In last week’s blog we talked about how email is a killer of productivity, for the very reason that it invites your mind to travel in dozens of different directions all day long (if you let it).
As business owners, our greatest contribution to our companies is to focus on one, two, or three of the most important things – and to devote ourselves fully to those tasks.
Email invites us to do the opposite – focus on a multitude of less important tasks. This slows our productivity, drains our energy and inhibits our progress.
Here are 5 tips for taming your inbox:
- Do not check email until you’ve accomplished at least one important task for the day. This one’s hard to do. Many of us are conditioned to look at our messages right when we wake up. But please, try to avoid doing this. You let the energy and chaos of the outside world tarnish your focus. It just isn’t worth it.
- Understand what makes an email message important. Does the email content affect your revenue? Is it a big opportunity that’s time-sensitive? Does it speak about a problem that needs to be solved immediately? Or can it wait until next week? Next month? (Next century?)
- For everything that does NOT require fast action on your part, use this 4-step approach – Delete it, File it, Delegate it, or Handle it.
- Use folders to organize your messages. Determine how to group your emails and save folders in those names – such as Clients, Potential Clients, Coach, Newsletters to Read, Team, and Personal Stuff. You can also file items you will handle later in a system such as “To do later today” or “To do Friday” (end of week). And then read the emails at a set time each day or a set time you’ve blocked out on Fridays.
- Schedule 2-3 times (or less) during the day when you’ll check your email. This will free up time and energy for you to focus on “the big stuff” in your business.
- a. Skim the subject line of the email and make an instant decision on whether not this email needs to be read. If not, delete it. (Delete spam, irrelevant messages, etc)
- b. If you open the email and decide you want to read it later, file it. (This includes anything you need to read in-depth, or anything you want to study.)
- c. If the task requires action, but it’s not something you can or want to handle, delegate it. Send it to someone on your team whose job it is to handle those tasks.
- d. If the task requires action, and you’re the only one who truly should handle it, handle it.
Follow these tips, hone your focus, and you’ll watch your energy, sanity, and productivity soar.
