Email Management
Email can be overwhelming. To avoid overload and ensure institutional records are accessible, consider the following Records Management best practices to manage your email.
- Before creating an email message, consider whether it needs to be created:
- Can other modes of communication be used more efficiently or effectively?
- Could this information be shared on a collaborative workspace such as SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, or Slack?
- Is it necessary to CC all of the listed recipients?
- Do you need to reply? Avoid replying to messages you receive unless a reply is actually required.
- Email Organization: Create folders that are logically aligned with the way in which business is conducted for your office.
- Make a folder for each project and/or standing meeting and put all email related to this project into this single folder. When the project is complete, note the date of the termination of the records retention period and retain the entire folder until that time.
- Create a folder for specific functions, transactions, or processes. For example, if you approve purchases for your office, you can create an Approvals folder for each fiscal year.
- Create subfolders. For example, a Budget Files folder can have subfolders named for each budget with which you work or for the fiscal year.
- Create rules in Outlook
- A rule is an action performed automatically on incoming or outgoing messages, based on conditions that you specify. You can create rules to help keep you organized. For example, you can create rules to automatically file messages into folders or assign messages to categories.
- Right-click an existing messages and select Rules > Create Rule.
- Select a condition, and what to do with the message based on the condition.
- For example, to move messages with a certain title to a specific folder, select the Subject contains condition, select Move the item to folder, select or create a New Folder, and the select OK.
- When you’re done creating the rule, select OK.
- To use the rule right away, select the Run this new rule on messages already in the current folder checkbox, and then select OK.
- Assign a retention policy to an Outlook folder
- Retention policies define a period of time that items within an Outlook folder will be saved. The retention period begins from the date of creation for emails that you send or the date of receipt for emails that you receive. Once the retention period us up, emails within the folder will automatically be deleted.
- In the navigation pane, right-click a mail folder to bring up the shortcut menu and select properties.
- Select the policy tab and choose folder policy. By default, a folder will automatically use any policy that’s already been assigned to its parent folder.
- Delete Transitory Messages
- The majority of messages sent and received have a transitory value. They may request or provide information but don’t serve any legal or financial purpose nor historical value for the institution (e.g. emails sent as reference, emails used to schedule or accept meetings, announcements, etc.). Delete transitory messages as soon as a reply is given/received or as soon as you no longer need it for reference.
- Send links to files instead of sharing files as attachments.
- Consult the Electronic Communications section of the General Retention Schedule via the records management website for retention and disposition guidance.
- Going through your email periodically and purging messages that are past retention helps you keep track of what is most important and reduces Dartmouth’s liability.
- Consider email review as a routine work function.
- Schedule recurring time on your calendar to review and clean up your email.
- Consider implementing an annual office-wide cleanup day
Feeling overwhelmed? Pick a date and start managing your email from that day forward.