In today’s era of information-overload, it’s more important than ever to be able to filter what comes at you.

One of the best ways to keep organized electronically and gain control over the flow of incoming e-mail is to use the “Rules” feature in your e-mail in-box. Once you discover its simplicity and power, you’ll do it again and again.

Most of the top e-mail programs (Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc.) allow you to easily set up folders in your e-mail box other than the main “in-box.”

A rule is your way of telling your e-mail system to automatically route e-mails from (or to) a particular source to that folder. For example, let’s say you receive many e-mails from your credit group. You could set up a folder entitled “credit group,” and then have any e-mails from the group automatically routed to the folder.

To get started in Outlook, simply click on the “organize” icon. The easy instructions will appear on your screen.

The advantages are: 1) you send e-mail to designated folders that you can review when you are ready; 2) you can more easily find old e-mails by subject.

Once you learn how easy it is (and it takes about 20 seconds to set on up), you’ll want to set up many rules to keep e-mail from various sources organized. Get started now.