), capoeira, and classes. I realize that's a lot of labels but, it works for me.

My primary, personal email is where I am subscribed to listservs (largely because I knew I would be moving to another university for my PhD and didn't want to have to deal with unsubscribing/resubscribing). Those get the label "Academic Lists" and I search through them as needed.

Also, a great deal of my labeling is automated by using filters in Gmail. It's not as if I individually label every email that's sent to me. I've also color-coded most of the labels so that I can easily tell what's in my inbox and how urgently I need to look at it.

hedjuk, I have a few recommendations for you. First, I would split out classes so that there's one for those you are in and another for those that you are TAing. I find it useful to keep each class I TA for separate so that when a student comes after the semester, it's easy for me to figure out what happened and where the email is (because searching "Mike" isn't all that useful sometimes). Second, I would have a folder for research. That's where my journal ToC alerts, links people send me, and emails about research all get filed. Third, I'm not sure what the difference is between "Staff" and "Faculty" but I keep all emails sent out by my department on the department listserv together and separate from all the other listservs that I'm on.

*For reference, I only reply to students during business hours so if I see their email at night, I will label it, hit "Archive", and then answer it in the morning.

[fuzzylogician]

I use gmail and have labels for: courses, TAship (my teaching load is minimal so one label is enough for me), lab, conferences/publications, bureaucratic (where all listserv emails, emails from staff, and similar issues go), other positions (I sometimes hold administrative positions in my dept, e.g. student rep or conference organizer, and emails to do with these positions go to specialized labels/folders). Emails from family and friends are automatically labeled accordingly. I don't like to have too many labels--it can be a lot of work when emails can't be labeled automatically and gmail is very searchable anyway.

[ktel]

Bleh, I am in the process of putting both of my e-mails (undergrad and grad) onto my personal g-mail account. Not a fun process. I have my undergrad e-mail organized really nicely, and it seems that transferring the folders will be a pain (from a few tutorials I read). The grad e-mail was very recently created, so luckily I don't need to worry about that too much.

I label on the fly. It totally depends on how many e-mails I have in my inbox relating to a certain subject. I don't like having a ton of e-mails in my inbox, so I like to file them away. I have folders for different projects, classes, rugby teams, etc.

[long_time_lurker]

*For reference, I only reply to students during business hours so if I see their email at night, I will label it, hit "Archive", and then answer it in the morning.

YES. +1.

Everyone should take special note of this. It prevents students from thinking they can contact you anytime, anywhere, and expect an immediate response. It seems a symptom of their millenial culture to expect everyone to be glued to a wireless device and be instantly reachable.

[juilletmercredi]

I usually am glued to a wireless device and am instantly reachable, though. Lol.

I don't disagree, but I'm the type of person who will forget about it if I don't address it immediately, so I usually address it right when I check it. However, my caveat is that I normally only check and respond to my mail in the evenings. Most of my checking during business hours is a short scan of the mail on my phone in case there's something urgent. Regardless of their generational belongingness, I have more than a few professors who send time-sensitive information that needs to be addressed that day over email, sometimes within a few hours or minutes. But usually, I don't respond until I have time to sit in front of an actual computer (as opposed to my phone or iPad) and type out a well-thought out response.

The other thing is that I am actually a Millennial myself. Heh.