E-MAIL ORGANIZATION FOR MECHANICAL DESIGN ENGINEERS

Audio: E-mail organization for mechanical design engineers

In the article “Required skills for mechanical design engineers – part 1“, I wrote about the importance of organizational skills. In this article, I will expand on this idea and start with fundamental steps to become more organized. We will discuss why e-mail organization is crucial and move to practical actions. I am using Microsoft Outlook as my primary e-mail provider, but I will try to keep this article as generic as possible so that you can apply these steps to your e-mail software.

Introduction to e-mail organization

Working as a mechanical design engineer, you are operating in the domain of chaos. Depending on your company, there could be more or less chaos, but nonetheless, it is chaos. You could be working on a few projects at a time that are in different stages of development while supporting the existing ones. Furthermore, you could work on improving the current process, creating new ones, having your yearly improvement goals and training, etc. You will receive and share a tremendous amount of information daily.

You will receive different requests, questions, and approval from various company departments. There will be different communication with suppliers, like technical and drawing questions, quotes, project schedules, tasks, reports, shipping, etc. You could receive quality issues that need to be addressed and your design and drawings updated. You will receive different meeting requests, promotions, software updates, etc. Occasionally, you could have problems with some software you are using, so you will have to contact technical support, etc.

As you work on more projects and as more of these projects get complicated, your inbox will get fuller and harder to navigate. It will be harder for you to find certain important e-mails. I wrote about this in “10 mistakes that young mechanical design engineers make” I started organizing my e-mail when I got to over 1000 e-mails in my inbox. At that point, it is tough to clean it up properly without wasting a tremendous amount of time on it. And while you are cleaning your e-mail, they still keep coming.

For all these reasons above, I hope you will listen to me and not make the same mistake as I did. Organize your e-mail as soon as possible, and you will not come up as sloppy and unorganized but as tidy and organized.

Learn how to use your e-mail software

Most of us use e-mail every day without knowing the full capabilities of the software we are using. Most e-mail software has more capabilities than just sending and receiving e-mail. When I planned to improve my digital literacy, the first thing on my list was to learn e-mail software properly.

I am using Microsoft Outlook, and I find it the best suited for what I need. It integrates my e-mail with my calendar, tasks list, notes, and Microsoft team, and it can be integrated with OneDrive, SharePoint, and OneNote. Furthermore, it is compatible with all the standard Microsoft tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

I will share one of the best functions I am using regarding e-mail organization. The idea is to give you an overview of what can be done with the e-mail software, and then you can research how to implement these functions in the e-mail software you are using.

If you would like to learn how to use Outlook functions, I would suggest taking this course: Ultimate Microsoft Office; Excel, Word, PowerPoint & Access.

Shortcuts, toolbar, and quick access bar

Learn what shortcuts you can use. Some will suit your working process, and some will not. For example, the Outlook shortcut for the new e-mail is “ctrl + N.” By pressing these two buttons, a new e-mail window will automatically pop out, and you can start writing your e-mail.

Most software allows you to optimize your toolbar and quick access bar. Usually, you can reorganize them, add and remove different commands, or create, remove, and add different command groups, etc.

Learning which shortcuts suit you and optimizing your tool and access bar could improve your efficiency when using your e-mail.

Optimize your view pan

Usually, you can adjust the user interface to fit your preferred workflow. For example, you can define how your e-mail will be sorted by default (for example, by date), which information will be shown before you open the e-mail, if you want to have an e-mail preview pane or not, and you can add task previews meeting previews, etc. What we will add or not is entirely up to us and our preferences.

Learn how to use search options

The search option is a really useful tool in any e-mail software. You can search by subject, sender, with or without attachment, date range, categories, etc. Furthermore, there is also an option to use search commands like AND, OR, NOT, etc. which could give you better search results.

E-mail signature

Most e-mail software can add the e-mail signature automatically to your e-mail. You can define several signatures and which one will be the default. Furthermore, switching between the different signatures once they are set up is extremely easy.

Automatic replies

When you are out of the office, you can set up an automatic response to any e-mail that will come during your absence. The idea behind the automatic replies is to notify others that you are currently unavailable and that your response might be delayed. This approach is more professional than giving the impression of someone who is not replying to e-mails.

Create folder and subfolder structure

Once you optimize your e-mail software usage, you can move forward with e-mail organization. I found that the best way to organize my e-mail is to use folders and subfolders for different projects or topics.

There is no one-fit-them-all solution in this case. This highly depends on the company you are working in and on your preferred working process. The basic idea is to organize your folders and subfolders in a logical structure that fits your preferences and needs. As times move forward, you will expand your structure based on the new projects and topics that might come around.

The best advice I got is that you use your folders as a place to “archive” your e-mails. That means your inbox will only contain the e-mails requiring your attention.

