What are the benefits of a VA managing your e-mail? Not sure, here’s a few questions to answer to find out if you could benefit.
Do you have hundreds if not thousands of unread e-mails in your inbox?
Missing out on important deadlines/tasks/requests because you can’t keep on top of your e-mails?
Meetings not accepted/declined/being missed? Meetings overlapping in your diary?
No folders?
Feeling inbox overwhelm?
How can a VA help with managing your e-mail?
Did you know you could essentially have a Personal Assistant who works virtually aka a Virtual Assistant who can manage your inbox on a daily basis for as little as 30 minutes a day?
How can a VA do this? You give the VA delegate access to your e-mail account (the VA can help with this). This enables the VA to;
- Delete/unsubscribe to mailing lists you signed up for which are no longer relevant
- File e-mails into folders which you need to keep (removing them from your inbox)
- Delete old e-mails which are clogging up your mailbox and no longer relevant
- Accept/decline/propose new times for meetings, allowing time in your diary for travel/work/personal commitments
- Flag important e-mails which you must action
- Reply to e-mails where appropriate so your customers know something has been received
- Send you reminders of tasks/meetings/special dates where necessary
- Make sure all important dates are in your diary including; Bank Holidays, your own holidays/school holidays (if appropriate), personal appointments
- Check diary clashes and re-arrange any meetings where needed.
What is the benefit of good e-mail management?
There are many benefits of good e-mail management. Regularly decluttering your inbox helps/makes YOU feel more organised and gives YOU more clarity on work that needs to be done. This can lead to increased productivity, improved communication efficiency, improved time management and reduces your e-mail-related stress. Other benefits include;
- Saves you time not having to search high and low for an e-mail.
- Reduces your time/stress not having to sort/re-arrange meeting dates for your diary.
- Eliminates the worry/pressure of not missing something important in your inbox.
- Enables you to have time out of the office for a holiday knowing that someone is keeping an eye on your business.
- E-mail storage costs you money, so the more you can delete the more money you could save.
Arranging Meetings
Part of e-mail management includes arranging meetings. I know from 25+ years of being a Personal Assistant that if you are trying to book a meeting with someone external to your business it takes at least a few e-mail exchanges to confirm a suitable date. The number of e-mail exchanges can increase when there are a number of different people who need to be invited. Imagine never having to play e-mail tennis again?
What would you do if you had more time?
By outsourcing your e-mail/calendar management to a VA can give you some of your day back. What would you do with that free time?
- Play golf during the working week
- Meet friends/family/colleagues for long lunches
- Work on growing/nurturing your business – that’s the reason you started in business?
- Have a stress free holiday with no worry of the number of e-mails you may return to
- Leave on time, if not early during the week
- No work weekends
Tips for reducing your mailbox size
- Empty your deleted folder
- Archiving
- Delete e-mails once you’ve read/dealt with them if no longer required
- Touch the e-mail once, read it, bin it or file it (get into good habits)
If you’ve never worked with a Virtual Assistant, we can work together to find the right system that works for you. There are many options to try and improve your e-mail management, one idea is to have 3 folders; To Action, To Read, and Follow up. There are many other options that can be trialled. We can discuss this when we start working together.
What next?
It’s so simple to outsource to a Virtual Assistant, if you are interested in me managing your e-mail, drop me an e-mail at tamsin@tjva.co.uk and we can have a chat to see how we could work together.
