Email management tips that actually work?
Really, Pam? You gotta be kidding me.
I know.
I can see those thoughts running through your head.
Pam’s not serious, y’think. She can’t be.
After all, how can a royal pain-in-the-you-know-what actually triple our productivity?
Managing email is what nearly every, single coach or entrepreneur I know of struggles with.
To the point that they’re ready to pull their hair out, poke a finger into their eye and smash their screens, all.at.the.same.time.
Yes, uber-painful.
That is why today I want to share 4 key email management tips that can open the lock to productive working for you, almost instantly.
Are you ready?
Buckle up, missy, it’s gonna be a fast ride!
4 Unbeatable Email Management Tips to Triple Your Productivity
1) Check your email twice
That’s it. This is the toughest to do and I recommend you bite this bullet straight off the bat.
Schedule 2 times in the day when you’ll check AND deal with your emails. Depending on how much email you get, you may want either 60-minute slots or 90-minute ones.
During this time, don’t hop on FB, or comment on blogs, or take calls. Simply, work through your inbox.
Fast and Furious.
Channel your inner Vin Diesel, gurl! 😉
2) Be ruthless
If in the last tip, you channeled your inner Vin Diesel, now is the time to don the role of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.
Be ruthless with your subscriptions and unsubscribe faster than I can say, “Holy moly guacamole!”
It’s time to un-uglify {yes, that is a word I made up;)} your inbox and re-love {doin’ it again!} it.
You don’t want to squirm and cringe each time you open it up, right? Save the squirming and cringing for when you’re trying to force bland-as-baby-food-steamed broccoli down your throat. Seriously, “diet” food makes you wanna curl up and “die”t. 😉
Any ways, I digress.
Being ruthless with your email subscriptions will pretty much halve the number of emails you get in your inbox and that means, you’ll spend half the amount of time wading through them.
Two actionable tips here:
First, use a service like Unroll.me to automatically unsubscribe with one easy-button-click.
Second, each time you’re tempted to sign up for a freebie or webinar, ask yourself… do you really need it? Will you absolutely, hand-on-heart, use it? If the answer is a flat out {or even, hesitant!} “no”, step away from that screen, now.
3) Deploy rapid fire replies
If you find yourself typing out the same replies over-and-over-again till your fingers are ready to fall of, you need to pay special attention to this one.
Use rapid-fire replies or “templates” to cut your email time into half.
That’s right.
Now the initial setup for this may take a bit of time, because you’ll need to do a quick checklist of the most common and frequent emails you get so you can categorize them and write out templates that you can then copy-paste or even, plug-and-play, if you use Gmail’s Canned Responses.
Most coaches will find their most frequently replied-to emails falling into the following categories:
- Payment terms or amount.
- Speaking inquiries or joint venture requests.
- Coaching process-related questions
Create template replies to these or other emails and have them handy!
4) Get help.
No seriously. This isn’t a shameless plug for my services {though, really, you could check them out too!} but it’s an impassioned plea to get out of your inbox. Your business needs you too.
If all you’re doing is struggling with email, then when do you get the time to schedule and attend discovery calls, launch webinars, create eCourses and basically, go for world domination?
Yeaaa… that’s right.
Get help and your business, your time, and yes, your eyes, hair and stomach, too, will thank you 😉
There you go.
4 super-important, seriously effective email management tips, right from the {VA} horse’s mouth!
Go on, tell me, your email struggles in the comments and I’ll don my superhero cape and save the day!