How to Archive Emails
 Get-It-Done Guy’s easy tip to efficient inbox organization
We all get email we want to keep: updated contact information, specs for that report we’re supposed to write, and the formula for a herbal Native American immortality potion. It’s easy to file them in an email folder, but finding them can be impossible. When people use subject lines like “Here’s that info you wanted” or the ever-popular “Hi!”* it makes finding the message nearly impossible.
Before you archive an email message, read the subject line critically. If it isn’t a line you’re likely to remember when you need to retrieve the message, forward the email to yourself with a new subject line. “Hi!” becomes “Immortality potion recipe” and 193 years from now, when you need to review the recipe, a simple search will find it easily.
If you’re the person writing the email, don’t use vague subject lines. Read my article on writing better subject lines. Everyone you email will thank you.
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.Â
