I was delighted to wake up to the huge soft snowflakes this morning! This is the first real Boston snow I have seen since last winter.... yay! Although, we'll see how happy it makes me when I'm trying to drive my little VW down the potholey streets of boston.
And... since I'll be holed up for the next couple of days processing photos and taking care of business stuff, it reminds me that I am SNOWED UNDER when it comes to email. I need a good system of answering and filing the emails (especially when I am traveling), because I have unanswered messages still from October. That is ridiculous! I love reading mail and obviously take care of the pressing stuff but when someone asks a question sometimes I get distracted from answering it. Anyone have any effective email advice?
Final question... Anyone want to do snow bridals this week? I am leaving for my NYC wedding and will be gone all weekend but I can do any day this week. Let's get 'em while the snow is fresh!!!
7 comments:
Advice for piled up email?
Delete
"Oh, I'm sorry, I never got your email? Are you sure you sent it to the correct address? Maybe it ended up in my junk email. Why don't you try again?"
Does that work? I've never had to use it but then again, I don't own a business.
I have all my email come to one address on gmail and I give all the different kinds of emails a filter and label. I need that or I get overwhelmed.
This blog post by Anne Ruthman may help! Good luck!
http://photolovecat.blogspot.com/2007/10/efficient-email-management.html
hehe thanks for the advice -- and ciras, anne is my hero too! I get to shoot a wedding with her in April!!!
and katie... seriously? you just delete? you can't do that when you have your own business.
Thanks for the links!!! ;-) I'm reeeeeally good about keeping on top of my email. That being said, I'm still digging out from under the email that accumulated while I was on holiday break and had NO internet access!! I accumulated.... wait for it.... 500 emails. Thankfully about 300 of them were easy to file away and didn't need a response (sales brochures, workshop notifications, receipts for purchases, etc.) however, of the 200 that were left - they ALL needed responses, and at least 100 of them needed responses that I couldn't use a "signature" response for. So... I'm still working through email, but I'm half way done now- whoopie... and just took a break to look at your blog. ;-)
Back to work for me!!!
My advice for email (going forward):
* Filters. They'll save your ass. At work, I'm subscribed to about 25 different email aliases, which each receive between zero to 100 messages per day. If I didn't have filters set up, my Inbox would be unmanageable.
* Devise a schedule for responding to emails. I tend to answer emails (that require answers) right away. I know others schedule 2-3 periods of time (AM, noon, PM) where they are devoted to email. Whatever you choose, stick to it or you'll be going bonkers that one time you think it is OK to not answer the latest emails.
* If all else fails and you are forever backlogged, try declaring email bankruptcy. Essentially, you collect all the email addresses of the folks you are corresponding with, send them a note explaining your situation, and ask them to resend anything important. And you can also delete everything from your Inbox. :)
Good luck!
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