Best Tips for Email Organization

by Michele Duwe, Miss Task | Planning-Organization-Productivity

Best Tips for Email Organization

Either you control your email or it controls you. Here are my best tips for email organization and keeping your inbox in control.

When I chat with people about what I do and how I help, when I mention keeping your email organized the same reaction of Hallelujah is heard.

Your inbox should be treated as a tool in your online business, it should not be where you spend a bulk of your time. Here are the best tips that I provide or implemented for email organization.

Labels and Filters

Setting up labels and filters is the first step to an organized inbox. In the past, I've created a number of labels, but I've scaled that back a bit. 98% of the time if you go looking for an email, likely you’ll search for a keyword or person before you go and look for it. If that’s not the case, how are you finding those emails? Searching is quick and easy.

Here are the best labels or folders that I’ve found to use:

0-Immediate
1-Action
2-Active
3-Hold
Finance
Finance/Payable
Finance/Receivable
Review
Unscribe

Any specific folders that are needed in your business. Such as client or product folder.

Let's talk about labels or folders and the purpose they serve.

Dubsado Is A Game Changer a blog from Miss Task OBM

A Little Side Note

When you need a mindless activity use this time to unsubscribe to all those marketing emails that are no longer serving you. This not only helps you but also the conversion rates of the list you're opting out of. It's a win-win for you both.

1-Action

These are emails that require action by you but doesn’t require immediate action.

2-Active

These are emails for active projects that are getting a number of emails. I would suggest creating a filter to put them directly in this folder. The filter can be on an email address or subject.

3-Hold

These are emails for meetings, travel, reservations, activities. Generally anything with a date or an agenda that will no longer be needed after the event has taken place.

Finance

The actual Finance folder is used to hold the emails. Once the email has been completed it can be moved to either the payable or receivable sub-label/folder pending what it is.

Review

These are emails that do not have a timeframe as to when they need to be reviewed. This is where I put the marketing emails that I like to skim and archive for reference later.

Unsubscribe

This folder can either be manually added to or a filter can be created. I’ve done it both ways, personally, I prefer to manually add these when I’m sorting through my emails because some of the marketing emails will be added to my review folder to be skimmed later.

Inbox Applications

You have options, options and more options when it comes to inbox applications. I can’t even remember all the inbox applications I’ve tried out. These days I use mostly Spark, however, Kiwi is a very close second. Do not be scared to try different applications, you need to figure out what works for you. You have so, so many possibilities!

Why I like Spark

I like Spark because it has an app for my iPhone, I can pin emails, save canned responses, I can schedule emails, and I can have them come back into my inbox. They also have a paid option for teams to chat back and forth on emails. One other feature that I like is Quick Reply this option allows me to set up canned responses that I can send with a click of the mouse. For example, that allows me to send a quick email to let my customer know that I’ve got the email and will take a look at the request. It is handy dandy.

Why Kiwi

Kiwi brings your Gmail to your desktop and if you have multiple Gmail accounts they receive tabs to jump back and forth with. With kiwi, you can use Boomerang. This will allow you to set up emails to be sent at a later time or to snooze a email to review later.

Get out of your inbox

As an online business owner, it’s important that you get out of your inbox. Your work should not be driven by the emails that you receive. It’s best to block time to work on your email. I check mine twice per day. About mid-morning and at the end of the day when I’m looking at planning the following work day. My emails are sorted when I open up my inbox to the appropriate project. Everything gets filed in the correct label or folder so that it is completed in the correct time block.

It is possible to get your inbox to zero, it just takes a bit of time to clear out the clutter. Once you have the system in place email is so much more.

Guide To Quarterly Planning For Your Online Business

by Michele | Planning-Organization-Productivity

Guide To Quarterly Planning For Your Online Business

Are you quarterly planning for your online business? I’m not talking about a huge extensive plan, just getting your projects laid out for the next quarter. Where you want to focus your time and energy.

Let Me Guide You Through A Quarterly Planning…

At the end of last year did you get an idea of the types of projects that you wanted to complete in the up coming year? If not, no big deal. Do it now.

Brainstorm

Brainstorm an exhausted list of all the projects that you want to accomplish in the next four to five quarters. When I say exhausted, I mean braindump all the ideas and information from your head on the list. No project is too small or simple for the list. Write down everything that pops into your head, no judgment.

