Traditionally, organizing an email inbox has been a chore. If all emails from clients come to your address, then it’s a sorting game into folders. Simple email filters can make this a lot easier, but there’s always the question of your filter criteria. Usually, filtering by source address or domain can help, but this can lead to problems with clients with multiple points of contact or multiple email addresses.

I’ve found a simple solution to this using Gmail. I use Gmail for Domains for my email system, and this includes a nice feature. When giving contact information to clients, I append an identifier onto the end of the email address, like this: erik+client-name@eriktdesign.com.  This way, I can set up one filter for each client to sort by “To:” address into a single label for each client. Aside from saving hassle, this has several other benefits. First, you can see where referrals come from. Assuming your client gives someone else your contact information, you can clearly see that this new prospect has come in through a particular client. Also, you can tell if your email address has been sold down the river, and easily filter out the ensuing spam.

Jen at Pop Stalin also gave some good advice on organizing projects.