Improving Work-Life Balance with Email Management Assistance
You wake up in the morning, check your phone, and are accosted by 127 unread emails. This is in addition to the 2,963 emails already in your inbox. Both numbers keep growing. It's like Groundhog Day. Every. Single. Day.
You can't keep up with it and stopped trying about a year ago. You know half of the emails are junk and probably 90% of it could just be deleted at this point, but the very thought of tackling it overwhelms you and you just shut down.
To add to that, you know in your heart that you probably spend a good 2 or 3 hours (or more) of your day answering emails, waiting on responses, checking for responses, and clearing out the occasional personal email that your spouse sends to you. This, you are well aware, has become a huge time-sucker. You check your email at dinner time. You check your email while you are hanging with your kids. You check your email even (gasp!) at church. It's embarrassing, but you feel like its the only way to keep up with the constant onslaught.
There is an easier way, folks. What if, instead of checking your email 100 times a day, you checked in once a day. At the same time every day. And at the same time every day you had a brief list of items that needed your attention? Don't you think you could focus more calmly, give each item better attention, and work WAY more productively throughout the day?
The truth is, we spend way way way too much time checking our phones. Between social media and our email, its a wonder we get anything else done. Unfortunately, its a double edged sword. Because everyone knows everyone else has a smartphone, it is expected that comments/messages/requests/likes will be attended to IMMEDIATELY. The problem with that is, of course, that when we spend so much time handling our phone, it is hard to fit in far-more-revenue-generating activities.
Do you know what the super smart people do? They find someone to help them control the chaos. Do you think CEOs of major corporations are answering all their own emails? No chance. Their assistant handles the majority of it and calls their attention to the important stuff only. Here's your step by step for getting the email monkey off your back.
1) Separate your business and personal - have an email address just for business stuff and an email solely for personal. Everything on your business email will be something you wouldn't mind an assistant seeing. Your personal will be for more private matters - doctor appointments, attorney emails, etc.
2) Hire a email manager. This person should be super organized, understand your business well, and should be proactive and able to make decisions on his/her own.
3) Set a schedule. Decide what time of day you want a run down. The assistant will answer any emails s/he is able to and should leave the inbox full of emails that only you can answer. Everything else should be filed in appropriate folders. This person should only delete emails that you both determine are trash. At the appointed time, you check your email, answer what you need to, and then follow up with your assistant on what they need to know to be able to handle the rest. It goes without saying- this person should be HIGHLY trustworthy, willing to sign a non-compete agreement, and should be someone you trust with your email login and your password. S/he needs to be trusted with your business.
4) Repeat. The person should ideally be able to handle your emails on the weekend, as well, so your inbox is never crazy on Mondays. In time, this person will likely begin taking over other tasks, as well.
Having an email manager can free up a great deal of your time so you can spend more time completing tasks that will generate you more revenue and build your business. If you need a great email manager, contact Voigt & Associates. We would be happy to help!