This article was submitted by our friends at Get Staffed Up, a staffing company that provides virtual assistants to law firms and other small businesses to help you free up valuable time and get more done!
What’s the one thing all entrepreneurs can agree on? Emails are a nightmare! If we let ourselves, we could spend all day on emails only to not really get anything done. But the good news is there is a better way. You can tame that email monster!
Imagine the sheer liberation you’d feel if every single time something came your way – an email, a lunch request, a phone call – you had an assistant to handle it for you. You can’t really imagine how much time you’d save unless you wrote it down. Trust us, it’s a lot.
Keep reading to learn about the collaborative email delegation system and regain control of your time in four simple steps:
- Identify a staff member (or hire one) capable of managing your email.
An assistant greatly reduces the burden of email management and the stress it comes with. They will be the one who saves time and effort for you.
This is the most important step in the process! A psychological roadblock you must overcome is the belief that you cannot entrust your e-mail to anyone else. Just as it was before e-mail, mail was opened and sorted by assistants even after it was pre-sorted in the mailroom! You are not a mail sorter.
- Create four folders for sorting your email.
1. Daily: Check it once a day. This folder contains emails that need to be seen that day or have an upcoming deadline, and emails related to in-house operations.
2. Weekly: Check it once or twice a week. This folder contains emails that don’t have immediate importance/deadlines.
3. Response: Check it two times a day. This folder contains emails that need a direct response from you and are urgent or have a deadline.
4. Assistant: This folder is managed by a delegated assistant. Your assistant can answer directly to help someone initially and save your time.
- Throughout the day, your assistant or email manager sorts your email.
In this step, your assistant answers scheduling emails they can help with directly. You can set up draft responses that can be used to save time and keep things consistent.
- Check your urgent responses twice per day (preferably in the morning).
When you open your email, only check the urgent response folder. Once per day, schedule a time to meet with your assistant to go over the daily emails and decide how to respond (your assistant can take much of this burden off your plate). You can also set a recurring meeting with your assistant at the same time every day where you can delegate specific responses to her/him, request meetings, phone calls, or lunches to be scheduled, and stay up to date with emails. This can be accomplished via phone or Zoom meetings as well for when you travel.
For more examples and top efficiency hacks, download the complete free “Taming the Email Monster” guide by Get Staffed Up HERE.
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