Managing your Email before it Manages You

Emails are something I abundantly blessed and/or cursed with. Blessed because I value and enjoy hearing from people and cursed because it backs up daily to the point it overwhelms me.

Here is a great article on managing your email. Now if I would just take heed to what was suggested.

Manage Your Email Before It Manages You
Email is one on the most valuable timesaving tools available in the business world today. Imagine if every time you had to get a message to a client, supplier or employee, you had to pick-up the phone or meet with them in person. The lost hours could be astronomical. Thankfully email allows us to save the time potentially lost to the chit-chat and idle gossip that can occur as a result of talking on the phone or in person. But as much time as email can save for some, it is a major distraction that actually causes the loss of concentration and time for others.

Let's face it, with email being such a quick and simple form of communication, most people don't think twice about responding to emails as they arrive or sending a "quick" note on just about anything. But, all those "quick" notes can quickly add up. If you find that way too much time in your day is being lost to email, the following tips may help you regain the precious time that was meant to be saved by email.

1. Set a schedule to read and respond to emails. For most business owners or employees, reading and responding to your emails at scheduled times at the beginning, middle and end of the day will prevent the loss of concentration that can be caused by responding to email as it arrives. For some, it's vital to check emails almost constantly throughout the day. If this is the case for you, only respond to the most urgent emails, and reply to the less pressing ones during your scheduled email response times.

2. Set up an email organizational system. You can program your email to automatically sort itself for you based on certain conditions such as, the sender or the title. Some email programs such as MS Outlook will even let you color code your email, to allow you to sort them more efficiently and differentiate between important and non-urgent emails.

3. Set-up an autoresponder for general client inquiries. An autoresponder will automatically respond to emails sent to it. This means you can respond to frequently asked questions automatically while for other inquiries, you can let the client know that their message has been received and give them a time frame in which you will respond to their inquiry.

4. Don't be afraid not to respond to friends sending you chain emails or jokes. If you don't have time to read them and/or respond, just delete. Most people won't be offended by not receiving a "ha ha, very funny" email in return.

5. If you have an Administrative Assistant, allow them to sort your email and send general responses to the less important ones. An Assistant can also check your email throughout the day and notify you of anything that needs to be responded to urgently. Exchange servers facilitate this timesaving method. If an Assistant isn't feasible for you due to space or monetary considerations, you could consider delegating this task to a Virtual Assistant.

6. If a considerable amount of your time is being wasted sorting through junk mail, if possible, heighten your email security. If this is not possible, performing a simple internet search for "stop spam" should give you a selection of programs designed to decrease or eliminate spam.

Email was developed to be a timesaving device. Don't let it run your business day by making you less efficient. By simply organizing your email and setting specific times to respond to it, you can gain back the time that was initially meant to be saved by email.

---

Kelly Sims is a Virtual Assistant and President of Virtually There VA Services. To find out more about virtual assistance and how using a Virtual Assistant can simplify your life, visit her website at => http://www.virtuallythereva.com . While you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for her free monthly newsletter providing useful information that enhances and simplifies the lives of busy entrepreneurs.

Time Management: Put First Things First

Here is an article I came across that has some good advice for those of us who struggle with getting tasks completed and have a feeling of being overwhelmed at times. Hope it helps to get your work week off to a good start!

Carole DeJarnatt

Time Managment Tip: Put First Things First and Avoid A Common Time Managment Mistake

A common time management mistake is to attempt to do too many things and not distinguish between the important and critical. What is time management? Time management, in the true sense of the word, can be defined as doing the right thing the right way at the right time. When one does not do things in the right way, i.e., prioritize things that have to be done, a lot of time is taken up in doing the non-essentials.

The golden rule of time management is to put first things first. Do things in order of importance and avoid wasting time on the non essential. The 80/20 rule applies here. 80% of your results will depend on the critical 20% of things that are the most important. The key is to identify what is important.

Identify things that can only be done by yourself, and no one else. These are the critical success factors in time management and your life. Ask yourself , "What one thing could I do, that I'm not currently doing, which, if I did it regularly would make the biggest difference in my life?" Then devote as much time as you can to activities that make a difference and contribute most to your happiness and success.

In your life, think of the most crucial thing that would make a difference. For example in terms of finance management, Is it improving your skills at your current job, learning another skill so you can prepare for the future, or tidying up your finances so you won't be losing money?

For example, in a retail shop, what is the number one thing that will make a difference in their bottom line? To improve sales. So the most effective time management practice and goal setting tool would be to improve sales. They can brainstorm ways to do this. Rather than focusing on other things, like renovating the shop front so it would look nicer, which they've always wanted to do. But it is not effective use of time and resource at the moment.

How about the most effective way to spend time with your kids? Is it cooking meals and doing the laundry for them, or spending time to help them in their schoolwork? For example, the cooking can be left to someone else so it will free you to spend quality time with children. They can have their full stomachs and you at the same time.

Brainstorm a list of things that only you can do. Then prioritize in the order of importance. This is the essence of time management – identifying things that do matter. So that you can have time for things that matter.

---

May is passionate about helping others achieve the life of their dreams. Live, love, be, do and have. Get your inspirational resources at http://www.successinspired.com . Get your Free Report on attracting success at: http://www.wisdomofgettingwealthy.com/AttractionAccelerator .

Reaching for the Stars and knowing how to get there!

This week I am focusing on my goals. Goals help me to maintain focus and not get off track. I learn from my mistakes and rewrite the goals.

I am very easily distracted by the daily issues that come in front of me. This blog being one. The internet being the other. To get what I need accomplished daily one of the things I do is to write a list. If something needs to be done, I write it down and mark it off as completed. Then if time allows, I do the other things that are not required but enhance some of my projects.

When it comes to projects, I work in some of the same manner. When a job is placed in front of me, I plan my days and hours on the different steps of the project. Being that I work with a few clients at the same time, I have to segment my days out in hours. I work with one person for two hours, another project for four hours, and so on. When procrastination comes knocking, do not let it take control. The goal of the job is completion to the clients' satisfaction.

Time management is a crucial part of setting goals. If you set up your days and manage your time efficiently while working on the goals you have written for yourself, you are one step closer to being successfully committed to succeeding at your goals.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.