I read this post last week on worthiness vs. busyness and it spurred some thoughts I had on the subject of separating your business and personal life and unplugging from time to time. Primarily in regards to your email inbox.
While I would love to be able to remove my email from my phone, as Nicole talks about, I really can't afford to. I'm away from the computer/traveling so much and I frequently have to be able to check it and communicate with clients or reference info on a shop order etc. while I'm on the go.
However, I don't have it notify me every time I get an email.
That would literally drive me insane... I don't understand how some people can live like that! I understand for certain important emails, but for every time you get an email...? The same applies for Instagram/Facebook/Twitter notifications. If I were notified every time something happened on any of my social media... my gosh I would never not be attached to my phone, it's bad enough as it is!
Although after reading the post, I did move my email app from the prominant bottom placement on the home screen of my phone, to the very last page. So now it is a little more out of site/out of mind and it's not so easy to just unlock my phone and tap it. Now it takes a little more invovlement and makes me think about it and check myself, so I'm not just mindlessly checking and refreshing email when I should be focusing on other tasks.
Emails and keeping up with them, as a whole, has been a lot more manageable and less stressful ever since rebranding though I have to say. This is largely due to the fact that I got a new business email as well as a nice and organized way for people to contact me.
I used to have my old business emails just forward to my personal/main gmail account, but now I have it as a seperate account completely so that I am better able to seperate business vs. personal life.
Turning off and relaxing and taking a break from work when I need to is something I struggle with. Mainly because I primarily work from home and so work is, literally, around me all the time. But now when I'm checking my personal email at 11pm at night for that correspondence I have with a far away friend (or, let's be honest, the thread with my brother that's all about Taylor Swift youtube videos) I won't see the custom order inquiries and photography questions and other business related emails.
Because I'm incapable of reading those without going on long rabbit trails of work that, don't get me wrong, I love, but I have to end the work day sometime... Otherwise I will be up until 3am trying to answer emails that can wait until the next morning.
For similar reasons I actually don't have the Facebook Messenger app on my phone.
In a world where we are constantly plugged in, connected, on, and going going going, you have to create as many boundaries as you can get!
You also have to remember that your email isn't your to do list, it's everyone else's.
So prioritize times for checking and attending to it, but don't waste your time by checking it all day every day. Because you can waste so much time doing that!
^This is still something I have a hard time doing myself, but I'm working on it.
I also recently discovered the wonders of actually utilizing the archive feature on Gmail.
My inbox has never looked better!
Now I can actually see the emails I need to attend to vs. the piles and piles of stagnant ones that aren't neccessarily active, but ones I can't delete.
Phew. That was a long tangent, but you get the idea!
What works for you in regards to keeping up with your emails?
Any tips/tricks?
I'd love to hear!
Business | Keeping Up With Emails
in Business