Email is a vital part of doing business. But too much email, if it’s not well managed, can be detrimental. You can waste time sifting through dozens of spam messages and accidentally delete important messages from clients.

“The psychological boat anchor of opening your email and seeing 1,200 emails sitting in your inbox can discourage you from getting anything done,” says Kevin Cork, a financial planner with the Absolute Group in Calgary, who spoke at the Institute of Advanced Financial Planning conference in Banff in September.

Cork offers these tips to help you take charge of your inbox:

> Use dedicated folders
Create folders for specific topics and for specific clients into which emails are sorted automatically as they arrive.

For example, Cork has a folder titled “Top 25 clients,” into which emails from his top clients are automatically routed. He can deal with those messages immediately.

Most email programs offer this option and, while it can take some time to set up the system “it means you never miss an email,” Cork says.

If you have Outlook, simply go to the “tools” menu, then “rules and alerts.” Follow the prompts from there.

You can also create folders for less urgent emails that you’ll want to read at your leisure.
Cork suggests setting up a folder for messages coming in from wholesalers, economist or analysts. By having these less urgent emails automatically sorted into a separate folder, you know where you can find them when you have time to read them.

> Hide addresses
For outgoing messages, use the blind carbon copy or bcc field to protect your clients’ privacy and make your mass emails more professional.

Start by creating a fake email address — Cork uses topclients@theabsolutegroup.com —to put in the “to” field. Place the actual email addresses of your recipients in the “bcc” field. This way, client addresses are hidden.

> Make it personal
Placing individual greetings on your emails is a great way to personalize your messages, but it can be time consuming.

Save time by using client relationship management software such as ACT, which works through Outlook to write a personalized greeting for each selected email address.

> Set up reminders
The “calendar” and “contacts” tools in Outlook can help you prioritize tasks and follow-up to emails, making your to-do list a lot easier to handle.

For example, if you want to remember to call client “X” at 11:00 on Thursday, drag an email from that client into the contacts section. Doing so will create a new contact, which you can then drag into the desired date and time in Outlook calendar. The program will then give you regular pop-up reminders of your commitment.

> Check your spelling
Keep your emails professional – and intelligible – by using your spellcheck.

“You have to take a few minutes and customize it to recognize terms like RRSP as a word,” Cork says. “You don’t want clients to get the impression that you’re slovenly.”