Color-coding emails can be a helpful email processing and productivity tool.  Email can be a huge source of frustration and office inefficiency.  It also can cause stress if it starts to pile up.    If you use your email Inbox or another email folder to hold action items, I recommend using color- coding.  I am not really talking about using flags,  I am suggesting color coding the entire message.  The key to really benefiting from color-coding is to code your emails AS YOU ARE PROCESSING THEM THE FIRST TIME.

Instructions for how to color code messages:

Outlook

Mac users can change the email by putting your curser on the email and clicking the color wheel in your toolbar at the top of the page.  Select your color and close the box.

You can color-code emails in a way that works for you and your business.  Personally, I code “action items”, “follow-up items” and “waiting for a response” items different colors.   It might be easier for you to code by person, type of request or project.

3 Ways Color-Coding Email Increases Productivity

1.  When you are looking through your email box, spotting color is much faster to find than trying to scan through subjects or names.
2.  Color-coding keeps you from re-processing and re-reading the same items over and over again, because you know you are looking for a certain color.
3. Informational emails usually end up plain, and you know you can read them later when you have time.

Try color-coding your emails for one week to see if it is a productivity tool that will work for you.  I would love to hear your feedback.

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