In this week’s TURBOCHARGED Sales blog, I will share with you:
“Time Management: Email”
Handling Email—How to Save Time
Control your own time. Don't let it be done for you.
If you are working off the in-box that is fed to you,
You are probably working on the priority of others.
—Donald Rumsfeld
Don't get Overwhelmed with Your Corporate Business Emails!
In the process of moving my website www.Consumer CareerSearch.com to a new server, 23,000 of my emails got misplaced. As you can imagine then, this subject is very near and dear to my heart.
I usually like to get my emails down to about 3,000 at one time, but I currently have 12,000 in one of my accounts. That's actually not as bad as it sounds. It's very easy to find yourself reacting to emails that rob your time. We all really need to get into the habit of realizing that most emails can wait.
During the timeframe you have committed to working on your new business development, remember to focus on your goals for that entire duration. If emails come through that are not related to your new business or existing business goals for that day, then do not address/reply to them until after 5:00 pm.
After 5PM work on emails that are less important...
That's not to say that you should just let messages pile up in your inbox. Email is another form of incoming communication that needs to be processed and organized. You can approach this task the same way you did your physical paperwork—in terms of creating folders that will act as "processing stations."
When I focus on cleaning up my emails, I start by sorting them. I begin this process by clicking the "From" button. Organizing them this way makes it very easy to delete whole categories of message you know you don't need but have not made it to the "junk" and spam folder.
One new feature with Windows 7 and Norton is that Norton has begun pre-marking emails as spam to make it easier to filter and delete them. Be aware that this project can take some time until you're up to speed, so remember to do it after your normal workday hours or on the weekend.
To start, create folders over in your navigation bar where you want to file emails worth saving. When creating each new folder, make sure you are always at the top of the navigation bar. That way, folders will be alphabetized and will not inadvertently become a subfolder of something non-related.
Like all correspondence, when contending with email, deal with it only once. If you can take care of it in two minutes, do so. The experts say that you should be able to tackle one-third of your email this way.
Now create four more folders in your navigation bar: *ACTION*, *WAITING FOR*, *READ/REVIEW*, and *PRINT*.
Specific to your “New Business” (NB), you can also label four more files: *NBACTIVE *, *NBWORKING ON*, *NBWAITING ON*, and *NB ANSWERS*.
Note that when you use the asterisk before these folders' names, they will be alphabetized at the top of the folder list.
I suggest you BCC (blind carbon copy) yourself on all emails related to your new business leads. Either that or remember to forward them to yourself from your Send folder. When they reach your inbox, file them in the appropriate folder. You can also create a special folder for companies with which you have conducted a lot of activity.
Check all of these aforementioned folders I have suggested periodically to see if any of the items can be deleted. To make this whole process easier, make sure you're a good typist. If you are a slow typist, go to a community college and take a course. You want to be able to type at least 50 words a minute. This ability will save you a lot of time.
In next week’s blog, I will cover Time Management: Tricks of the Trade: Part 3.
If you would need professional help in the area of accessing ways you and your team can save time , please call us at 847-304-4500 to discuss your options on understanding your team more fully in terms of their ability to support and achieve your business sales goals you are looking for this year.
Have a great week and productive week, managing the changes and challenges that are currently going on in your company.
I wish you a wonderfully successful and productive week ahead.
Eleanor Anne Sweet
TURBOCHARGED Sales
Eleanor Anne Sweet
Your Success Expert. Trainer, Author and Speaker
Eleanor Anne Sweet
President/CEO
Hidden Results and Sales Expert. tm
TURBOCHARGEDSales.com
www.TurbochargedSales.com
sweet@turbochargedsales.com
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