Email ROT Deleting Guide

How to use this guide

This is a list of emails that you can delete at will. Over 80% of our email is ROT: redundant, obsolete, or transitory. Many types of email have no administrative, legal, fiscal, or archival requirements for their retention. These emails are considered transitory and redundant and can be deleted as soon as their reference purpose is served. Deleting ROT email on a regular basis makes it easier to manage the remaining substantive messages, and makes offboarding a breeze. Should your email become responsive to an audit, public records request, or e-discovery for litigation, you’ll be able to respond swiftly and accurately.

Before you start deleting, take a brief moment to review the UW Email Policy, for a firm grounding on University expectations for email management. If you suspect that you have email on destruction hold due to audit, public records request, or litigation, do NOT delete those messages and instead reach out to the appropriate UW office to confirm the status of the matter.

Please contact the ROT Squad at any time at rotsquad@uw.edu if you have questions about managing your email, or additions/corrections for this list.

ROT Phase 1: Simple

Deleted items

Before you do anything else, empty your Deleted items or Trash folder. You must empty your Deleted Items/Trash folder in order to fully delete and thereby eliminate your responsibility for those records. Plus, you can get a count of all the emails you deleted during your cleanup session, a positive proof of your cleanup accomplishment whether it's 200 or 20,000.

From now on, empty your Deleted folder at least every 3 months, or more frequently if possible. While you're at it, empty the Recycle bin on your desktop. Set a recurring reminder in your calendar to empty your Deleted/Trash folder.

Newsletters and listservs

Newsletters and listservs are great sources of information and community, but they are also high-volume inbox fillers. You can safely delete newsletters as soon as the reference purpose has been served. If you are the party creating and sending the newsletter, however, refer to History Files for retention.

Pro tip: Create a Rule (Outlook) or Filter (Gmail) to automatically move newsletters to a separate folder and skip your Inbox. This makes them easier to delete after reading and allows you to review these messages when it's convenient for your schedule, instead of demanding your attention the moment they land in your Inbox among other more urgent emails.

Pro tip: Visit the UW Email Preference Center to manage all your UW-wide subscriptions.

Search for “unsubscribe”, including UW-related newsletters (UW Today, UW Insider, POD, Procurement News, Meany Center, e-outages, etc.). To exclude a certain name or other word from your search results, such as substantive emails from a vendor using a template that includes the word unsubscribe, type "NOT" then your desired term:

   unsubscribe NOT POD

Automatic Notifications

Automatic notifications generated by databases or other centralized systems, such as Workday, SharePoint, OneDrive, Zoom, or Teams. These automatic notifications are considered duplicates and can be destroyed as soon as they have served their reference purpose. They will be visible and accessible for their full retention period in the system of record and can be reproduced as needed.

Search for the following terms:

• from:uw@myworkday.com
• from:no-reply@omnilert.com
• from:no-reply@zoom.us
• from:@subscriptions.kingcounty.gov
• from:no-reply@sharepointonline.com
• from:noreply@email.teams.microsoft.com
• from:uwhires@uw.edu
• from:libaccts@uw.edu
• from:ariba_apps (for notifications still lurking from the pre-Workday era…)
• from:eoutage-bounces@mailman12.u.washington.edu
• from:dse_na2@docusign.net

Side note: How to disable your Zoom meeting attendee notifications:

1. Open Zoom in an Internet browser.
2. Log in with your UW NetID credentials
3. Click Settings on the left.
4. Ensure Meeting is highlighted on the tabs at the top. Click Email Notification to jump to that section.
5. Adjust the settings to your preference. Settings are saved as soon as you change them, noted by the green box at the top of the screen.

UW- and Department-wide announcements (unless you're the sender)

Cookies in the break room, welcome new hires, updated COVID protocols, upcoming events, etc. Used only for reference or informational distribution, these announcements are considered duplicates. You can safely delete announcements you have received as soon as the reference purpose has been served. If you are the party creating and sending the announcement refer to History Files for retention.

Search for the sender's email address, such as:

• from:uwpres@uw.edu
• from:uwmtalk@uw.edu

Meeting Items

Calendar notifications and any emails arranging meetings are Informal Notifications/Communications and can be deleted as soon as the reference purpose has been served. If you are not the owner of the meeting, you can also delete copies of agendas and meeting minutes distributed to you as an attendee as they are considered duplicates. Tip: Remember to search your Sent mail for these meeting items. In Outlook, sort your Inbox by Type to gather together all meeting items, then delete.

