Lessons

Lesson Info

Email Best Practices

Your inbox is a loading bay not a warehouse there is the man darren barefoot who said that I didn't think he ever realised that quote him so many times when he said that I think was just off the cuff remark when he put in his block post but it's true it's true you wouldn't go into costco and shop in the receiving department hey get very crowded and you wouldn't find anything because it's all loaded in the box is very difficult to find right so why are we doing that with the mail? We don't keep all our postal mail in our mailbox why are we keeping our email in her inbox? Find the warehouse ever know maybe that's your warehouse maybe you got two warehouses only focused on never know maybe asana and after note maybe to do is to never nowt maybe to do its thing google keep whatever is goingto work for you depending on what you're using in terms of devices or in terms of mindset right but this is key and this isn't just not this isn't just for e mail by the way right? So jennifer if you kee...

p loading your inbox and ever know and just believe stuff in there and then guess what you've got a very full receiving department you've got a very full loading dock with no idea of where that stuff supposed to go mommy focus on any in boxes you have all it's meant to do is be a temporary place to hold stuff it's called inbox it's not called box that's what that's what that's for ok, you have some questions? Sure and we did cover it but there's just a little request for some clarification in regards to what the reasoning would be tohave multiple email accounts that we mentioned yesterday what's the benefit of using multiple accounts instead of just one account with multiple folders if you could for me it's it's and the reason I like having multiple accounts is mindset it's all about having a different approach depending what email address that comes in the having multiple in boxes and I know gmail allows this and I know there's multiple folders and staff but when something comes into mike it productivity's dot com to me that means I've established a report with the person sending me that email because I've given them that email whereas info at productivity's dot com I know that it's somebody reaching out to me for the first time or somebody that I haven't really established a good report with that I'm going to be able to respond to them in a different manner the filters and the multiple in boxes don't really help me in that regard because what happens is everything is coming into one account I'm going okay? Is this a personal email? Is this a sales emails that the professional personal email is this what is this and I'm not having it I don't have the information in front of me so I have to make a decision here now I'd rather make the decision have the decision made for me by the guy who was there when he set up the email accounts earlier and said what email did I send you know what email did I send tv uh oh we know each other okay she gets this one what do you mean do I send chris oh yeah what do you do? I send you know joe schmo I don't know him so he's going to get the info want like it's all about making sure that you can be in a different mindset and the filters all they do in my mind is they say everything comes into one in box and then they get filtered automatically or you filter them in a lot of cases they get filtered automatically because you set up rules we just fine in terms of if that if that's what you're doing but what that says to me is if I have everything coming into my personal e mail account all filtered I'm not I'm going to approach it in issue look I'm going to check my inbox oh my god I have one hundred thirty emails but ten of them are business and twenty of them are personal and thirty of them are email our sales rather I don't have to make a lot of quick shifting snaps is have to really move to be able to go okay because member emails it doesn't go okay mike here's, your twenty personal here's your this here's of that for me it works to have separate email accounts for others to have multiple inboxes under one if they've labeled them as such that's fine too, but for me I know it's simple just a sign up for an email account right? And then just use that email account as opposed to sign up for an e mail account at a filter do this do that for me it's like dun dun dun all right, go ahead what is I just us two different shit we've been email accounts like the female name itself. Yeah, so? So what I'll do is agree talk about like how I make sure that I know that that email is a certain time isn't like personal at gmail up yeah, yeah so county port has a great like county poor who wrote the book so good they can't ignore you hey has several email accounts and I know I have one that I know he's going to read right away right? Because we've chatted and he wrote the forward to the front nine so human I actually can talk really quickly but there's others who will have that right so they'll have to you know go to his info in box same with me someone he emails me through my sight they're going to get the info box that's what they're gonna get but if I go to jennifer go here's my here's my business card you're going to get my you're going to reach me directly and the reason I also do that which actually is his future proofing is let's say I hire an assistant at some point I can say here's my info email address you manage that I don't have to un radu filters do I just go here's the e mail go ahead right here's you start go ahead what I will ask to us actually um how they choose which names females have which addresses they have how do I choose? Well there you have it the system for it I gets contacts based for me it's like I want have guessed posters writing at productivity's dot com you wanna get post on my safe that's the email use and I know that that's what it is you know clients at you know whatever your email addresses oh clients get that right jennifer at g miller absolutely or clients touching you could do whatever you've been whatever works I mean I have my own domain I think for a lot of people when they're running their own websites the running the business they have their own domains so yeah being a lot of cases, you could have a myriad of emails sales sales that productivity's dot com guess what? Email's come there, mike, you're zipped file wouldn't download had a few of those if I can't get the bonuses and I have a snippet here you go, right? So I know how to respond to that, right? I also know whether they're going to get a snippet or not like an email snippet or an auto responder, right? If someone emails me it mike, it productivity's dot com, they don't get away, find I get that like that bypass is to me right away on mako, someone e mailed me there, my personal email, they don't get it either, but sales and info, they get it. Why? Because that way I know that