Learn how to Clearout 1,000 emails from your inbox in an hour!
Well, Spring is here! Most of us do these things in the Spring. Change our smoke and Carbon Monoxide detector batteries. We move the furniture like a couch to cleanout. Get our AC units tuned up. We empty our closets and switch out our winter to spring clothes. Maybe for some of us, our winter sweats to Spring attire. Or call 1-800. Got Junk to call them and point at the things you want to disappear.
Isn’t it a great feeling when you go through this process? You clear out and update what no longer is working for you.
Let me ask you a question. What Spring cleaning do you need to do with your business? What can you do to clear away or update to improve your business?
In your next sales meeting, discuss the following items to see if they could use a little sprucing up.
Discuss as a team the best approach to earning the first meeting. Is there a better way to save you time, a proven process when reaching a new client?
Is it time to review your sales materials you send prospective customers? The materials you use to position the key benefits and differences in working with you and your company.
VBR’s – have you updated them to be relevant in today’s business world.
Have you taken the time to spruce up your LinkedIn profile? Start with updating your recommendations by adding some from this year. Reach out to Happy customers and ask them to write a referral for you; for more tips, follow Jennifer Darling, who is the expert on generating leads through LinkedIn.
Organize your email inbox! An email has become one of the ways we communicate in business. But it doesn’t have to steal valuable time away from you moving your business forward. Your inbox may be a lot like your closet, which needs some purging or better organization.
Apply this one-hour strategy, and you will feel more in control of your emails versus the emails controlling you and your day.
Minutes 1 to 10: clear out the Junk
I like starting by sorting by who sent the email. I allow myself ten minutes to delete all the junk emails. These emails are the ones cluttering up your inbox and keeping you from the ones you need to see.
Minutes 10 to 30: create folders and labels
Now it’s time to organize the messages left that don’t need any action but that you need or want to keep. There are as many folder systems as email users, but an easy one to try is to make a folder for any topic or type of email with several messages that relate to it. So, that could mean folders like Client-specific, members of your team you coach, VBR, Research, HR, and so on.
You can also create a “To File Later folder” or an “Unsubscribe” folder for anything you don’t want anymore. Those are great folders to sort through when you have five minutes between meetings.
Minutes 30 to 50: Use the two-minute rule or take action on emails
The emails you’re left with now need action. If you do it in less than two minutes, do it now. If you need more time to take care of the message, add it to your to-do list with a notification to remind you to do it. Then, archive the email to keep your inbox clear (you’ll still be able to search for it later).
Minutes 50 to 60: Update your settings for easy maintenance
You can avoid this by setting up filters that’ll automatically sort your incoming messages, so you don’t have to. You can set up a filter that sends them all to a “Read Later” folder. (Outlook has its version of filters called “rules” that can do some heavy lifting for you.)
You might also consider setting up an auto-reply for your Gmail or Outlook when you won’t be able to reply to emails as quickly as you usually would (like if you’re in a meeting, out of the office, or on vacation).
And, to fly through your messages, you can enable and learn some keyboard shortcuts for Gmail or Outlook.
One final recommendation to help manage to clear your inbox each day is to approach each email with “Read, Act, File, or Delete.” Use these four options will help you to clear your inbox daily. It “requires real commitment,” but the goal is simple: “Never touch something more than once.” If possible, schedule meetings that can’t run longer than 45-50 minutes so you can catch up on emails during the 10-15 minutes in between appointments.
So Spring into Action today! Update your systems and get rid of things that no longer serve you. This way, you can spend more time with your customers and moving your business forward