Yesterday i wrote about my email makeover. Today i've started using the new system; setup a new structure and dealt with the backlog.

Before

I'm a microsoft outlook user; Outlook uses something called pst files to locally store personal folders. I've been using those files in two ways for a number of years now: as last years archive and as a store for each project i've been working on.

The latter makes it easy for me to keep email together with the rest of the project files. And when i'm done, i can archive all at once in a single place. A system which works for me and doesn't need to change.

The 'last year' archives, is something i do (did) each january: move all email to a last year .pst and archive the .pst from the year before. However i've not made separate files for 2005 and 2006 and so far haven't come round to making a single 2007 file (i.e.: simply forgot about it). The 2005-2006 file also contains an 'open 2004' folder for some reason. I bet that's really important stuff i need to deal with a.s.a.p.

All in all, i am looking at a backlog spanning from january 2004 up to yesterday; 4 years and a few months...

Dealing with the backlog

First course of action is simply closing my 2005-2006 archive. Whack! That's i don't know how many emails out of my system!

As for all mails from 2007, i've moved them to a 2007 pst archive too. Another large amount of mails out of sight, leaving me with just a backlog from 1 january 2008. Unfortunately i cannot discard these mails that easily, so first setup the new structure.

New structure

I've created two new .pst files: 'Current' and 'Archive'. Current will contain both new email and email i need to store for a while. The archive obviously is just that: the archive, a place to permanently store email i want to keep.

Inside those files i'll gradually build a folder structure based on arising needs, to have mail sorted the way i like it. This is especially important for the archive, as it'll otherwise become a flat system (all mail in a single folder), which is something i simply cannot handle.

Dealing with the 2008 backlog

Now the new structure is in place, i can start attacking the 2008 backlog. Unfortunately although most mail is contained in the inbox, quite some is also scattered over various folders.

However, let's make life easy! I've made a 2008 archive and went through the folders (ex inbox), moving what i considered important to either my new 'current' or new 'archive'.

Finally, all left to do was my 2008 inbox, with just over 300 emails. I've made a few passes through it, deleting most and moving some to my new store folder in 'current' and to my new 'archive', resulting in Inbox empty!

My temporarily 'store' now contains four folders:

• 'Follow up' (2 emails) for emails i need to, euhm, follow up.
• 'Ideas' (4 emails) because i'm in the habit of mailing myself ideas every now and then and for now don't have another way of storing those yet.
• 'Orders' (1 email) for online orders i've placed.
• 'To Do' (4 emails) for things i need to do today or tomorrow.

All in all it took me less than three hours to setup the lot and clear my backlog. Now can i concentrate on following my system and also make a start to unsub from a number of mailings, or create immediate delete rules for those.

It already is a good feeling having dealt with all email. Now tackle the 'to do' items and i'm done for today!