Getting too much email?

Here's how to tame your inbox once and forever!

Tame the Email Monster 
© Charlie Page

Email crept quietly into our lives a few years ago. At first, the notion of email was fun, new, exciting. "I'll EMAIL it to you", we said to one another, wanting to be efficient and up to the moment. We understood technology. We got it. We had email.

Fast forward to today and you find a completely different picture. Today, we're drowning in email. We get more and more spam (not the fine Hormel product) every day. Our inboxes are jammed with notes from family and friends, orders and price requests and unwanted solicitations to buy herbal viagra.

Today I bring you GOOD NEWS if you are swamped by email. You CAN tame the email monster that lives in your PC by using the five tried and true methods below.

When you take control of your email, you will find that you free up AT LEAST an hour a day. Some people have found that they save more time than that!! Use that time to work on the goals you've been setting, and soon you will find the time you need to grow your business.

What could you do with an extra one or two hours a day? Use the suggestions below and you just may find out!!

1. Group email tasks together. Have you meant to send a client a note about a story you saw in the newspaper? Need to send a special sale email to your prospect list? Do it all at ONE sitting. It may take an hour or more, but if you can be DONE with your email, you will have the mental freedom to move on with your day.

With the possible exception of client email (see tip 2) checking your email more than twice a day may be overdoing it. Use your goals as your guide. Reading email may be fun, and even seem like work, but in most cases it can be a time waster. Limit yourself to checking twice a day.

2. Learn to use filters. Every good email program (Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora to name a few) have the ability to FILTER email into various folders. In most cases, the help menus in these programs actually help. ;)

Filtering works like this. When an email comes in from a particular email address or with a particular subject line, the email doesn't go into your inbox, but rather to it's own folder. This way, you can see at a glance if an email has come in from an important client, or perhaps a request for pricing. The key here is to avoid scanning a large group of emails that will distract your attention, and be able to go quickly to those messages that matter most.

Imagine if when your email came in you could tell in 10 seconds which ones were important and which could wait. Would you save time this way?

3. Learn about autoresponders. Autoresponders are easy to understand once you've heard it explained. Autoresponders are like filters on a higher level. Instead of just moving messages to a certain location, an autoresponder actually REPLIES to the email with a set message. Many of us use the autoresponder feature in our email programs for vacation messages. Some autoresponders can personalize the response (Dear Audrey) when they reply. You usually subscribe to a service to use an autoresponder although some high end email programs carry this feature. Some services charge a modest fee, while some are free if you allow them to place a small ad at the top of your message.

=====> HOT TIP <=====

Want to REALLY save some time? Here's a power tip for you. If you find that you are frequently asked the same questions over and over (can you ship, do you have a website, how do I place an order?) put the answers to these questions in an autoresponder!! This way you can say on your website, or in your email signature, "For answers to all your questions, send a blank email to <autoresponder email address> This will save you a ton of time if you take the time to set it up once.

4. Use multiple email addresses. Why have everything come into one inbox and have to sort it by hand? The key to saving time is SORTING your email so you can quickly look at the important stuff. Try using a different email address for orders than for general correspondence. Or have a separate email address for customer service. If you use filters, you can set up a filter on these addresses and voila, there's your email all organized and ready to read.

5. Use templates. A template is a pre-written response that you can send out manually. Similar to an autoresponder, but more flexible. With a template, you can simply reply to an incoming email by using the template and 99% of your message is typed for you! Most of us spend a LOT of time typing the same information into different emails. Why do that when that's what the computer is for? Most good email programs contain templates. You can add a pretty background, insert the text you want and even sign your email with one click of the mouse. Use different templates for different purposes (one for sales, one for personal, etc.) and you save even more time!

One thing appears certain. We will deal with more email in the future. Last year's Anthrax scare in the United States put using email at the top of the list for ways to communicate. Now, we're using email more than ever.

Email is great when used as a tool. Email is horrible when you become chained to your computer, fearing if you don't check your email you'll miss something.

Take control of your email today, and get back the time you need to meet your goals and run your business.

-----------------------------------

Charlie Page is a copywriter who owns the Directory of Ezines and the Directory of Marketing. If you want to sell more online, visit Charlie today at http://www.directoryofmarketing.com