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Mastering Your Email and Inbox

By Katrina Sawa

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 28Mar2011 Word count: 811 Viewed: 151 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

As a small business owner you're probably doing a ton of things yourself in your business - some you need to do but some also that maybe you shouldn't be doing, right? In talking with hundreds of entrepreneurs every month I find that the majority of them (you/us) struggle with our email inboxes...they're overflowing right?

You're either:

1. Overwhelmed with email and your inbox

2. Feeling like you're tied to it or it follows you around (on your smart phone)

3. Confused on how to organize it better - the flow, the emails you need, the spam, etc.

4. Ignoring it all together

5. Wondering how you can ever take a vacation (or a couple days off) and NOT check in

6. Or you've got it down and thoroughly organized like a well-oiled machine

Well, if you're NOT in the situation of the very last point then you may be interested to know a few things you can do to better manage your emails and inbox. After all, you're wasting hours a month deleting and sorting through emails you don't even need to show up in the first place.

The following are 4 tips I suggest to better manage your emails:

1.Sort and organize your emails - Use the rules option in your mailbox feature to send specific emails into their own folders in your inbox to start.

o I send all the emails from my team (various VAs) to one folder so I can hammer out responses all at one time every hour or couple hours or so as it fits my time schedule.

o I send all my email newsletters (the ones I do want to keep) to a newsletter folder in my inbox to read when I have time. Guess what? Rarely do I ever have time nor do I miss them!

o I send all emails from particular people like my own coach, my mastermind or other group I may be a part of to their own respective folders to keep them organized and my main inbox less cluttered.

2. Unsubscribe from everything you really don't need - Ask yourself, do you need it?

o Like the Staples and Office Depot emails I was getting....I know when I need office supplies where I'm going to go to buy them, I don't need reminders of where to go and I certainly don't need to be tempted with special sales to buy stuff when I don't need anything.

o Like the email newsletters you get that scream sales at you or that don't have relevant content anymore for you; if you don't want the person to know you're unsubscribing them have them automatically sent to your trash folder.

3. Create template emails - For emails or information you send regularly, keep a folder handy with the most recent emails in it for easy reference and copying to save time on future responses.

o I receive applications for complimentary strategy sessions with me from people every week and I send pretty much the same thing to each person to schedule their session, all I have to do is copy an old email, enter in updated dates/times available and press send.

o I also send out information about speaking for groups or telesummits to organizers and event producers so I have an email ready to go with my speaker sheet in it which includes talk titles, bio, picture, references and logo in it so I don't miss out on any opportunity that comes along because that information isn't put together.

4. Delegate when you're away - Find someone to check your email for you so you can actually take a few days off or an entire vacation without checking in. (what a concept!)

o Use a service such as logmein.com so they can log into your computer from anywhere which makes it convenient for them and write out a cheat sheet for them for what to look out for when managing your emails.

o My cheat sheet is 5 pages long but it covers all the bases and important emails that could come through and what to do with them so I don't return to hundreds of emails responded to but not 'handled'; there's a big difference.

o My team knows to text me on my cell with any pressing issues but there rarely are any when you have a team that kicks butt like I do. (That comes in time)

Follow these simple steps and you'll be well on your way to Mastering Your Email and Inbox!

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