The Outlook rule that saved my inbox
Email started to become a ‘problem’ for me as a manager in 2008. Prior to that, it was a bit of a novelty, however, we didn’t establish any rules around how it should be used, and so it was no surprise that it soon became the (lazy) way that all information was communicated.
It wasn’t long before I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of messages in my inbox and if the statistics are to be believed then things have become significantly worse in the years since.
According to one survey, the average office worker receives over 100 emails a day, with 38% of respondents saying that ‘email fatigue’ is likely to push them to quit their jobs. Another report found that 42% of employees reported feeling compelled to immediately respond to emails even outside working hours.
This may be your lived experience too. It was mine back in 2008 and yet a training course changed my relationship with my inbox. I recognised that despite my own (obviously very good!) email habits, I couldn’t change those of others. So instead I turned to rules and one in particular dramatically reduced what appeared in my inbox. I thought I’d share it with you.
To create a rule in Outlook, go to ‘View’, then ‘View Settings’, then ‘Rules’. Click the ‘Add New Rule’ button. Name your rule ‘CC Emails’, then add the Condition ‘I’m on the CC line’, then in actions add ‘Mark as read’ and then add another action ‘Move to’, then in the select folder box, select ‘Create New Folder’, name it ‘CC Emails’ then click ‘Save’.
Once saved, every new email that someone lazily copies you into won’t appear in your inbox, it will magically disappear (as a read message) into a folder instead leaving you to concentrate on the important messages sent only ‘To’ you.
If you’re a control freak or have lots of time on your hands and want to see these, then don’t worry, there’s a folder with them all in to peruse whenever you get the chance to do so.
The final thing to ensure this strategy works properly is not to tell anyone! As soon as you do (and I made this mistake in one company) people will start adding your name to the ‘To’ field instead!
You can set up rules for just about anything, but this one helped me for years and can work for you too.
Whilst we’re at it, you should turn notifications off too! Learn about that here.
