How to Handle Email in Less Than 30 Minutes per Day

2011 is fast approaching. Realized that I needed to make some changes to my business to survive and thrive going forward. So I started taking a look at several aspects of my business. First on the list: time management.

I really thought I was a pretty good manager of my time. Unfortunately, my usual “whatever it takes” attitude translated into taking whatever time I had in the day, resulting in lots of late night writing, tweeting, emailing, and more (as many of you have probably observed).

One of the items that seemed to take a ton of my day away was email. Those of you who follow my exploits know that I am not a fan of this necessary evil. So first on my list of time management things to tackle was taming the email monster.

Here’s what I found happening:

• Handled email all day long instead of at specified times.
• Got lots of junk email (surprise, surprise).
• Had too many little used email addresses for various parts of my business.
• Was sending everything to my ancient AOL account (I think it’s about 16 years old) for most everything.
• Had no idea how much time I was really spending on email.

So… to address these problems, I started by setting up four Google Gmail addresses: one for promotional business, one for accounting and order handling issues, one for the newspaper advertising business, and one for personal. I know that sounds like a lot. But remember I had most everything going to my AOL account for the better part of two decades. So I had to sift through every single AOL email and was shifting gears every time a new matter popped up in the email stream. Some of the new email accounts don’t have to be checked every day either. For example, my newspaper advertising account is mainly active about one week out of the month around the deadline; the remainder of the time, it can be checked every couple days or so.

One other thing I like about Gmail is that it has some easy filtering tools. And I seem to be getting a lot less junk email. Guess the geniuses at Google figured out that algorithm!

Next, I bought a timer to see exactly how much time I was using for email. A tough exercise when you’re checking it multiple times per hour all day long. When I cut it down to just the four specific email addresses, I started timing. Set it to count down from 30 minutes total for the day. I’ve disciplined myself to only check it three times per day maximum: morning, afternoon, evening at most. Find I’m often spending way less than 30 minutes per day on email this way.

On my outgoing messages, I include where to connect with me in social media for conversation and a note that I only check email one time per day. That way, if I’m out on calls or at events, I still can check email, but won’t have people expecting me to be responding to them throughout the day. As well, I reserve email for those messages that absolutely cannot be sent through any other medium.

Setting up a separate email account for accounting and order issues has been tremendous. I used to handle every invoice or administrative matter as it came up in the email. This gives me a place to collect all the matters I need to forward to my bookkeeper for scheduled updates. (Side note: Hiring Bright Bookkeeping was another huge time-saving move I instituted about a year or so ago.)

In summary, here are the tips that I found to be most helpful in getting your email inbox under control:

• Set Up Separate Mailboxes for Major Aspects of Your Life and Business – This eliminates the shifting of mental gears that happens when you see email about everything in the same stream. Some mailboxes may not have to be checked every day either; it will all depend on what your life and business dictate.
• Engage Filters for Email You Don’t Want to Receive – Setting up a filter is easier and less time consuming than unsubscribing from everything you don’t want. In the promotional product business, there are thousands of suppliers and some are aggressive with email messages. It would take me days of work to unsubscribe to all of them. And remember that the Delete button is your best friend.
• Get a Timer – I know that sounds silly, but it is a very revealing exercise and it does keep you aware of how much time you’re spending. You can probably dispense with it after a while. But good to have while you’re retraining yourself.
• Observe the Golden Rule – Ever notice that you’re hitting the Delete button more than clicking to read email messages? Guess what? Everyone else is doing it, too. I always get a chuckle when I’m talking to a client or friend about email and they’re lamenting about how they’ve got so much email in their inbox and they don’t read most of it. But then they want to pursue email marketing campaigns. Um… Golden Rule, people. This is why I eliminated my email newsletter blasts and went with RSS feed. Sure, if someone wants it on email, they can get it. But give them the choice.
• Use Social Media for Conversation – Email is not the best medium for conversation. Connect with those that you want to chat with on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Most times it’s easier to follow the thread than through email.

Got more email tips you can share with us? Post them in comments.

Tags: email, Social Media, time management