We all manage our personal email differently based on our own email archiving “solutions.” Research by the Association for Computing Machinery found that there are four types of email managers, each with a different method for personal email archiving. Generally, we all fall into one of these four categories:
No Filers are the people whose email archiving solution is that they don’t have an email archiving solution. If you only have the standard inbox, sent, spam and trash folders for your email, you’re a no filer. No filers don’t think they need email archiving. They use searches and tags to try to find the email they want, and then waste time scanning numerous search results to finally locate it.
Frequent Filers are the opposite of no filers. They invent their own email archiving solution by creating numerous folders to store email under various categories and rules. They are diligent about applying their archiving solution to every new email as soon as it hits their inbox, and they tend to spend more time than necessary ensuring each one is sorted.
Spring Cleaners want to have a well-organized email archiving solution, but they don’t have the time to keep up with the constant flow of new emails. Just like Frequent Fliers, they create a system, and it quickly gets pushed by the wayside as soon as their inbox becomes overwhelmed. Spring Cleaners don’t have the same dedication to their email archiving solution. Instead, they do their filing by periodically “Spring Cleaning” their inboxes, which results in lost time and an email archive that’s only organized part of the time.
Folderless Cleaners maintain a small inbox with only essential emails and send all non-essential mails straight to trash. Their email archiving solution may save time, but it can be dangerous. An email that appears unimportant now could become vital in the future.
These commonly used methods of sorting email are not true email archiving solutions. They work well enough for personal email, but they result in too much risk and wasted time to be replicated on a larger scale, such as business email.
With so many approaches to filing personal emails, how do you think business emails are handled in your company? Do you think all of your employees use a time-efficient, effective email archiving solution at the workplace? Download our free white paper, The Benefits of Email Archiving, to find out how Jatheon can turn the numerous email archiving methods of your employees into a true email archiving solution for your organization.
