eSoup Series: Email Ninja Moves

  ninja 
  Originally uploaded by grey goat.

Whenever I talk to entrepreneurs who want to enlist my help in getting their businesses more organized, I always ask them this question:

"Is there anything that you know needs to get done that you find yourself consistently avoiding?"

Without fail, the answer is always one little word: "Email".

Usually this admission is accompanied by a heartfelt sigh, an air of regret, and maybe a little guilt and frustration. That's completely understandable--email is a slippery slope, and if you're not consistently on top of it, it can quickly get out of hand and take over your life.

What I do is just have the client forward all of his email to me, then I handle it each day for him. So, not only do I process my  own email, but I also handle multiple email accounts on behalf of multiple clients.

To most folks that might sound like an undiscovered circle of Dante's hell ;), but I actually find it fun to do email, and because I handle a good bit of it everyday, I've pretty much gotten it down to a science.

Since email seems to be a common a source of dread and shame ;) for folks, I thought I'd share some of my tried and tested email ninja moves along with the steps that I go through to tame an out-of-control inbox.

There are about 10 steps to this process, so I'll think I'll do one step per post and publish maybe 1 or 2 posts per week on this subject. Don't worry--this is not complicated and does not require any electronic devises or special plug-ins. It's just good old-fashioned organizing, and anyone can do it.

It all must start with a clean slate though, so the first post I'm working is called "HowTo Zero Out Your Inbox". This is the most challenging step, but I think it's the most fun (yes, I am warped!). This is where you get your adrenaline going and get into "blitz clean" mode.

Once the inbox is all fresh and clear, it's all downhill from there.

Watch for that post to come out on Thursday and get ready to kiss your over-crowded inbox good-bye!

Comments

[Alan Bradford]

Can't wait. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've got over 3000 emails in my work inbox. Don't worry - they're not all unread...that would be horrible.

As of right now, I don't have an effective sorting system. I can't swim very well, and I feel like I'm in the middle of the ocean with wearing a Speedo and wildly flapping my arms to try to stay afloat.

Help!

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Haha--Alan, you're not alone! It's kind of like a snowball that starts rolling downhill-it starts out innocent enough, but then it starts gathering momentum and getting bigger and more out of control.

Yeah, the post coming out on Thursday is sort of written with the 100+ email inbox owner in mind. Hopefully you'll be able to use some of the strategies, then you'll be able to kick that rambunctious inbox back in line :-).