Search for the following terms:

• subject:”automatic reply”
• Outlook desktop:
  
  • messageclass:IPM.Schedule.Meeting
• Outlook on the web / O365:
  
  • Accepted:
  • Maybe:
  • Declined:
• Gmail:
  
  • “Calendar Invitation”
• Mac mail:
  
  • Accepted:
  • Maybe:
  • Declined:

A note on calendars:

At UW we retain our Calendars, Appointment Books, Daily Schedules, Telephone Logs for 1 year after the end of the calendar year. For example, during 2024 you can safely delete your calendar from 12/31/2022 and prior. Use our guide to Clean Up Your Calendar in Outlook in just 5 minutes.

Drafts

All drafts in any format or location can be deleted as soon as the email or file is finalized and the draft is no longer needed for reference. Tip: if you're cleaning up your draft emails and you discover a new action or project for follow-up, write the next action in your to-do list rather than saving the obsolete draft email. Alternatively, consider setting a reminder alarm on the draft email itself so it doesn't get lost to time…again.

Junk

The junk filters set by UW-IT rarely miss a beat. Every 3-6 months, take a quick cruise through your Junk folder to ensure that it only contains junk, then delete. Sort by Sender to make it easier to skim. If you find an email that you indeed wanted to receive, add an email address to your Safe Senders list in Outlook.

Clutter

Clutter is an optional folder provided by Outlook. Every 3-6 months, take a quick cruise through your Clutter folder to ensure it contains only unneeded messages. Retrieve any emails you really want, and add the senders to your Safe Senders list (see above). If you find Clutter is “harvesting” too many emails that you need, just turn it off.

Voicemails in your email

Especially while working remotely, many of us choose to be alerted to new voicemails via our email account. Depending on your settings configuration in the UW voicemail system, you may also receive a transcription or an attached sound file. These voicemail system-generated emails are considered duplicates, as the original record is the voicemail recording file saved in the central voicemail system. Delete these emails as soon as they have served their reference purpose, just as you delete voicemails. 

Pro tip: you can sign into the UW voicemail system Web PhoneManager online to tweak the settings so that you still receive a notification, but do not receive the attached .wav file. Your caller probably didn't intend for their voice to live in your email perpetually!

Search for:

• voicemsg@uw.edu
• voicemaildonotreply@uw.edu
• .wav

CCs

Were you copied on an email for your information only? And you already took the action or learned the facts you needed? Delete the email. Make this a daily habit. Remember, CC stands for carbon copy. Before the advent of email, a typist created an original document and the carbon copy was a backup and exact duplicate of the original document that a person could tear off with a dramatic flourish before sending it to the file dungeon via pneumatic tubes.

Search for the following terms:

• Outlook (any version): cc:”jhusky@uw.edu”
• Gmail: cc:me
• Mac mail: cc: me

Anything uploaded to Workday

Workday is the University's system of record and after you have uploaded a record, such as an invoice or receipt, we strongly recommend that you delete the original file and the email it came in. After uploading, you may choose to keep those uploaded items until month end close, but rest assured you do not need to keep them any longer.

Search for emails from vendors that you work with, or other financial or HR-related records. Note your “frequent fliers”, or create a Rule or Filter to automatically move emails from vendors to a given folder.

Reports from a database

Extracted data, or reports produced from a database are considered duplicates and can be destroyed as soon as they have served their reference purpose. Documents derived from a master file or database in the form of statistics, reports, auto-generated notifications, and reminders will be visible and accessible for their full retention period in the system of record and can be reproduced as needed. Examine who sent those reports, whether it's a system or a human, then search for that sender's email address—maybe there are other similar emails you can delete.

ROT Phase 2: More complex ROT

Pour yourself another cup of coffee, these might take a little longer to sort through. Once you get the hang of identifying and deleting these items, it will become a very helpful habit and you will become a deleting quick-draw artist.

Information desk emails

Internal and external requests and responses for general information, such as information easily found on your website. What are your office hours? What is your phone number/location? What's the application deadline? Delete requests for routine, standardized information applicable to any requestor in a comparable situation.