they've been responded to, and I don't need to touch it right away if I get an assistant that maybe I remove that service and so I'm future proofing, and I think that that's a good probably the best strategy when it comes to having those separate e mail accounts is that in future proofing it for in case, yeah, I need to hire an assistant or you know what? I am not going to sell products anymore, so I don't need that sales email anymore, or you know what? I'm you know like mike it might've rd dot com is the one that I used for all the other stuff right? So that way I know if if I get through that then they maybe didn't find me I know them not through productivity's so it's another professional endeavor right that makes it does that make sense? Okay, go ahead start to you from informed your web site dot com and then later he became friends with you so you do tell him stop e mailing me here and why use an email client like air mail or post box is that gives you the option to decide what he mailed to reply from? So I mean that's up to them to make that decision so if I know that joe was giving me an email and I have a relationship with him all the sudden all reply the next time with mike it productivity's dot com I don't know if I see them in info later and it happens regularly then maybe I'll send that e mail say hell by the way you know what? Why don't you start any new me emailing me at mica productivity's dot com because I get that one a lot quicker and then you won't get this away fine thing which they only get everyone eighty days anyways but yeah, basically you're right the info one is kind of like a gatekeeper like hey I'm putting on a trial run you know can we have a professional relationship you know and if we can and we it becomes more on that then you know like in terms of were working together consistently or whatnot thing yet you're going to get that other one and I'll reply so that's again conscious choice and the only reason I could make that conscious choice because I have separate email inboxes I can approach each email account with a what does this mean to me right? And then I'm passing by default past that what that meaning is on to the person who's receiving it right because even my signatures are a bit different right? You got a question I just find it nice and you you seem like you're working as many departments in your own head but I'm able to shit like member I maybe we'll shift right like if I'm trying that's like with one email account I'd be balancing right go is that person but I'm able to go you know what I'm in sales mode down on my own sales manager I'm you know my my own administrative assistant right but I mean right like him all that so when people were supplied to the sales ones I mean yeah it's a snip it but I get a wow that's the fastest response I've had for a five dollar product ever I'm like well yeah and it's from you like you know, maybe one day it won't be but atleast I've got that set up I've done that front end work, right? I've done that stuff on the front end so that later when I have to make a change it's gonna be a lot easier for me to make a change if I say, hey, I've got a sales manager now here you go, here's your email by the way, you're probably gonna start, you're going to be getting emails already like a company does this why would you do this? Like, why would you do this for yourself if you're if you're if you got multiple branches in your life, why would you do this for yourself? Write to me that's how and because I have the wherewithal, the awareness because my sister was set up to go home, I should think about this a little bit more we know already know when I released I mean, this happened to me last night, I thought, you know, I'm having a lot of errors with that file, that bonus file because it's hit its maximum on square space, which is where I host my sight it's just such a big file, so how? Because I've got everything else covered I can let my brain do that big thinking of how am I going to administer the book when it comes out I know I'll do this and this and this and I can I can do that I can process that fairly quickly because everything else is is recorded its somewhere it's in my trusted system I trust my work flow which allows me to a better work, right? And yeah, I've had to mitigate what happened with the initial bonuses because now I'm sending e mails out but I have a sales even able to do that now if I had my own personal email doing that oh boy, that inbox would be full right? So I've set back then and that's also a way of setting boundaries, right? Like I've said, hey, this is me a sales person this is mia's this upset boundaries, right? I responded to all during one of the breaks today I'd like five e mails from sales at least five took care of them very quickly why? Because it was it was I was willing to do that at that point in time, right that's a boundary upset personally male like I said earlier, I've got forty fifty sitting I'm touched it right? Sorry mom, I don't think she's watching now unlike your mom, I don't think she's watching but you set boundaries and then start respecting them because no one else is going to respect them if you don't no one else is going to respect boundaries that you set unless you are if you reply to an email at three in the morning because you've got it at two thirty and the person on australia for them it's in the middle of the afternoon or whatever time it is and you reply to it then guess what's going to happen that person australia is going to say guess what I can send an email to jennifer any time or at three to them will be in the afternoon well if I sent an email to jennifer three in the afternoon she's going to get it and then one time you don't respond right? You've set that expectation you said the expectation up we talked about like setting expectations in a way that kind of may work against you initially right? You're going to lose a client or you may be going you know lose some faith maybe from your boss your boss say well you know I don't think it won't just let me let me do this let me try let me set this boundary if it fails then it fails then I'll meet will set another boundary I'll move that boundary right? But you know if you respond to an email at that time right if he's laid email then guess what you broke you basically said here's my boundary right go ahead come in when we were covering boundaries from cookie lady and she had said set limits I can't stress that enough I know it seems simple but I know that I haven't been doing it myself and running myself ragged as a result if I keep overloading my schedule of my quality insanity suffers so you know it's just kind of all of us need to remember to do it yeah and and it's gonna it's not gonna work overnight you're gonna take people off then you get to evaluate something completely different which is well who's the person I ticked off what value