Comments for Susan Gregory

Comment on Beyond Presentation Skills by Beyond Presentation Skills « Susan Gregory

Beyond Presentation Skills « Susan Gregory — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:25:52 +0000

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Comment on What email folders do you find useful? by Preciosa Leal

Preciosa Leal — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:35:26 +0000

Hi Susan, great tips! I, on the other hand, am a fan of using subfolders in Outlook to help organize my data, and I can’t say enough about Rules & Alerts. I create folders for my clients, as well as material such as newsletters/subscriptions, memberships, suppliers, etc.; and rules/alerts that have Outlook automatically move messages into those folders (including junk/spam.) My Inbox is mainly for odds and ends that don’t really have a specific/consistent purpose. I glance through it and anything that is of interest gets transferred manually to an appropriate folder (I’ll create one/rule if it’s going to be an ongoing matter.) For my clients, I also have alerts that flash briefly in a corner of my screen telling me they’ve sent me a message. For a few seconds I see the subject line so I can decide what action I need to take.

Like Trudy mentioned, I also label my e-folders the same as my physical folders for consistency and clarity.

I do the same with Contacts, Calendar and Tasks – categorizing so that things are easy to find. I try to fill in as much info as possible and use shortcuts/hyperlinks to help take me to the next step as efficiently as possible. Sounds like lots of steps to take, but once you have a good system in place and get used to it, you can practically do it with your eyes closed.

In the end, it’s about saving time and increasing efficiency. Taking some time to learn the features and shortcuts within software applications is important so the user can decide what’s beneficial to them. Design a system that’s suitable to your individual needs; try new things to see if their right for you, but don’t dwell on features/functions just because they’re available.

Have fun with it!

Preciosa

Comment on What email folders do you find useful? by Trudy Van Buskirk

Trudy Van Buskirk — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:38:00 +0000

Ooops
The 5th line should be folders (plural) instead of folder (singular) as it is now.
Sorry.
Trudy

Comment on What email folders do you find useful? by Trudy Van Buskirk

Trudy Van Buskirk — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:35:57 +0000

I got your newsletter today! The Mac Microsoft Office version of this is called Entourage. That’s what I use. There is a 6th thing you could do. I’ve been doing it for a while (started when I was first training people on how to use computers in the 80s). Make folder with the same names as those either in your electronic filing system or “physical” filing cabinet.

This way you’re consistent … and know exactly where to look for something.

Trudy

Comment on What email folders do you find useful? by Fernando

Fernando — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:43:57 +0000

Since you mentioned xobni, I suggest you also take a look at gist.com. Great app for getting more email intelligence as well.

Comment on What email folders do you find useful? by Susan

Susan — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:13:38 +0000

Thanks Ryan and Fernando for your input. I like your ideas Fernando as I think it’s key to separate actions or items “to do”.

Ryan – another tool that might be helpful for you to track conversations is http://www.xobni.com, which allows you to see the most recent emails that you’ve exchanged with each of your contacts.

When I’m looking for an email I click on “All Mail Items” and then enter the relevant name or term rather than having to remember which folder I put it in.

No tips for Mac Users yet but these ideas do apply to Entourage!

Comment on Stop re-reading your emails! by Susan

Susan — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:47:16 +0000

Thanks Wendy and Minling for your positive comments. Trudy – great tips on using folders. I was inspired by your post and created a question on LinkedIn to get examples of the different ways people use folders. Thanks!

Comment on Stop re-reading your emails! by Minling Pan

Minling Pan — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:21:00 +0000

Thank you for sharing Susan!
Great tips!

Comment on What email folders do you find useful? by Ryan Coelho

Ryan Coelho — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:48:17 +0000

Great post Susan!

I really like the tips you’ve provided; actually going to add a “To Answer” and “To Review” folder after writing this.

Personally I’ve created individual folders prospects and members. It alows me to keep track of my conversations with everyone I’ve had so I can continue to add value to our clients and follow-up with prospects. It works well!

For me the problem runs into moving them into the folders each time. Sometimes I get so many I read through them all and it takes a while to go back and ‘folderize’ them.

Yea the emails going into more than one folder can be confusing to. I’m wondering if making ‘email rules’ can fix this?

Also any tips for Mac users??

Comment on What email folders do you find useful? by Fernando

Fernando — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:50:58 +0000

Hi,
There’s a few things I do with folders:
- First, I use Outlook categories for tracking Actions. So, I have an _ACTION category that I tag messages with something to do. I use a SmartFolder for showing all the _ACTION tags on the same folder, and that folder I put into my favorites. Presto! Direct access to anything I’ve tagged as “to_do”.
- I often want to keep track of important details on technical discussion lists I take part in. I use the same approach (categorize+smartfolder) to mark all messages as _TECH that I find useful for later reference.
- I also created an ACTION folder on GMail to mim the same behaviour.
- Finally, I have an ACTION_IMAP folder on Outlook. This one I use whenever I scan my Outlook email via iPhone/iPad, since there is not category support. In this case, moving a message to ACTION_IMAP is the same thing as categorizing as ACTION. When I get in front of my laptop (or use OWA, since it supports categories), I can then move it to right folder.

As for storing things, I tend to keep things in relevant folders. 95% of the time I need something I find going to the folder faster than searching. In a few cases, I rely on Outlook search and it hasn’t let me down yet…

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Fernando