SMART Job Seeker Cheat Sheet: E-mail Management

 By Mary Salvino, Career Management Coach

This easy-to-use cheat sheet pulls together the best tips, tricks, and advice from our archives.  It has been created to provide clear recommendations on how to address the most common areas for improvement related to managing your e-mail in-box during your job search: 

• Turn off the incoming mail ping/notification on your computer
• Check e-mail only at specific times during the day:
• First task in the morning
• Noon
• An hour before you are scheduled to leave for the day
• Apply RAT rules to e-mail as they come into your in-box:
• Read
• Action:
• Respond
• File:
• To do/Calendar
• Reference
• Trash
• Colour code and/or create sub-folders as needed:
• Personal
• Work
• Use the same names/colours for folders and sub-folders in both your in-box and your out-box (sent mail)
• Archive old e-mail on a weekly basis
• Purge in-box daily

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Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Show you care and share this article with your colleagues, coworkers and friends. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, the Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com. It is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future career opportunities. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an e-mail to Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca.