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Organize Your Inbox Like A Pro

Organize Your Inbox Like A Pro

by | Planning-Organization-Productivity

Organize your Inbox like a pro?

Would you like to know the secret to organize our inbox like a pro? Guessing the answer is heck ya!

Aww or should I say Ugh?

This seems to be the overall feeling that my customers have regarding email management. The task that must be done, but feels like it drains the life out of you someday.
With all the revenue generating tasks they could be doing, many customers are spending far too much time working on email.

This is my secret to get through the inbox in record speed

I read through my email twice daily. Once in the morning around 11 and once in the afternoon/evening when I'm planning the adventures for my next day.

Before you begin start a timer for 25 minutes…

For the first 5 minutes, I go through and sort the emails. They will go into the following folders in my inbox *Act Now, *Hopper, *Sort, or a specific customer. Organizing in this manner allows me to quickly and easily get to inbox zero.

*Act Now

I start with Act Now. Anything in this folder that I can be done in a few minutes I will do it now. Anything else will get a reply that I've received the message, and it will be added to the following day's task list. Psst… make this a template for a quick response.
This allows me to run my day and not be driven by email.

*Hopper

This folder is for all the items that I need to keep around, but do not want it taking up room in the inbox. For example, a webinar that you will attend or an email that I will need to reference in the future.

*Sort

Everything else. It is really just the “archive” folder, but c'mon I can't have this folder come before my hopper folder – obviously.

Let me know if these help you Organize Your Inbox Like A Pro!

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Little Side Note

I do schedule a 25 minute time sprint on my daily calendar for unforeseen emergencies. Because you just never know…

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My Personal Best Productivity Practices

by | Planning-Organization-Productivity

My Personal Best Productivity Practices

My Personal Best Productivity Practices

When you work as a virtual assistant, it is imperative that your day is productive. When I am balancing my business and the work for other companies, it crucial that I stay on my game regarding my productivity.I won't lie I'm a sucker when it comes to articles on productivity. I'm sucked in like a vacuum. I have a pretty solid productivity practice in place. However, productivity is a skill that I am working on fine tuning all the time.

When you work as a virtual assistant, it is imperative that your day is productive. When I am balancing my business and the work for other companies, it crucial that I stay on my game regarding my productivity.

Personal Best

Here are a few of my personal best productivity practices that I use on the daily. How many of these do you use?

Check email only 3 times daily

I only check my email three times a day. Morning, Afternoon and end of the day when I am planning for the next day. To avoid distracting incoming notification, I close my email. Trust me I struggle with it, but I do it anyway. I've previously talked about inbox zero, each time my inbox is zero when I sign out.

Work on one task at a time

I stay focused on only one task. It's vital to me that my clients get every cent's worth. I do not bounce back and forth. I focus on one project at a time.

Get a timer

I set a timer. Some days I am laser focused, and I can put my head down for 50 minutes at a time with only a 5-minute break. But hey, I am a mother of three extremely active children. Depending on how much we had to go to the evening before I may not have the same focus. You know what that's okay. On those days I keep my sprints shorter and do not work as long. They may only be 25 minutes with 5 minutes off.

Schedule it

I schedule everything in my day and leave open time for the unexpected. Because I know that I will have the unexpected come up, that is a given. When I am lucky, and nothing comes up, bet you're not surprised that I can find something to fill that time.

What are your personal best productivity practices? Tell me about them in the comment section below.

 

Psst… I use a system of Google calendar, teamwork and my bullet journal on the daily. For fun, I created this example bullet journal page.

How to Create a Simple Social Media Post with Canva

How to Create a Simple Social Media Post with Canva

by | Content Marketing

How to Create a Simple Social Media Post with Canva

Canva | How to create a simple social media post with Canva

Canva is a great tool to create simple social media posts. I've talked about it before in this post. Personally, I feel it is easy peasy compared to PhotoShop. It really is a simple tool to use once you get the hang of it. Although, my first creation did take a hot minute. These days I am able to whip out social media post in under five to ten minutes. I find that it takes me longer to figure out how to style my photo than to actually create the graphics in Cava.

Canva

The free tool for Canva is incredible, it has a ton of features that can turn a photo into a fun graphic to post on social media. All you need to do is put on your creative hat. If you are at all one that gets caught of in fonts and colors I suggest that you go in with an idea of what you would like to do. Otherwise, it can be hours later before you look at the time. Trust me on this one, I know better and still do it.

 

Let’s cover the basic steps for creating a simple social media post

How to Create Simple Social Media Posts with Canva

  • If you haven’t already got to www.canva.com and create an account.
  • Once you have an account created you will have a menu bar on the left-hand side
  • Create a design should already be highlighted for you. Under that is All your designs.
  • Select the type of social media post you would like to create:
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • Etc.
  • Pick your Layout
    • Layouts are either be free or paid, this is labeled in the lower right-hand corner
  • Let the fun begin!
  • Play with the different fonts and colors. Change the transparency to give a different looks