Organizing/Monitoring Work in Progress

Did you complete that step on Project Alpha?...No, I'm doing it on Tuesday after our all-staff meeting...OK, step 4 is complete, I saved the final version on the network drive….Thanks! Nice job!

Emails relating to the assigning, prioritizing, tracking/monitoring and status of work/projects in progress can be deleted at any time. Add cleaning up these messages to your standard project closing procedure or routine. Note: for financial charges relating to work in progress, such as equipment repairs, refer to Billing Source Documents.

Search for project names or collaborator's email addresses. Also applies to transitory conversations in collaboration platforms like Teams Chat or Slack. Tip: this type of email quickly becomes obsolete when projects close or move on in time. Sort your emails by date received and work up from the oldest conversations.

Brainstorming and Collaborating

Emails generated as part of the brainstorming/collaboration process. These could be never-ending long threads with multiple people. They might span a long period of time as a topic is picked up then abandoned. Either way, delete as soon as these records have served their reference purpose.

Search for project names or collaborator's email addresses. Also applies to transitory conversations in collaboration platforms like Teams Chat or Slack. Tip: this type of email quickly becomes obsolete when projects close or move on in time. Sort your emails by date received and work up from the oldest conversations.

Emails from your previous UW job

Don't carry records from a previous job into a new job. You wouldn't dump the contents of the file cabinets into your tote bag on your last day—don't take all your emails with you either. You should share any substantive emails from your previous UW position with your previous supervisor, then delete them from your email account. We have resources on offboarding on our website to help you with this task.

If you have been out of your previous position for a minimum of 6 years, search for any Archival records like photographs or recordings, save those records outside your email to transfer to the UW Archives, then delete the rest of the emails from that time period. Need advice tackling email remediation? Email the ROT Squad at rotsquad@uw.edu.

Friendly emails

To learn more about de minimus use of University resources, we highly recommend taking Internal Audit's Ethics Training: https://fa.uw.edu/audit/ethics-training. Trading recipes, baby photos, or links to that great restaurant? Remember when you accidentally used your work email to order those flowers? Time to delete those emails (and take 1 minute right now to switch over that account to your personal email instead).

Search for:

• your partner/spouse's name
• your family members' names
• school names, sports teams, volunteer orgs, etc.
• “this weekend”
• tonight
• “after work”
• restaurant
• vacation photos
• recipe

Tackling Sent Mail

Tackling sent mail can be very daunting if a lot of messages have accumulated over time. Here are some successful tactics:

• Search for specific correspondents. If you always just organize work in progress with Jim, you can confidently delete whole conversations with Jim. If you usually give/receive financial approvals with Jamila, you should be more alert to substantive emails that should be retained.
• Start with the oldest messages first. These are most likely to be out of retention if they were ever substantive, depending on the record series each message belongs to. If all else fails, at least start deleting yearly batches annually. The majority of emails older than 6 years can be deleted unless they are on destruction hold or are Archival.
• Do you have ongoing research or other projects that are still active and for which you still have emails older than 6 years? Do a keyword search for those messages, and move them into a new, separate folder. Need a hand brainstorming keywords to retrieve that Archival gold? Contact the ROT Squad at rotsquad@uw.edu for help.

Conversation View vs. Conversation Cleanup in Outlook

We recommend viewing your email as Conversations in Outlook. This makes your email threads much easier to track (and delete). Gmail and Mac Mail automatically display email threads (back-and-forths) as discrete groups.

Outlook has a related feature named Conversation Cleanup. This process deletes all but the last email in a given thread. We strongly recommend against using Conversation Cleanup for the following reasons: 

1. Conversation Cleanup deletes attachments for all but the last email. This means that if you use Conversation Cleanup you may lose substantive attached records if the file is not already saved outside of your email. Instead, keep on top of saving finalized, substantive attachments in a shared central storage location like SharePoint or a shared network drive. Go ahead and ask the other people working on the project "hey, are you saving this file or do I need to?"
2. Conversation Cleanup does not delete Sent emails, those you still have to delete manually. Instead, use our tips for tackling Sent Mail above, or contact the ROT Squad for help planning your Sent Mail cleanup. 
3. When you retain only the most recent email in a Conversation (thread), you lose the metadata for the deleted earlier emails, and metadata can be responsive to audits, public records requests, and litigation.
4. When you retain only the most recent email in a Conversation (thread), it's much easier to alter the earlier conversation, thereby destroying the integrity of the email as a UW record. 

