For many of us, it can often feel like large parts of our day are consumed with email. As our business grows, so does our Inbox, bulging at the seams and enticing us to spend more and more time with it! 

Last week, I read a report stating the average small business owner spends 28% of their working week in their Inbox. To be honest, I’d go as far as to suggest this seems conservative for many of the clients I have worked with! 

But, for the purpose of my blog this week, let’s take that figure. This equates to an average 11 hours a week spent inside your Inbox reading and responding to messages and keeping your Inbox well-manicured. Of course, that’s not the extent of the issue. The real time invader can just as easily be the email notification popping up and distracting you from the task you were actually right in the middle of before that notification caught the eye!

Research suggests that every time we stop what we are working on to check out that new email alert, we can reckon on 23 minutes on average to get fully back on task again post Inbox distraction. 

In fact, on these numbers it’s quite possible to be spending over 50% of our week in our Inbox. 

Of course, this is an average and everyone’s different. Yet, the indication would be that for many small business owners an enormous part of their working week is Inbox reactive. It’s all rather alarming. Business owners trying to develop and sustain a growing business spending a large chunk of their week lost to email management. Not ideal! 

So, what measures can be adopted to tackle the Inbox challenge? 

Email is still the most used business communication tool and for now, at least, is here to stay. So, this week I thought I’d offer a couple of helpful tips to manage those inboxes as ultimately… 

‘A business owner stuck in their Inbox for half the week is not good for business!’

Here’s a couple of tips you can employ to make your Inbox management more efficient: 

1) Be very disciplined about when you check your Inbox and when you don’t!

Block out dedicated Inbox diary time in your day. Don’t let it spawn into another task time. Work out what works best for you. Perhaps it’s Inbox time at the start of the day, and again once in the afternoon as appropriate? Whichever it is, try turning off email notifications the rest of the day to avoid task distraction. Don’t lose those 23 minutes refocusing each time – stay strong! 

2) Automate what you can!  

If you haven’t already, try setting up some automation rules in your inbox. 

3) Organise an inbox with labels, folders and categories

A tidy mind is a clear mind and the same can be said for an Inbox! 

4) Unsubscribe from unwanted promotional emails and filter out the spam!  

If you’ve tried the above and you are still not on top of the time-consuming Inbox monster, outsourcing could be the well-oiled work-life balance friendly tool you’ve been looking for.

Outsourcing your Inbox and never having to check your Email again!  

Over 37% of small businesses already outsource a business process to increase efficiency and free time for other tasks. Outsourcing is not seen as an added cost to the business but as a real terms cost saving to the business – the process is managed, and your time is free again!  

If you want to guarantee an efficient inbox, where no ball is dropped, everything is tidily managed and responded to appropriately and swiftly, consider outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant. 

What your Virtual Assistant can do for you: 

  • Send and respond to messages on your behalf efficiently
  • Get rid of spam messages
  • Organize a chaotic and cluttered inbox
  • Unsubscribe you from unwanted email lists
  • File away important messages in specific email folders so they can be easily recovered when you need them
  • Provide you with a daily (or regular) report of important messages that are timely and need your attention

If you are thinking about outsourcing your Inbox, here’s a checklist you might find helpful to consider:

  • What password protection system should I use with my VA? 
  • How will my VA understand my Inbox structure? 
  • What should my email handling guidelines and procedures look like? 
  • How will emails be tagged, deleted and added to a folder? 
  • What templates will be required? 

If you have been diligently managing your own inbox but are now wondering whether you are reaching a tipping point, perhaps record the time you spend on Inbox duty in your working week next week. Is it excessive? Is it compromising your time for business-critical activity? Would your time be better spent elsewhere?

I hope this week’s blog gets you thinking and really welcome your comments! 

Why not book in a Discovery call to find out more.

Happy working week everyone!