I keep very few emails in my Inbox. By using Outlook features effectively, you don’t have to feel overwhelmed by emails, tasks, and appointments. If you find that you are constantly over run by emails, perhaps it’s time for some virtual help with a Virtual Assistant. Virtual Assistants can be trained to answer incoming emails in your “voice” through a series of auto-responders tailored to answering the specific needs of your clients. If there are sensitivity issues you can always forward emails to your assistant and set up a “customer service” account just like any corporation would have. (Do you think Bill Gates really answers his own emails?) By having a Virtual Assistant answering emails, you can actually establish an image of credibility to a small business.
Here are some tips I use for managing emails:
1) Import Outlook Calendar from all media devices and sync up so that all appointments are accurate and so that I have access at any machine.
2) When emails come in glance over them to see what is junk and what is valid email that needs to be read and responded to.
3) Immediately delete it if it’s junk.
4) Respond to and handle tasks that can be taken care of immediately.
5) After an email has been completed, I move into the appropriate subfolder (I have a series of folders for every client and several personal folders and drag emails that have been completed but that I do not want to delete into) You never know when you will need to refer to an old email.
6) If it’s something that requires follow up, I set a reminder for the time of day that is best for me (I refer to my outlook calendar to see what time of day this might be) or I set an appointment in my Outlook Calendar. A pop up comes up in Outlook and will not go away until I have completed the task. I can reschedule it for another day when I think I will have more time or snooze the task and address it later.
7) On days that are quiet and I have extra time to catch up, I go through and complete the tasks that are still undone in my inbox. (Once per week or so I go through and look at every email to see if there are any that I have actually completed that are still in the inbox.)
Some great programs for managing emails at a distance are Gotomypc or Logmein. You can also use Mailstreet for syncing multiple users and multiple email accounts at once.
Maggie Ruch is a Virtual Assistant who offers affordable options for growing businesses. Check out her website at www.assistspeakers.com where you can get her free eBook “5 Tips for Finding the PERFECT Virtual Assistant”.
