7 Ways To Tame Your Email Inbox

Email is the Bermuda Triangle of productivity.

Nuff said. I think everyone knows what I'm talking about --no need to convince you that email is a major time sucker-upper.

Let me just cut to the chase and give you the 7 tips on how to take back your life from the dreaded email monster:

1. Use Separate Email Addresses (with separate inboxes). If you're trying to check your biz email, it's distracting if you also see an email from your sister, an email from eBay telling you that you just won the item you were bidding on, and an email from your bank telling you your statement is ready. You're gonna want to check all of them immediately. Do yourself a favor--eliminate the temptation by keeping personal and biz emails in separate inboxes. I'm actually setting up 3 email accounts-- one for my VA biz, one for Andy's biz, and one for my personal stuff.    
2. Have set times for checking emails. Try to block off a chunk of time when you go in and answer your emails, instead of reading and replying to them as they trickle in, one by one. Only open your email program when it's email checkin' time.
3. Only check work emails during your work hours. Just because emails come in instantly doesn't mean you have to answer them instantly. For most folks, emails aren't so urgent that they can't wait until the next day to be answered if they come in after your work hours (or after your email checking time).
4. Don't check your personal email during your work hours. If you're trying to work a 4 hour workday and operate at the highest efficiency, don't venture into your personal email during your work hours. Trust me, you'll get trapped in there for longer than you planned. Do it before or after work, not during your precious 4 hour workday time.
5. Turn off the "You've got mail" beep. I'm talking about the siren's song that plays whenever a new email arrives in your inbox. If you hear that tantalizing tune, you're gonna want to check it right away, so eliminate the temptation by turning off the auto-notification beep, turning off the sound on your computer, or better yet, keeping your email program closed until it's your scheduled check time.
6. Let your VA check it for you. If you're lucky/smart enough to have a Virtual Assistant, why not let her tame your inbox for you? Andy has things set up so that all of his customer service email accounts are pointed to a central webmail account. The folks on his staff take turns checking the customer support webmail every day. Most of the emails we handle on our own without involving him. If we come across something that needs his personal attention, we just forward it to him. So, he doesn't even see the mountain of email that comes into his webmail account, only the ones that absolutely need his attention.
7. Stop using email. Say what?! Let me explain...This is my favorite tip...If you're exchanging frequent emails with your staff, consider transforming a blog into your own private intranet where you and the other members of your team can communicate. Andy is the only person I've ever seen do this, but let me tell you, it works like a dream. We rarely email each other, but instead post questions and communications on the Team Space, which is a WordPress blog that is password protected. This blog functions as a communication hub and a think tank for Andy's biz. Info is put in as a blog post and responses are entered as comments. Everything is neatly categorized, and there's even a HowTo section that contains tutorials for all the tasks and procedures necessary to run his business. So, instead of checking my email, I just check our intranet to see what's new. Also, it's more private and secure than email--there's never any danger of our confidential communications getting misdirected and "out in the wild". Very clever and very efficient.