is that right like how do I what does that mean to me again it's all backto what does that mean to me right oh they're hot they're client plus their client plus plus when they're taking up a lot more of my time and you know when we get to the idea stuff oh but they're not really generating a whole lot of income guess what I get to fire a client right or when you're like you said earlier when you said you left that one job right ha felt good right right that was a boundary you said that's it I'm done and you didn't maybe necessarily leave right away I mean whenever eye whenever I have left when I left life hack when I've left other sides I've given a month's notice a month when I left the film fast stall in victoria I gave like two months notice yeah you gave seven seven months notice so you knew c so you set them up you gave them you gave them every when you give people that much opportunity and they don't take advantage of it that who is that on that's on them, right? I gave them I give if I give a month I know I'm giving mohr than because what's the general general amount of two weeks right in the world that was very isolated and we worked in the same office and it was very but now that's good world's got bigger I think that time constraint should be a little bit bigger as well, you know, cause training people, you're not necessarily connected to them. I gave them a month and I set him up and then I was able to walk away and when I walked away, how do you think I felt better than I did if I had just given two weeks I was able to say, you know what I've done all I can there you go enjoy. And if I end up leaving one of those ghost writing jobs, I always give them a month and further to that I often because I've got some ability toe to do this because they all say, by the way, there's somebody else who I know who could really use this income and might might wanna start making so here when you contact them and that's happened on about four five occasions where I've been able to refer people for things that I don't necessarily want to do anymore but they may be ready for whereas if I was just so caught up in the doing doing doing I'd be like get me out of here I don't care run out the door, close the door behind me you know, fire alarm, everyone else stay inside, go down in the building, right? You have anything else in there before I move onto you know we have another email question here is if he wants to know how do you treat email conversations in the email management after they've been sent ever know or task management? I currently forward the emails ever known as a task, but I have to constantly keep an eye on my email for any replies that, um the term constantly is what disturbs you constantly when I afforded to ever know in a lot of cases there is some link back, especially nominee focus and some task midget doesn't link back to the initial email when I move it to ever know I will create context within the subject line like we talked about yesterday the email so follow up with blank and if it's an attack if it's a task then it's going to be I'm gonna have like a date that it will remind me you know hey don't forget to go back into that right and if I've applied a contacts like you know if I've decided to do date then it'll show up you know our start date whenever it'll show up in my task list if I assigned it the context of email like a lot of people will when I go to check my e mails show up there so it's not about following the e mail conversation it's about following up on the e mail conversation so if the email comes in if you're checking in constantly then why are you even putting it and every night in the first place or why you putting in your task because all you're doing is just monitoring the phone right are monitoring the mailbox I mean um when you know when the mailman comes right we all know when the mailman or mail the delivery person comes right do you stand at the door and open it every five minutes just I know you like I know I'm not there yet my my postal my postal delivery person comes at two p m monday through friday I know when they come so I don't spend time at the door going I know but we too with when is that mail coming and male always comes make no mistake it always comes but if so if you're if you're monitoring constantly then all you're doing is again you're manning the phones, right? Operators are standing by don't get teo you know pick up the phone and call now and expect that instant things so I would I would if your forwarding it just create con don't go the re re re re do this say hey follow up with mary on project x and that's how you do and then yeah have it if it's in every note you can use every note reminders I know a lot of people do where it'll bring that note back up to the top of that notebook if you want to do that or have it you know a sign it ah date in your task manager so that it comes back up or better still get them in on something like a sauna or flow where the communications happening within the app itself then you can actually monitor it somewhat and also actually managed the task of projects at the same time go go ahead um if you're referring back to an email that was forward to ever no doubt your task manager asana is an example can you have a link in that not within ever note or in asana that goes back to the email or twenty fuller or in it filed within your some maps it works in some maps it doesn't but that's why the subject line is so important and that's why the center so important because when you go to your email you could search for that so you could say, hey, I'm going to go and search for that email that mary sent right? So instead of searching for all of mary's emails, you've got the task in a sauna or omni focus or never know where the thing you never know you could just highlight that copy and paste it or taken element of it and go oh, I'm going to search but that might one email account that I'm using for that as opposed to the you know the you know whatever email account you're using as opposed to all of it because that's another benefit about using separate email accounts is that there's less for it to filter through? You could say, oh alright there's where it isthe so sometimes it links sometimes it doesn't and sometimes the link breaks like if I'm using dispatch, it'll link back on ios it'll link back if I'm using dispatch I never using that my omni focus or ever note on my iphone, but if I'm using on the desktop, it has no idea where to go right that's why a lot of people were talking about during this thiss during the break that's why a lot of people stick with stock mail app because it'll work on either right because it's it's it's the same cohesion is came same system so that's what I would do is I would I would again be specific and the constant monitoring doesn't have to be constant. It could be, you know. All right, I'm going to follow up.