11.1 Mail you can stay on top of

What you'll be able to do

Run an inbox you empty, instead of a pile you scroll. Three verbs for sorting, rules that do the repetitive filing, search that actually finds things, and outgoing mail that people answer.

Before you start

Your own mailbox in new Outlook for Windows. This lesson is done on live mail, because a pretend inbox teaches nothing.

The work

1. Same either way: sort each new message with exactly one of three verbs. Delete it: press Delete, and this is most mail. Do it now, if it takes under two minutes: reply with Ctrl+R, or Ctrl+Shift+R to reply to everyone. Make that second one a choice, on purpose, because a reply-all thread that runs away is a well-known office disaster. Or defer it: flag it for follow-up with Insert and move on. Nothing stays in the inbox as a reminder, because the flags and tasks in the next lessons do the remembering.
2. Same either way: build a small set of folders and file with intent. A handful of folders by project or area, not fifty, because a deep tree of folders becomes a job of its own. The folder pane holds them, and Ctrl+Y jumps to it. Categories, which are colour labels on the message's context menu at Shift+F10, cut across folders when one message belongs to two areas. Mark messages read and unread on purpose with Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+U as you sort.
3. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: automate the handling that repeats. Go to Settings → Mail → Rules and make a few: newsletters move to a Reading folder, the daily system report is filed on arrival. A rule is sorting you never do again, and three good rules halve most inboxes. Quick Steps, on the Home tab, bundle a sequence of your own into one click: move to the project folder and mark as read. Use them for handling that repeats but should stay in your hands.
4. Same either way: search properly. The search box narrows by where it looks, and operators do the finding. from:priya names the sender, hasattachment:yes finds the files, and subject:invoice finds the word where it matters. They combine: from:priya hasattachment:yes. Ten seconds of operators beats ten minutes of scrolling, and that is why filing can stay light. Search carries what folders do not.
5. Same either way: write mail that gets answered, which is the other half of a healthy inbox, because bad outgoing mail creates bad incoming mail. Put the ask in the subject: "Approval needed: lab budget by Friday", not "Question". Put the ask in the first line. One ask per message. State the deadline. Write with Ctrl+N and send with Ctrl+Enter, after the ten-second reread that catches the missing attachment and the wrong tone.

Try it

Sort today's inbox to empty with the three verbs. Create three folders and two rules for the mail you really do get every week. Run two searches with operators that you would previously have scrolled for. Then rewrite the last vague mail you sent: the ask in the subject, the ask first, the deadline stated.

Check yourself