How to Avoid A Nervous Breakdown Caused by E-mail Overload

Between 50 and 1,000 e-mails arrive at your inbox every day if your web site has been on-line for longer than twelve months. You receive newsletters, personal e-mail, business related e-mail, general contacts, opt-in advertisements, and of course... SPAM.

Youre probably thinking, "I dont get that much e-mail." Well guess what -- you will, and you *will* need to know how to deal with it. In fact, if you do not get organized right now, I can guarantee that precious hours of your time will be wasted every single day of the week.

"Okay", you say. "Whats the secret?"

Well, in full honesty, its no secret at all. If you read the manual for Outlook Express, or took a class from Microsoft, you already know of a built-in organizational feature called "Message Rules." By adding a message rule to Outlook Express, you are telling the program what to do with certain types of e-mail.

For example, lets say you are subscribed to a newsletter called Super Duper E-Marketing Tips, which is received from sdmt@SDMTNewsletter.com. You want to separate it from you Inbox (which should be set aside for direct, important e-mails), so heres what you do:

Before anything, you need to create a sub-folder in your Inbox called "Newsletters." In order to do this, make sure you have your main Inbox highlighted, and click on the FILE menu. Scroll down to NEW, click on it, and select the FOLDER option from the sub-menu. You can also achieve this by using the CTRL+SHIFT+E key combination. Type in the name of the folder, and hit the Enter key.

Click on the TOOLS menu in Outlook Express. Scroll down to MESSAGE RULES, and select the MAIL option. If this is your first time setting up a message rule, you will be automatically prompted to create a new message rule.

Now, there are a couple of different ways to go about sending this particular newsletter to the Newsletters sub-folder...

Option #1: From-line separation

Select the box that reads, "Where the from line contains people." Then, in the section below it, choose the option that reads, "Move it to the specified folder."

In the next section, you will see some text, and two links, which are underlined and highlighted in blue. The first blue link will read, "Contains people." Click on it. Now, remember the e-mail address from which you received the Super Duper E-Marketing Tips newsletter? This is where you put it. Click on Add, then on Okay.

Now you are going to click on the "specified" link. A window will pop up, listing all of your separate folders and sub-folders. Choose the Newsletters folder, and hit the Okay button.

Option #2: Subject-line separation

Select the box that reads, "Where the subject line contains people." Then, in the section below it, choose the option that reads, "Move it to the specified folder."

In the next section, you will see some text, and two links, which are underlined and highlighted in blue. The first blue link will read, "Contains people." Click on it. Now, lets say that the subject line of this particular newsletter read, "Your August 12th Issue of Super Duper E-Marketing Tips." In this case, you would add the following phrase into the text box: "Super Duper E-Marketing Tips", because it will be the same every week -- whereas the date will change. Click on Add, then on Okay.

Now you are going to click on the link which reads, "specified." A window will pop up, listing all of your separate folders and sub-folders. Choose the Newsletters folder, and hit the Okay button.

Congratulations! You just set up your very first message rule, and are on your way to finally becoming an organized person. But youre not finished yet. You need to become acquainted with all the options you can use with message rules, because the possibilities are endless. I personally receive well over 200 e-mails a day, and have a total of 34 folders and sub-folders.

Granted, I dont read all of it. Heck, sometimes when I dont have enough time, Ill delete a few newsletters. Other folders are simply for storage -- like my "Articles For Future Use" folder, where I store articles that I enjoyed, and would like to request permission to post on my web page.

You can do whatever you want with the message rules. Fighting spam, flames, and porn-mail is simple. Just set up a message rule that deletes all messages which contain:

- A string of exclamation points of five or more
- The words Free Money, Bulk E-mail, Sex, Porno, XXX, horny, and any other obscene things you can think of off the top of your head.

Well, being The Cre@tive Marketer that I am, I will leave the rest up to you. Im not going to sit here and tell you how to organize your e-mail. Everyone is different, and needs a *unique* organizational structure.

You should see mine -- just for laughs of course. Drop me an e-mail and Ill send you a screenshot, or you can take a look right now at:

http://www.webprozone.com/my_horrid_inbox.html

About the Author

Charles Lewis (webmaster@webprozone.com) invites you to join him in e-success by subscribing to his weekly newsletter, "The Cre@tive Marketer". Subscribe today, and receive a free copy of the time tested, proven Internet marketing strategy guide that could teach a chimpanzee how to start an online business. See http://www.webprozone.com/creative.html

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