Intentional Email Management - Stop Drowning In Emails

If you are drowning in emails and can't get to the end of your inbox then this session is for you. We will discuss effective and intentional email management strategies to help you gain control over your email once and for all.

Note: This is a live session recording.

Transcript

Welcome,

Guys,

To another session.

Today,

The topic is intentional email management.

Today's session is all about your email,

Your inbox,

How you feel about it,

How you can approach it,

How can you manage it in a different way if that's what you want,

Understanding the frustrations that you may be experiencing.

Yeah,

I just want to bring here not only the practical strategies that you may find online very easily,

But also the mental and the emotional component to this topic that is really,

Really important.

Also,

The communication aspect.

Last week,

We talked about different kinds of communication and how that can look like and discovering your communication style and other people's communication styles.

Today,

We're going to be talking about communication through email,

But it's also very important to reflect about any time you receive an email from a person,

From a group,

From a coworker,

One of the first things that I always invite people to do is,

Does this need an email?

Is email the best approach to this communication?

Is email the best way for you to receive whatever information you are seeking?

Because many times,

The answer is no.

Many times,

You don't have to be CC'd in an email.

You don't have to receive an email,

And maybe stating that boundary and creating that boundary and educating the other people how you best receive information and how you want to give it can be very helpful to reduce dramatically the amount of email that you receive.

Okay,

But first of all,

Before getting started,

I would like to hear from you.

Feel free to use the chat.

How do you feel about your email,

About your inbox?

How does your inbox make you feel?

What are the struggles that you are facing,

And what are the good things that you are doing that you find are helping you to be on top of your email,

If that is your case?

I would like to open the floor in the chat for you guys to share and to see where you are at,

Because I'd really like to see where you guys are at first,

So that we can make this session as meaningful,

As relevant as possible for you.

So,

Iga says,

My inbox is full.

Though steady flow at the moment,

I constantly need to clear it.

Mora says,

Too much junk mail.

Amazing.

So,

Iga,

Would you like to share,

Like,

How do you keep,

How do you do the maintenance of your inbox?

Do you have strategies that you use to keep on top of it?

Same for Mora.

Jennifer says,

Overwhelming.

I struggle to respond and prioritize.

Okay,

So you struggle to respond and prioritize,

Because there are too much volume,

Right?

And it becomes overwhelming.

So,

This is an emotion,

Right?

You just become overwhelmed to the point that you get tense.

And when we are experiencing a strong emotion,

As you guys may know now,

If you have joined some of my sessions,

That I talk about executive functioning skills,

Skills about emotional self-regulation.

And you guys will know how the connection between feeling overwhelmed,

Feeling stress,

Feeling anxiety,

Feeling any of those emotions,

And how that impacts your nervous system,

How that impacts your capacity to think clearly,

To prioritize,

To be present,

To make good choices.

So,

Just notice that if you haven't.

Too many interests.

Difficult to prioritize.

Inbox overflowing.

Overwhelmed with the amount that comes in each day.

I sometimes miss messages and I need to respond to.

So,

You avoid,

No,

Sorry,

You avoid,

No,

You miss important emails that you can't see because there are too many coming in.

Overwhelmed.

I'm subsidized from business.

I need to scan for importance.

I need to learn the functionality much more to my advantage.

Learning the functionality.

Heidi,

That's something that we will talk about.

Learning the functionalities of your email inbox.

What can you do in there?

What are the options that allow you to manage those emails in a different way?

If it wasn't for the Gmail search feature,

I would lose my mind trying to find all messages that I need.

And I use the search option all the time.

I no longer have folders like I used to before because I found that the folders for me,

For my style,

Were not very helpful and I mostly use the search option.

So,

I really agree with you.

It's very,

Very helpful.

Even when I unsubscribe,

I keep getting notifications.

Yeah,

We're going to talk about that.

Subscriptions,

Right?

And how can you manage them in a different way?

Iga says,

No,

I don't have any.

Maybe I need another email address,

Which I do because Gmail has served me all these years and I made it my storage of photos,

Articles,

Etc.

Yeah,

We'll talk about having different email addresses.

That's another strategy that I would like to share with you today that I personally use and it makes my life way,

Way easier.

Amazing.

So,

Guys,

Thank you so much for sharing.

Let me just double check that I didn't miss any.

Yeah,

Too much junk email.

Amazing.

Unfortunately,

Outlook,

Which I use for work,

Has an awful search function.

Yeah,

I am not very familiar with Outlook,

But this is where maybe,

Guys,

If you are planning on getting a fresh start when it comes to email,

If you are planning on changing your game,

Your attack to this game,

Changing the strategy,

Maybe looking for different options when it comes to email providers can be a first step.

Really learning the functionalities of each platform and which one may suit your needs best will be really,

Really helpful.

In my case,

I use Gmail and that's my preference because that's what I have used for the last 10 years,

But there are many other options out there.

So,

At the end of the day,

It's about how you use it.

It's not about the platform itself,

Okay?

Yeah,

Block them and,

Oh my goodness,

Have addresses where you know nothing important will ever go.

Yeah.

Yeah,

So,

Guys,

How do you feel if I share some of the strategies that I have here in my journal with you and then we can get started a conversation here.

If any of them,

You have questions or you want to expand,

That will be really,

Like,

I want to flow through this session,

But I do have a bunch of strategies that I would like to touch base today,

Share with you,

And then,

As always,

All the strategies that I share,

Guys,

You don't have to do them all,

Okay?

These are ideas.

Here,

I want you to tap into your cognitive flexibility,

Your adaptable thinking.

That is the executive functioning skill that allows you to step back and look at all the possibilities,

Allows your mind to be flexible,

Allows your mind to brainstorm ideas,

And then you check and notice,

How do I feel about this idea,

This strategy?

