To make life easier, rethink how you store and manage information on your computer.

Think you win the prize for out-of- control e-mail? In her consulting work, Laura Leist has met people with upwards of 22,000 messages in their in-boxes. She asks new clients as an icebreaker: “So, do you know how to use the delete key?”

Leist is president of Eliminate Chaos, a company that helps businesses and individuals organize their workplaces and their lives. These days, nearly everyone juggles more information than ever in the form of e-mails and computer documents. When this information is mismanaged, productivity can suffer.

“I see a lot of stressed-out employees who are overwhelmed and wasting a tremendous amount of time because they can’t put their finger on the information they need,” Leist explains. She offers simple advice for controlling computer data.

Manage Your E-mail
There are four actions you can take on an e-mail after reading it, Leist suggests. You can:

1. Delete it.
2. Forward it to someone.
3. File it.
4. Act on it.

The only e-mails that should live in your in-box are those that require action, she says. The others you can deal with at once by deleting, forwarding, or filing to a logically named subfolder. You won’t have to open those e-mails again later, and you’ll enjoy a more manageable in-box. Leist advises setting aside an hour or so a day to act on the e-mails that remain in your in-box.

Organize Your Files
A sensible filing system for computer documents can increase efficiency and lower stress. Review the types of information you keep on your computer and divide that information into broad categories that make sense to you and your organization, such as “Advertising” or “Clients.”

Next, create appropriate subfolders in each main file. In “Advertising,” for example, you might have subfolders for “Newspapers,” and “Online Classifieds.” Create another layer of subfolders as needed. “Newspapers” might contain a subfolder for each paper you advertise in, for instance.

If you always save new documents to the right folder, your information will always be at your fingertips.

Rethink Document Names
When a document’s name identifies its contents, you don’t have to open it to make sure what it is. “A name like ‘Memo’ or ‘Jane’s Letter’ tells me nothing,” Leist explains. But “MemoHealthBenefits121009” instantly identifies a memo about health benefits written Dec. 10, 2009. Add “v2” to designate Version 2. Create and stick with a system that makes sense to you and others who share your documents.

Find Buried Information
Check out your computer’s “find” function. You may discover you can search your entire hard drive for file names beginning or ending with certain characters; for documents opened within the past three days; or for files whose contents include distinctive keywords. For more search power, consider the free Google Desktop application downloadable from www.desktop.google.com.

Back Up Your Data
There’s no bigger time-waster than loss of information due to a power outage or hard drive failure. Ensure your information is backed up regularly. This may mean saving information only to your organization’s server, or regularly backing up to a CD or a separate hard drive. Online services such as Carbonite and Mozy will back up your computer’s information regularly and store it online for a fee.

You’re likely to benefit from any of these techniques—as long as you stick with them, Leist notes. “If you don’t maintain your habits, the clutter will surely return.”

Polly Turner spoke with Laura Leist, C.P.O., author of Organizing Your Workday Using Microsoft Outlook 2007 (Snohomish, Wash.: Eliminate Chaos, 2008); president of Washington-based Eliminate Chaos; and president of the National Association of Professional Organizers.

© StayWell Custom Communications. Information is the opinion of the sourced authors and organizations. Personal decisions regarding health, diet, and exercise should be made only after consultation with the reader's own medical advisers. This material may not be reproduced for redistribution without written permission from StayWell Custom Communications.