Narrow It Down

Get out your pen and paper and get the projects out on paper. I like to highlight, cross off and of course color code.

Quarterly Planning For Your Online Business post by Miss Task

Align

With your brainstorm list, figure out which projects are aligned with the vision and mission of your online business.

Select projects that are aligned with your online business and rank each of the tasks by importance. This will aid in where you need to start.

Each quarter will be assigned three projects to achieve! Basically, one per month. Start with the projects that have the most impact on the growth of your online business or is the quickest path to cash. Either highlight the three tasks for Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 with a different color or note the Q in front of the task.

Now on to quarterly planning for your online business

Now, it's time to organize your next quarter plan. From your list above what did you select as projects to work on for the upcoming quarter?

Do you have a project management application?

If you have a project management system you can set this all up inside so you know what to do when. If not, paper will work just fine.

At the top, write out your online business mission, vision, and goals for the upcoming quarter. Under this break it into three columns. One for each project.

Under the Project Header

Now we are going to put in all the tasks that need to be completed by who and when. Will you need any resources, such as a new software application, to complete the task?

Not all the tasks must be completed by you. It’s very important that you stay in your lane and delegate out the tasks that can be done by someone else.

Little Side Note

If you’re planning a large launch to take place in the next quarter and you know all focus needs to go into this. This would be your only project for the quarter.

OMG, Why do I have so much stuff | Time to Declutter

by Michele Duwe, Miss Task | Planning-Organization-Productivity

OMG, Why do i have so much stuff?

OMG, Why do I have so much stuff?

Do you find yourself in the repeated pattern of OMG, Why do I have so much stuff?

I'm putting my hand in the air on this one. While I'm getting better about all of this I'm still a work in progress.

I'm at home a lot, obviously, I run a business out of my home so it plays double duty.

I am beginning to feel overwhelmed with all the stuff I have gathered over the years. A few years back, I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. I happened to have a free weekend and started with purging my closet. That was pretty much where it ended.

Let me tell you a little bit about my husband and oldest child. They do not like any type of clutter. Clear counters and knick-knack feel zones. A few pictures here and there will past the test.

I cried

My Goodness, why and where did I end up with so much stuff around my house? Do you feel as if the clutter is taking over? Plus, read about my little decluttering oops.[/caption]

About six months ago with a heavy and sad heart, who am I kidding, I cried as I put all my knick-knacks into a box and into the storage room. I was testing to see if I actually missed these items.

I bet this will come as a shocker, yup I did not miss any of these pieces. I'll admit this too, the room actually felt open and not as closed in when I would enter it. Crazy that a room could feel more inviting.

Did you see it, did you see it?

But, do you know what put me over the top? The Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix. Girl, I was just like the kids and binge watched this show in two days. For a person that doesn't turn on the TV that was a big deal. That little lady is amazing.

Remember the box

Remember the box that I packed up about six months back? Well, that was donated along with a number of other boxes. Although, I'll give you this advice. Go through the box before you give it away. Ya, so I kinda didn't do that and donated the picture frames with all our pictures in them. Really I have no clue what else ended up in the box. Oops.

Would you like other resources about tidying? I tend to go into research mode. Lucky for me, the internet is an endless vault for a research enthusiast. Let me share a bit of my research.

This is what I found interesting

Time Management Ninja has hit the nail on the head with his article 10 Reasons You Have Too Much Clutter. I keep things because I may need it someday or I have some emotional attachment. But, the big one for me is I may find a use for it in the future.

The Small Things talks about organization versus clutter. I could totally relate because she has the same mindset for 2017. Purge, purge, purge

I Heart Frugal gives Useful Tips To Decluttering Your Home. She said “Having a clean house helps you have a clean mind.” I agree with this 100%.

Dr. Christiane Northrup has a great article on Heal Your Life. She also refers to Marie Kondo book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying. Here are a few of my favorite points:

Possessions carry emotional energy and constantly talk to you, so you want to let go of objects that you don’t love, even if they’re practical.
In addition, piles of stuff in your home are one of the greatest stress triggers. Clutter literally increases your cortisol level!
Take in how good you feel. When you’ve finished throwing out what you no longer love.

I read a number of other articles. Can you say total procrastination to writing this blog?

Please feel free to leave your so much stuff struggles below in the comments!

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