Here is an example of a folder/subfolder structure that I use:

This type of structure allows me to quickly find e-mails based on different projects and topics that might arise without using the search command. Of course, as the project progresses and evolves, I would add new subfolders to ensure that the e-mails are in the folders that make the most logical sense to me. There is no right or wrong way of doing this; there is only your way of doing it. In the end, you are the one who will use it.

Categorize your e-mail

Additional help to e-mail organization is to create different categories. Categories allow you to label related e-mails in groups to track them quickly. I would say that this could be used in addition to the folders and subfolders as a failsafe option in case you have a hard time founding something.

For example, you can use categories to mark all e-mails related to the same project. And then, some of them you can mark with additional categories. This can be used when you are using the search command, you write the sender e-mail, and choose the project category, and you will get results where you received an e-mail from this specific person for that particular project.

E-mail rules and conditional formatting

You can define specific automatic actions that could be performed with incoming or outgoing e-mails. For example, you are subscribed to a newsletter, and you set the rule that from that specific newsletter, e-mails are automatically moved to a certain folder.

With the use of conditional formatting, you can make certain e-mails stand out from others. For example, if the e-mail subject contains a certain word, that e-mail will be shown in your inbox with different color, font, or style of your choosing. This is powerful tool that can be utilized for e-mail organization.

Additional tips

BCC and E-mail subject

BCC – if you want to include someone in your e-mail chain but do not want other participants to know that this person can see the e-mail, use the BCC field.
E-mail subject – When writing an e-mail, write only relevant information in a subject field. Ensure that your subject includes the name of the project (or project number) and a short description of the e-mail. The reader of your e-mail should immediately get an idea about what your e-mail is about.

Bad example: “Issues with surface finish.”

Good example: “Project A, Component 1, Part number – surface finish issues”.

In case you are sending e-mails weekly to inform others about weekly progress or similar, include either date or current week number.

For example: “Project A, week 3/23, weekly progress report”.

E-mail structure

Structure your e-mail – when writing a long and important e-mail, try to structure it in a way that is not hard to read and understand. In the end, everyone should know what the point of your e-mail is. So before I write an e-mail, I think about three questions: What is the message that I want to communicate, with whom am I communicating it, and what are relevant information to communicate it properly.
The message you want to communicate – could be to inform your team about your progress, details on different components, or testing you have done. The message could also be to reassure your team that the problem we had is solved. Furthermore, it could be to get confirmation or approval for different topics, etc.
To whom you are communicating – this should be more precise than just your “team” or “colleagues.” You should keep in mind that the approach is not the same if you are writing the e-mail to engineers or managers. It is not the same if you write an e-mail to the electrical engineers, production engineers, production managers, and marketing managers.
There is a different level of knowledge regarding the topic you are writing about amongst the recipients. There is also a difference in interest and the necessary level of detail from your recipients. You should keep this in mind when you are writing e-mails.
Now that you know what message you want to communicate and to whom, you can start thinking about what you need to communicate. For example, what is the level of detail you should explain? Do you need pictures, diagrams, reports, or reference other e-mails? You should include as much information as possible to properly communicate your message in the shortest e-mail possible.
For example, you want to order bolts.
The message you want to communicate: I need approval for ordering bolts.
To whom you want it to communicate: department manager.
What information do you need to communicate: reason and price.
So based on the three points above, I would write an e-mail like this:
“Good afternoon, Name,
I am working on Project A, Assembly 1, and based on my calculations, I need Bolts Mxyz. I checked, and we do not have them in stock. I would like to order them. They are sold in a box with 50 pieces; one box costs xy€. In the attachment, you can find the purchase request.
Could you please approve it?
Kind regard,
Name”.

Optimize your calendar

Add time zones to your calendar – if you are working with teams around the World, it is extremely useful to see time in their time zones. I have defined different time zones in my calendar, and I can see those times compared to mine. I found this to be extremely useful when planning meetings or when I want to contact someone directly.

Flag your e-mails

Flag your e-mails – you can “flag “an e-mail that requires you to follow up on. This can be particularly useful when you do not have to reply immediately but you would like to return on it. You can also create a reminder that will remind you to reply to that e-mail at the time of your convenience.

Closing words

A large amount of information will go through your e-mail daily. With all the work you need to do and the things you must think about, e-mail organization will make your life easier. Not only that, but you will be more efficient and look more professional. As I said, I am using Microsoft Outlook, but it does not matter which software you use; all these things can be somehow implemented. Therefore, I would suggest you spend some time getting to know your e-mail software’s possibilities and use those possibilities for your own leverage.

Furthermore, spend some time creating a proper folder and subfolder structures that will fit your company and your processes. The final piece of advice, do this sooner rather than later. The later you start, e-mail organization will be harder.

This was my opinion on e-mail organization. What do you think? Did I miss anything? Do you have other tips we could use for better e-mail organization? Share your experience and thoughts in the comments below!

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Table of Contents

Introduction to e-mail organization