Email Triage

So, you’ve decided to manage your emails:

✔️ You’ve picked how often during the day you’ll check your email and built that habit; and

✔️ You’ve turned off notifications if they’re a trigger.

What next?

Let’s start with e-mail triage.

A lot of people don’t want to delete emails.

So, they pile up in the inbox, and they use the basic search bar to find what they need.

If that works for you, so be it.

It never did for me. And Outlook's search function is for the birds.

Instead, I move things to folders.

Everything goes in a folder.

It either goes into the folder right away—because it doesn’t require action from me, or it goes into the folder when I’m done with the email.

That way, I know if the email remains in the inbox, it requires action.

I even have some rules that automatically move certain emails to certain folders (like daily conflicts reports, automated deadline reminders, and emails with "unsubscribe" in them).

If you’re ready to level up, depending on the filing system your firm uses, you can connect the folder to that system, creating automatic saving to the firm document structure.

When I need something, I go to the folder to find it, or I lean on Outlook’s not-always-reliable, but improving search tools—across all Outlook items.

A folder structure will evolve over time, and can be deeply personal, but here’s mine:

First, I’m a litigator, so I have a litigation folder, with sub-folders. I organize emails by the partners I work a lot for, the clients I work a lot for and/or stand-alone matters as appropriate:

📧 Litigation

📧 Partner Initials

📧 Matter Name

📧 Stand-Alone Matter

📧 Stand-Alone Client

📧 Matter Name

Next, I have a firm folder, also with sub-folders, as follows:

📧 Firm

📧 Monthly Hours Reports

📧 Daily Conflicts Report

📧 Recruitment

📧 Orientation

📧 Committee Name

The parent folder can be a catch-all for emails that don’t fit in a sub-folder (or until I create the appropriate sub folder).

Other stand-alone (parent) folders I use include:

📧 Professional Development (for all the extracurricular emails, making sub folders as appropriate)

📧 CLEs (capturing all my CLE attendance sheets for reporting purposes)

📧 To Do; To Save (capturing interesting things or celebratory tid bits I want to keep)

Here, again, experimenting is key.

Start small, create folders as you go, rename and move them around.

You’ll know when you’ve found what feels right.

Tomorrow: categories and color-coding, for when inbox zero isn’t possible.

#lawyerwellbeing #professionalwomen #productivity #bestadvice