From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Creating email rules or filters

From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Creating email rules or filters

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- Before we process your first email, let's explore email filters, sometimes called rules. Most email apps use this feature to automatically answer all the what, when, where, processing questions for you. The most basic example of this is a coupon email from your favorite business. These don't affect my inbox at all thanks to filters. Here's a coupon from a local pizza place. I like to order pizza from them. So I want to keep this email, but not in my inbox. It usually looks something like this. I click on the email, then click the dropdown menu, and select filter messages like this. For this coupon, all I need is the simplest kind of rule. What email address did it come from? If I get an email from this pizza place, the rule will skip the inbox or archive it with a label coupons. So I'll never need to see this type of email in my inbox. Set up your email filter according to the app you use. By doing a simple online search for how to set up email filters for, and then the name of your favorite app. You may want to create a special folder to categorize filtered emails after they move out of your inbox. Why? Well, this is automatic filing. It requires no attention or effort. A presorted folder makes it easier to find filtered emails when I need them again. You can apply similar rules for informational emails, such as newsletters. I once worked with a mortgage company that would get hourly rate updates. We created a rule to put those into the daily rate update folder. Now, one caution. Avoid setting a rule for an email address that might someday contain something you need to process. Otherwise, you may accidentally create a new gathering point. Email filters when used properly can save you valuable time, and simplify processing.

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