Get Out of Email Purgatory the ( 10 ) Steps to Email Freedom
I used to be ruled by my inbox, I checked it all day long every day and every time a new email came in I had a compulsive impulse to check it because I just had to know what it said. Inevitably it was a request from a client to do something for them, a vendor who needed something from me, my employee who wanted me to review something or a useless piece of email marketing that I read anyway. None of which was life-changing, yet I continued to check my email as though it was. And I got a lot of email, I was a planner with only destination couples who emailed the majority of the time and vendors who many times did not live where I was either, so my inbox was a beast and I regularly got a couple hundred, or even more, emails a day.
The thing that was even worse than all the time I was wasting on checking and responding to my email was the emotional roller coaster that I was at the beck and call of everyone who was emailing me. I would see a client email pop up letting me know that they were not happy with the pricing of something they wanted, and while I didn’t answer the email immediately, I was mentally composing my response to this email while I was half-working on the project I was supposed to be doing at the time. If I had read something from a member of my team who needed something I felt like I had to respond right away or they would not be able to complete their work and I was holding them up. If it was a vendor, I felt the same way, that they could not do their job unless I did mine. And bit by bit all of these emails weighed on me in the back of my mind with half composed responses and an ever-increasing to-do list until I responded to them. Of course, by then there were new emails notifications and the cycle had started over again.
So, did I break the cycle? I sure did, about 5 years ago I figured out a system that worked for me and I will never go back. I am sure you have heard it said, but it bears repeating because it is so true; email is how other people prioritize your time. Are you curious how I conquered my email and became the master of my own schedule? I am laying out the steps that I took below;
Turn off your email notifications. Yes ALL of them, this includes on your phone, your computer and any other device. You can read about it, but basically we are like Pavlov dogs with those notifications and it hinders your focus and your work even if you think it is harmless.
Set times to check your email. Check your email only during set times in your day, either two or three times will work depending on how busy your inbox is, for example I do mine at 9am, 12pm and 4pm.
Set boundaries. One of the best pieces of biz advice I ever got was to set office hours and put them in my email signature. This is one of the best ways to set expectations for your clients and vendors as to when you will be available to answer their emails and prevents 90% of those follow up “did you get my email” emails.
Unsubscribe! I don’t know why people don’t unsubscribe, but unless you absolutely need it and it sparks joy - unsubscribe from it. Remember that if you want or need something most of the time you can find this info on the website when you are looking for it and don’t need an email from them a day. Be protective with your inbox.
Practice zero inbox. To be clear I don’t subscribe to the actual ‘having to end your day with zero emails in your inbox’ I have a modified version we practice on our team where we move every email that has been answered or completed out of our inbox and only leave emails that we still need to answer or things we need to do. I usually have between 20-50 emails in my inbox at any given time to give you an idea of what that looks like. I started this over 10 years ago and now I can’t understand why people have thousands of emails in their inbox, it gives me anxiety, and actually chances are it does to you too. You know that whole Marie Kondo thing where having a lot of stuff weighs on your subconsciously? Well, I think logging on every day and seeing 40,0000 emails in your inbox does that to you too.
Use the scan and prioritize method. When I get into my email in the morning I scan through all new emails first without opening any of them, which I can do because I have my set my settings to where it shows me a preview line of each email in my inbox. Then I open what is priority first and answer that and leave the rest for later. This is great for keeping to your time blocks of checking email and also so you don’t have to worry you are missing something important.
File your email into folders. There are many opinions on this and the long and short of it is to find a system that works for you. What works for me and my devices is to have folders where it makes searching for the emails I need easier, but the key I believe is the peace of mind only seeing what you need in your inbox and knowing the rest has it’s own place.
Don’t respond unnecessarily and don’t require others too. Ok, this is something that dives a bit into the email etiquette category and even from my partners I know is not typical behavior for most women, but hear me out. There are A LOT of emails that you do not need to respond to. If you send an email for a response, get a response with what you need - chances are you don’t need to respond again. I get a lot of polite responses or obligatory emails letting me know people have gotten my emails or thanking me for my emails and while I know it comes from a good place I think we need to think about these emails as time - you are spending time answer and filing a “Thank You” email 12 times a day every day - is that necessary? I say no. One way to combat this and to train those who are emailing you is to end your email with a “No need to respond!” or something along those lines, so that they don’t need to waste the time writing the email and you don’t need to waste time reading it.
Think before you respond. I have been teaching good email communication to my own team for over a decade and this is one of the things I found that not only results in fewer emails, but less frustration with the emails you get. Most people rush to get off an email response and are more concerned with playing whack-a-mole and getting that email out of their inbox then penning the appropriate response. If you are consistently getting emails from your clients or vendors asking you for additional information after you have emailed them - you need to be writing better emails. An excellent question to ask yourself when composing an email is “what information does the person I am emailing need to complete the task I am asking them to do?” I find when I ask myself that I think of something additional I can provide and I prevent them from wasting their time by emailing me back with questions. You also get bonus points for everyone thinking you have your shit together and not rolling their eyes when you leave out important info.
Make it a phone call when it should be. If an email is two pages long - it should probably be a phone call. In fact there are quite a few reasons why it might be better to place a call back in response to an email. Take the time to consider what is going to be the most efficient and appropriate response to an email and when it shouldn’t be an email, just pick up phone and place an old fashioned call.
I really hope these tips help give you freedom from your email inbox or at least result in a bit less overwhelm when you open up your email. While some of them may seem impossible to begin ( like zero inbox or not opening up your email right when you wake up - seriously don’t do that! ) taking the time to create a system that works for you will be 100% worth it. Remember it isn’t really about the emails, it is about how you are managing your time and your thoughts and making sure that you are the dictator of your day, and not all those voices in your inbox.
I would love to hear your thoughts on these tips or some of your own, so leave a comment below or better yet head on over to our private group and chat with me there.
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