Ever lose 10 minutes searching your inbox trying to find a message you know you got from a client last week?
Or do you and your team constantly send “FYI” emails back and forth to keep everyone on the same page?
With a bit of setup, you can make life a lot easier on yourself.
Here are a few tips to help you organize your emails about client projects (or any project you’re working on):
1. Create a Label or Folder for Each Project
Start in your inbox.
Create a label (if you use Gmail) or a folder (if you use Outlook or another email service) for each new project.
For example, a realtor could use a unique label for each property:
You could also create unique folders for each client project:
2. Use Rules and Filters to Automate the Process
Once you have labels (or folders) set up, you’ll need to sort messages into those labels.
You can do this manually, or you can use filters or rules to automate the process:
3. Experience the Joy of Shared Labels and Shared Folders
If you work with a team, you can give coworkers access to your label or folder. Once it’s set up, they’ll be able to see anything you place in the label right from their own inbox.
If you use Gmail or Google Apps, you can do this using the free cloudHQ Gmail Label Sharing Chrome extension:
If you have another email service (e.g. Outlook or Office 365), you can still create a two-way sync to sync email folders.
You can even sync folders across platforms if needed:
Once you’ve shared a label or a folder, all messages placed there will be fully accessible for anyone sharing the label or folder. And you can manage the sharing of those folders in case you want to remove someone from your email folder share.
The Payoff
No more digging through your inbox trying to find the latest message about a project. And no more endless back and forth “FYI” emails.
With a little bit of setup, those messages will be easily accessible. Just click the label or folder to find them.
And if you’re working with a team, you can give everyone access to the same information you have, making it much easier to keep everyone on the same page.