Take Control of Your Inbox

Whether you get a few emails a day or a few hundred emails an hour, it’s important to sort and organize them – especially if you need to reference an email you received, say, six weeks ago. That’s why it’s essential that you have an effective way to process your email on a regular basis.

The first step is to set up a few folders. If you’re using Cincinnati Bell’s WEBMail, you can click on the “Help” link once you sign in and look under “Folder Tasks” to get started. Go ahead and create a couple folders with broad topics. For example, you can filter by dates, subjects, senders or any other topic that will help you remember what’s in each folder.

Once you’ve got folders, go to your inbox and process one item at a time, starting at the top. You can probably delete about half of the emails in your inbox right away. For instance, if the information in the email can be found elsewhere, is not something you’re required to keep track of or isn’t relevant, you can go ahead and delete.

If you can’t immediately delete an email, ask yourself, “What action do I need to take?” If you can take care of it in less than two minutes, do it.

When you’ve dealt with all those emails, you can sort the remaining emails into folders. Again, if you’re on Cincinnati Bell WEBMail, check the “Help” menu for easy instructions on how to sort emails and move them into their respective folders.

Depending on the amount of email you have in your inbox, sorting through your messages can be a sizeable task the first time. However, if you take some uninterrupted time each day to keep things organized, you can take control of your inbox.