How does checking your emails make you feel? Be honest here!
When you get notifications does your heart leap or sink?
My guess is that when you started out in your business every email you got was exciting, an opportunity and connection to make.
But as your business grows, the emails increase exponentially.
Disorganised Emails
Suddenly your inbox is always full, the unread emails are stacking up, and you can never find that vital bit of information.
By now you are busy with clients and projects, and putting in the time to organise those emails can feel like a luxury that you don’t have. You have always managed before, so you will carry on as you are, email overload is just part of modern business.
Just because it’s seen as “normal” doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting your work… or your mental and physical health.
In fact research published recently found that higher email load is associated with higher workload stress; and higher workload stress is associated with higher psychological strain, higher negative emotions and lower commitment to their work.
I have worked with lots of 1to1 clients who have been in this situation. Who knew their inbox was out of control, but didn’t have the time, energy or know how to take positive action.
I’m here to tell you that it is worth investing a morning of your time to finally learn some techniques for managing your emails.
The Benefits Of Organising Your Emails
1. Save Time
The most important one is to save time. Let’s reduce the time you are spending in your inbox. For instance if your emails are organised and filtered, you can dramatically reduce the time you spend searching for information.
You can find our more about how to do this here.
I can also teach you how to wean yourself off constantly checking your emails. There is research showing that, on average, people check their emails every 6 minutes. This leaves almost no real focused time! Tame that urge, and you have more focused working time allowing you to be more productive, and produce better and more meaningful work.
2. Reduce Overwhelm
If you have thousands of emails clogging up your inbox, you can become immune to what’s sitting there. Everything runs together. A new email is just one more stressful thing to think about.
If you leave messages that are important, or things that you need to remember or action later in your inbox, then your brain is constantly trying to remember that and remind you that you need to ‘answer this person back’ or ‘pay that invoice’. That is a huge mental drain, which inevitably leads to feelings of overwhelm.
I can teach you methods to regain control of your inbox, and quickly list action points so you are no longer drained by trying to retain all that information in your head.
3. Deliver Exceptional Customer Service
We’ve all been there, emailed someone we are keen to work with and then been disappointed and frustrated when we don’t get replies, get ignored or key information we have sent has been missed. No likes it, or wants to deliver that level of service.
An organised email system will allow you to deliver the 5 star standard of customer service that you aspire to – quick turnaround, efficient replies, and all communication safely stored away.
And finally….
4. Save The Planet!
Have you ever considered how much energy is consumed from storing your emails?
Email providers store our emails on their servers which are consuming energy 24 hours a day. The more emails we keep – the more servers they need to store them – the more energy consumed.
Just by unsubscribing from old email lists and regularly emptying your spam folder, you are helping reduce the amount of energy you are consuming!
So you can have organised emails and feel good about the planet!
Have I convinced you yet?
If you want to find out more about how to tame your inbox, you can read this blog post here
Alternatively you can learn how to get freedom from your emails as part of my online course The Organised Coach Method.
I will teach you everything you need to know to regain control of your emails, as well as everything else you need to become a truly organised coach.