Organize your email in color!

If you use Outlook or even Outlook Express, use color to organize your email. I have a visual personality so sorting by color organizes me quicker and without much thought involved on my part so it works for me. Maybe it will for you too!

I have all my clients email headers in red, my personal email from friends in green, family gets blue, e-lists get purple and the vendor email is brown. This way I can easily scan priority email every morning. It also makes the spam stick out since I leave this black and can scan through it easier to click and delete.

So how do I color my headers in my email box? The first thing you need to do is to select a message from the person you want all messages color highlighted.

Next you're looking for the Organize button located on the Standard toolbar. (You can also find Organize in the Tools menu). The Organize feature will open at the top of your mailbox.

On the left you should find the "Using Colors" option. Click it. The statement in this feature is simple enough.

By default it is trying to color messages "from" someone and the senders name from the highlighted message is already filled in, so... all you have to do is to pick a color from the drop down list at the end.

Click the Apply Color button and never overlook an email from that person again.

Another tip: Get into the habit of scheduling a certain time of day to read your e-mails. Don't keep your e-mail box open and check constantly throughout the day. When you do, your Outlook owns you. You will find you will accomplish so much more when you do this. A simple just send a quick e-mail can turn into valuable work time being wasted. Let your clients know when you routinely answer your mail and then they will be used to hearing back from you at that time.

For those work-at-home moms, time is of the essence. As successful virtual assistants, we know that we can better do our work for our clients globally if we successfully handle all aspects of our business in the most time effective manner.