How I Use Email for Efficiency
Email—it can be a blessing and a curse. If you have run a business that involves constant correspondence, it’s essential. It used to be the thing that gave me a headache, but now It helps my business run more efficiently. The key to not having my email inbox drive me nuts? I consistently use the systems I’ve set up.
I Check My Email Twice a Day
This strategy is described in the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and it’s a game-changer. As a product of two design degrees, I tend to work most efficiently in 3-4 hour spans. I used to get stuck in my email for the entire day and it felt like I was constantly hopping from one task to another and ultimately I got very little done. This was very frustrating because I had a to-do list that wasn’t getting anything crossed off. Further, the quality of my work wasn’t as good. I met all my deliverables, but I know I wasn’t giving various design tasks as nearly as much attention as I could.
So I stopped to evaluate the problem. I worked very efficiently in high school and college. So I asked myself what had changed since then. When I was in college, I was rarely on my email. In fact, I didn’t use email as a communication tool regularly until after grad school. Email was the culprit for destroying my high-level efficiency.
I had to change how I was using email and how often. So I wondered what would happen if I took Tim Ferris’ advice and checked my email less—specifically twice a day. Making this a habit, changed everything. Now, I generally check my email at noon and again at 4pm and I get so much more done.
I know what you’re thinking, “But Shila, what if there’s an emergency?” First, ask yourself, does your job involve saving lives? Seriously. If there’s a client emergency, they’ll call. I’ve been checking my email twice a day for years and nobody has gone to the hospital or died as a result.
I Pause My Email
If you’re like me, you need to reference your emails in order to complete tasks…but that conflicts with the above rule of checking email twice a day. I got you. There’s this great plug-in for Gmail called Boomerang (I use the free version). It allows you to pause and unpause your email.
It’s great because I can reference all the emails I’ve already received without seeing the new emails that come in. If I see the new emails, it’s all over—now I’m hopping from one task to another again. While paused, all the new emails go to a separate folder called “Inbox-Paused.” When you unpause your email, all these automatically go to your general inbox.
There are times where I’m expecting an email that I know I’ll need for my current task. Boomerang helps with this as well. If I’m expecting an email from Sally, I can search her email address in Gmail and all her new and old emails will show up below. So I can search for specific new emails without opening Pandora’s box.
I Take Advantage of Labels
As soon as I open up an email, I label it. It’s a good habit that makes my email so much more organized. I have a separate label for every single one of our current projects and another label for all of our archived projects. Our Comprehensive Full-Service Interior Design projects sometimes take over a year to complete from beginning to end since they involve construction. You can imagine how many emails I have for those longer projects.
I also have a label called @Respond so nothing urgent falls through the cracks. I have all the @Respond emails in the top section of my email above my general ‘Inbox’ section. I learned this trick in a workshop with Amanda Jefferson of Indigo Organizing. The “@” symbol makes sure that this label stacks towards the top of the label list so it’s easily accessible.
Don’t Let Email Run Your Business
Using email is supposed to make your life easier, not more stressful. These systems have completely transformed how I work. Sticking to these habits helps me work more efficiently and ultimately help me better serve my clients, because I have larger chunks of time to produce higher quality work. If email doesn’t help you work more efficiently what’s the point? You should be controlling your email, not the other way around.