Overall, yes, turn on Conversation View in Outlook and no, do not use Conversation Cleanup. 

Our favorite example searches

Outlook for desktop & Outlook O365

Emails from before 1/1/2016 but NOT emails from RMS:

  received:<1/1/2016 NOT recmgt@uw.edu

Emails from the ROT Squad with “bagel break” in the subject line, body, or attachment contents:

  from:rotsquad about:”bagel break”

Emails containing the word “ROT”, but not “rotisserie” or “rotation”:

  “ROT”

Emails that have attachments named draft.xlsx or an attachment that contains draft.xlsx within its contents:

  attachments:draft.xlsx

• For more on searching in Outlook, visit the Microsoft guide to searching
• For more on searching in Gmail, visit the Gmail guide to searching

Short list of ROT items

Phase 1: Simple

• Deleted items
• Newsletters and listservs
• Automatic Notifications
• UW- and Department-wide announcements (unless you're the sender)
• Meeting Items
• Drafts
• Junk
• Clutter
• Voicemails in your email
• CCs
• Anything uploaded to Workday
• Reports from a database

Phase 2: More Complex ROT

• Information desk emails
• Organizing/Monitoring Work in Progress
• Emails from your previous UW job
• Friendly emails

Short list of ROT items with search terms

Phase 1: Simple

• Deleted items
• Newsletters and listservs
  • Search for “unsubscribe”, including UW-related newsletters (UW Today, UW Insider, POD, Procurement News, Meany Center, e-outages, etc.). To exclude a certain name or other word from your search results, such as substantive emails from a vendor using a template that includes the word unsubscribe, type "NOT" then your desired term:
    
    • unsubscribe NOT POD
• Automatic Notifications
  • Search for the following terms:
    
    • from:uw@myworkday.com
    • from:no-reply@omnilert.com
    • from:no-reply@zoom.us
    • from:@subscriptions.kingcounty.gov
    • from:no-reply@sharepointonline.com
    • from:noreply@email.teams.microsoft.com
    • from:uwhires@uw.edu
    • from:libaccts@uw.edu
    • from:ariba_apps (for notifications still lurking from the pre-Workday era…)
    • from:eoutage-bounces@mailman12.u.washington.edu
    • from:dse_na2@docusign.net
• UW- and Department-wide announcements (unless you're the sender)
  • Search for the sender's email address, such as:
    
    • from:uwpres@uw.edu
    • from:uwmtalk@uw.edu
• Meeting Items
  • Search for the following terms, or sort your Inbox by Type (in Outlook):
    • subject:”automatic reply”
    • Outlook desktop:
      
      • messageclass:IPM.Schedule.Meeting
    • Outlook on the web / O365:
      
      • Accepted:
      • Maybe:
      • Declined:
    • Gmail:
      • “Calendar Invitation”
    • Mac mail:
      
      • Accepted:
      • Maybe:
      • Declined:
• Drafts
• Junk
• Clutter
• Voicemails in your email
  • Search for:
    
    • voicemsg@uw.edu
    • voicemaildonotreply@uw.edu
    • .wav
• CCs
  • Search for:
    • Outlook (any version): cc:”jhusky@uw.edu”
    • Gmail: cc:me
    • Mac mail: cc: me
• Anything uploaded to Workday
• Reports from a database

Phase 2: More Complex ROT

• Information desk emails
• Organizing/Monitoring Work in Progress
• Brainstorming and Collaborating
• Emails from your previous UW job
• Friendly emails
  • Search for:

     

    • your partner/spouse's name
    • your family members' names
    • school names, sports teams, volunteer orgs, etc.
    • “this weekend”
    • tonight
    • “after work”
    • restaurant
    • vacation photos
    • recipe

Thank you for reading the Email ROT Deleting Guide from the RMS ROT Squad. Please contact us at recmgt@uw.edu if you have suggestions/corrections for this guide. Your feedback truly is valuable to us--the more we hear from our colleagues around UW, the better advice we can offer.