When to delete, read, or save those emails
As I sit this weekend trying to go through some 9 pages of unread emails, I finally can ask myself, "when do I delete, read, or move to a saved folder?" Do you find yourself doing this?
Of course I check my email on a daily basis, and answer anything that is urgent, ie: an order or question from my Etsy shop, family email, or some bill that needs my immediate attention. But then, I find myself wasting time opening emails from retail shops and stores promoting the "last chance" or "best ever" sales claim. I get lured in. Then sometimes go browsing. How much time do you spend (or waste) browsing like this?
The other types of email I have filling up my inbox is from subscriptions or newsletters, which at the time, seemed to have value, or I wouldn't have signed up for them. These are the emails that tend to get lost, unopened, and fill up my inbox.
So, what do I do? It may seem simple, but here it is.
Daily, read what's urgent, answer, and delete.
Try to delete all sales related emails, unless I can actually spare a few minutes to browse and can honestly admit to myself that I have excess cash to afford to spend right now. If not, move on.
This last type of email is not as simple, but still easy. Scan each email to see if it is relevant to my business, a craft of skill I want to learn, or my mental well being, (choose what's important to you, here), then if it is, decide if it can be read within the time I have available right now, or should I save it to a folder for later reading.
Marking it for later reading doesn't mean just moving the email to another folder to fill up. You must really decide if you will read it within a given amount of time, if you don't think that you will, delete it.
If the email is just a teaser for you to purchase a product, e-book, webinar, etc., try to make the decision right now if you will be purchasing the product or not. If not, you know what to do. If you need to think about it, give it a day or two, then move on. For me, I don't think I'll ever be able to do all the webinars, pod casts, etc.,that I would like, so I have to make choices. And I try to choose wisely. Life's just too short.
Of course I check my email on a daily basis, and answer anything that is urgent, ie: an order or question from my Etsy shop, family email, or some bill that needs my immediate attention. But then, I find myself wasting time opening emails from retail shops and stores promoting the "last chance" or "best ever" sales claim. I get lured in. Then sometimes go browsing. How much time do you spend (or waste) browsing like this?
The other types of email I have filling up my inbox is from subscriptions or newsletters, which at the time, seemed to have value, or I wouldn't have signed up for them. These are the emails that tend to get lost, unopened, and fill up my inbox.
So, what do I do? It may seem simple, but here it is.
Daily, read what's urgent, answer, and delete.
Try to delete all sales related emails, unless I can actually spare a few minutes to browse and can honestly admit to myself that I have excess cash to afford to spend right now. If not, move on.
This last type of email is not as simple, but still easy. Scan each email to see if it is relevant to my business, a craft of skill I want to learn, or my mental well being, (choose what's important to you, here), then if it is, decide if it can be read within the time I have available right now, or should I save it to a folder for later reading.
Marking it for later reading doesn't mean just moving the email to another folder to fill up. You must really decide if you will read it within a given amount of time, if you don't think that you will, delete it.
If the email is just a teaser for you to purchase a product, e-book, webinar, etc., try to make the decision right now if you will be purchasing the product or not. If not, you know what to do. If you need to think about it, give it a day or two, then move on. For me, I don't think I'll ever be able to do all the webinars, pod casts, etc.,that I would like, so I have to make choices. And I try to choose wisely. Life's just too short.
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