10 Overlooked Functions Of Email

The age, when people used pen and paper to write letters, is over. At the turn of the century, almost everyone rely on the email for high-speed communication. You can use your account to converse or even strike business deals with anyone who has an active email address, regardless of distance. This is a clear advantage, given the amount of information conveyed in a few minutes. Remarkably, the list of things you can do with your email do not end there. More functions are waiting to be discovered if you look close enough.

Many email providers, especially the reputable ones, have included bonus features to their platforms, which make emailing more convenient.

Incidentally, those features also paved the way for the program’s myriad of alternative uses. You can use your email as an extension of your hard drive, an online planner or even a tool for early-morning reminders. With all of its functions, you can say that the email is one of the reasons why people go online, in the first place. Here are ten often overlooked functions of electronic mail.

1. File Storage

Most email programs provide storage space worth several gigabytes for attachments, which means you can send large files via email. Naturally, you can use your email as a means of storing files. How?

• You can either send files to yourself then save them.
• or set your account to automatically store sent files.

This way, you can still access your most important documents, through your email, if your computer crashes or your hard drive gets corrupted. Having a backup is a necessity, especially if your work requires the use of a computer.

2. Early - Morning Reminder

People usually check their accounts, first thing in the morning, since some companies send tasks and reminders through email. You probably share the same morning routine. If you have an important task to do for the following day, you can send it to yourself via email before leaving the office. Chances are, you will check your account tomorrow morning and address the reminder in an instant.

3. Carrier for Pending Work

Aside from sending short reminders, you can also use your email for doing unfinished work. You just have to attach your unfinished document and send it to yourself. If attaching your work is not possible, you can copy-paste the document onto the message. Open the message at home then paste the document on the program assigned to run it. Just don’t forget to run the file through an anti-virus and an anti-spyware program, in case your office computer is infected by malicious programs.

4. Event Invitations

Physically sending invitations to a event can be tedious, especially if you don’t know some of the invited guests personally. What you can do is create a virtual invitation on your computer and send it through email.



When creating an invite, you can use Pagemaker and Photoshop, so the designs will look stunning. Write all the necessary info then open the invitation with a striking line or title. After doing the invitation, attach it to an email message. Gather the email addresses of those invited, which you can secure through your mobile phone or the Internet (company site, social networking sites, etc.). Send the message to the invited parties.
Of course, an actual invitation is still better than an emailed invite. So just save this method for emergencies.

5. Backup for Your Phone Book

Mobile phones are becoming smaller and more advanced as each year passes. A brand new model can easily be lost to muggers or through sheer absent mindedness. The funny thing is, many cellphone users grieve more over their lost contacts than the actual phone. In your case, you can save all of your contacts if you write them down in your email account’s contact list. The list will store their names and numbers, even if you don’t have their email addresses.

6. Unconventional Brainstorming

For projects and group presentations, scheduling a meeting can be a problem, especially if the team members live far away from one another. Email comes as an unconventional solution to this concern. The people who cannot attend the meeting can send their suggestions, comments and proposals by shooting mail to the other members. The others will then reply their own set of comments and suggestions, creating a cycle. The cycle continues until a solid concept is formulated.

 

7. Archiving Important Documents and Conversations

Remembering every detail of a conversation is not easy. In fact, some people take notes or use voice recorders to capture the whole thing. You can eliminate the stress of recalling details simply by having an email conversation with the other party. With the exchange of online messages, everything you need to know and recall are found in your account’s inbox. You can even track down each of your own replies by viewing the sent items folder.
To make things easier, you can categorize the other party/ies into a group, using your email settings. The messages from the group will be stored in a separate folder. You can then view the folder’s contents and weed out all the important messages in an instant.

8. Prank

Want to give your friends and co-workers a jolt? You can look no further than your email account. Change the name set in your account into your boss’ or your grandfather’s name. Message your “victims” with a stern lecture about their behavior. Not before long, you’ll receive calls from your buddies regarding the email. Let them off the hook when they can’t take the heat any longer. Just keep watch on the email addresses in your inbox. Some of them might retaliate pretty soon.

9. Patching Things Up with Enemies

After a heated issue, facing your enemy would seem awkward. You can kill the unnecessary tension by shooting him/her an email instead. Explain your points in your message and why you’re sorry for everything that happened. If you construct your message in a civil and objective tone, your enemy will soften his/her stance on the matter and send you an apology email as well. Remember, peace sells, if you make others feel the peace residing in you.

10. Collecting Payments

For organization heads, sending the bill through snail mail takes too much time, especially if you badly need funds for a project. The subject of the mailman, losing the bill, also comes in the picture. You can get funds faster if you email your members their billing statements. That way, they can settle their obligations, the moment they open their emails.

The email, being a convenient form of communicating information, has figured in the lives of many people. The truth is, checking and sending mail has become part of their routines. Once you discover everything that you can do with the service, almost every situation will swing in your favor. Technology, after all, is made to make daily life a bit more tolerable.