Detox Your Inbox

It’s Friday – a day I don’t schedule anything so I can review my week, tie up loose ends, make a plan for the next, and clean up the clutter that accumulates in my office (I’m a piler, like my Grandma Rose ;-)).

Today is a little different as I’m ‘off’ today and Monday because the kids are off from school for a long weekend so we’re going to have some Forest Family Fun together. 🙂

While they enjoy their allotted screen time for the day, I’m doing some online decluttering…

That means a detox of my inbox.

I have 251 emails in my inbox right now.

(I know some of you have WAY more than that, so I’d like you to pay close attention here)

This is my detox method – I’ll do it as I write this…

1. Delete – down to 193
2. Move – down to 34 (obviously I need to file as I go more! :-))
3. Delegate down to 30
4. Respond – so that leaves 30 emails in my inbox that only I can answer… just knocked off 4 of those, so I’m now at 26

Ahhhh, that’s better… 🙂

So here’s my breakdown, in case it’s helpful:

1. Delete
~ I sort the emails into/ “from” which makes it a lot easier to delete/move in groups if applicable.

2. Move
~ Next I move any emails that need to be filed. For example, if there’s an email from a colleague that doesn’t require a response but I want to keep it, I file it in the “colleagues” file.

3. Delegate
~ I then delegate whatever emails need to be responded to by someone else. For example, I have a podcast interview coming up and the host needs my bio, headshot, etc., so I’ll send that email to my assistant to take care of.

4. Respond
~ What’s left are emails that only I can take action on. I start at the bottom and work my way up. For some reason, this just feels better and seems easier (because I’m releasing them, so the energy is running backwards, possibly).

So in the time it took me to write this email, I’ve detoxed my inbox from 251 to 26. 🙂

You can do it too – and I’d love to hear your results… 🙂

Snow days/delays are no longer delays in my business…

Another 2-hour delay… and thinking tomorrow will be a full snow day.

 

When the kids were younger, and they were home from school unexpectedly, it used to be a lot harder for me to get anything accomplished in my business.

 

But now that are older (and able to entertain themselves), it’s definitely easier – but these are the days when I can’t do the things that really need my undivided attention and focus (like writing a sales page, for example).

 

So a long time ago, I started to keep a sort of master task list. It’s where I write down everything I want/need to do as soon as I think of it.

 

So while I can tell you off the top of my head what I need to do today to move my business forward, on days where my focus is split, I turn back to the master list and choose things that don’t need that level of focus: the small tasks, the tolerations, the quick emails, the quick fixes.

 

Doing this ended my frustration of not being able to get ‘anything’ done when my day shifted out of my full control.

 

If you have other things vying for your attention, what do you do to still get some things done when Life Interrupts?