Has e-mail ever gotten you into a pickle? The technology available to us today is often useful and efficient. At times, however, it can be more of a headache than of help. Here are some trouble-shooting tips to make e-mail writing less painful.

Archive Your Inbox: Practice having an empty inbox at all times by creating archive folders for former messages for each of the projects you’re working on. Once the task in the message is complete, file the message into the appropriate folder. This will allow you to be able to look up old messages as well as see what messages are new and require imminent action.

Save Attachments: When you receive a document as an attachment, be sure to save it onto your hard drive immediately. This will ensure you will have the document at your fingertips when you need it. To save it, open the attachment, go to FILE, and press, SAVE AS. Name the document and file it in the appropriate folder.

Auto Signature: Most e-mail programs have the capacity to attach your signature on every sent message. Having your name, phone number, and address automatically attached to every message will make sure the recipient has all of your pertinent information, even if you forget to include it.