Wow,

This strategy is bringing a lot of emotional resistance.

That's something that you can explore,

Okay?

If you find a strategy,

But that's not for me,

And there is nothing there,

There is no resistance,

There is no emotional charge,

There is no enthusiasm,

There is nothing,

Maybe that's not for you,

And if you notice that you are getting super excited,

Then I will invite you to explore it,

Okay?

So,

But don't feel overwhelmed with these strategies,

Because you don't have to do them all.

I recommend that you listen to them,

You will have access to the recording after if you want to watch this or listen to this again,

And you can take notes if you want to,

Okay?

So,

Are you guys ready?

Should we get started with some of the things I have to share?

I'm gonna have a sip of my coffee,

And I want you guys to be ready.

Amazing.

So,

Let's get started.

So,

The first one,

It's really setting a clear intention,

Okay?

And this is something that I talk about in everything that you guys do,

Every area of your life that you are trying to tackle,

What is your intention?

What are the frustrations that you are experiencing,

And what are the intentions that you would like to set,

Okay?

So,

If you could snap your fingers and your email,

Your inbox looks a specific way,

How does it look like?

How does your relationship with email moving forward looks like?

What are the habits that you see yourself following?

How many times do you take emails throughout the day,

Throughout the week?

How many email addresses do you see you have?

It's really important to visualize all these things,

Because when you are visualizing,

You are kind of creating a new reality in your mind,

But the more you create that reality,

The more you visualize yourself actually taking action,

Doing in the day-to-day,

Week-to-week,

You are going to start facing challenges,

Questions,

Things that you would like to explore more of,

And you are starting to create a new reality in your mind,

And then the more clear it becomes,

The easier it's going to be for you to implement it in your real life,

Okay?

So,

Think about that.

How would you like your relationship with email to look like?

How many times do you want to check email?

What kind of systems do you feel your brain is going to receive best when it comes to email?

And this is where we step into the strategies,

Okay?

So,

Some of the strategies that I would recommend that you do first is become familiar with the options that you have in your email provider.

For example,

I use Gmail.

So,

In Gmail,

There are wonderful features that I use every single day.

So,

There is a snooze option.

Basically,

An email comes in,

And if I don't want to look at it until three days from now,

I can snooze it,

And it disappears from my inbox,

And it will come back in three days.

So,

That is a wonderful tool because every time I am responding to an email,

Looking at an email,

My question is,

What's next?

What is the next step with this email?

Do I need to follow up?

Do I need to take an action?

Do I need to file it somewhere?

Can I delete it?

So,

What is the next step about this email?

And when you start doing this with each email that you receive,

It may look like a lot of work,

But if you right now had inbox zero,

Your inbox was completely empty,

And you start fresh now,

And you take this approach,

You will not have a lot of emails in there because everything will be taken care of,

Okay?

So,

That is one to really think about what is the next step.

And then in Gmail,

I can also schedule an email.

So,

I can type an email,

And I can say,

I want to send this email tomorrow at 8 a.

M.

Because maybe I am home now,

And I don't want to be interrupted again about this topic.

So,

I'd rather send it tomorrow at 8 a.

M.

,

I'm done with it,

And tomorrow I will see what comes up.

Or maybe next week,

Maybe the person says,

Listen,

I need this next week because I'm on vacation,

And I will not look at my email until next Monday.

So,

Please send it on Monday.

So,

I will type the email,

And I will schedule it for Monday.

Or I will snooze his email to come on Sunday or Monday morning so that I will type it.

See,

I am thinking ahead and being proactive.

What is the next step?

So many times,

I just say,

I don't need this,

Delete.

I don't need this,

Unsubscribe.

This is,

I can refer to it.

This is from a membership I have.

This is a receipt I need to keep.

I may move it to a folder.

I have a folder that is called taxes,

And then I have a folder that is called all the rest.

All the rest,

That's like,

It's not my inbox,

It's a folder where all the email go there.

Gmail also has all mail,

I think it's called.

It's a generic folder that you can send emails to so you are not deleting them.

You will have access to them.

You can search for them.

They will appear in a search,

But they are not in your inbox.

Because what we are looking for here is to keep the inbox,

Hopefully,

Zero.

Zero inbox.

That's a strategy,

Right?

So,

Becca says,

I prefer to clear my inbox by the end of each day.

So,

That is the strategy that she has.

Maybe for you,

It's the opposite.

Maybe it's every morning I will do email.

Maybe you do email three times a day.

So,

It doesn't matter how you tackle it,

As long as you can maintain it.

As long as it's a system that you understand,

A system that is easy for you to maintain,

And it's doable.

Okay?

So,

When it comes to functionality and features from your email,

Okay,

I really recommend that you maybe go to YouTube and then type.

For example,

If you are exploring the area of Gmail,

You type Gmail Inbox Overview or Gmail Inbox Features.

If you are exploring Outlook,

If you are exploring a different email provider,

It will be really helpful if you type in there and you see first,

How does it look like?

Do I like it,

Visually speaking?

Does this platform have the settings that I need?

And then you get a really good overview in a few minutes,

And that can save you a lot of time if you transfer everything there and then you don't like it.

Okay?

So,

Really investing a little bit of time to make sure that that platform or that email is what you are looking for,

You enjoy it,

And you become familiar with the functionality and the features that that offers.

So,

Some of the features that you can use in a majority of email providers and that you can really use are labeling emails.

So,

You can take emails and you can label them so that you have specific labels and then you can go to those labels and you can find those emails easily.

Okay?

You can create folders and then you can move emails into specific folders.

So,

For example,

You can have a folder that says Family Folder,

A folder that says,

This is my Utilities Folder,

This is my Insurance Folder.

So,

You can have as many folders as you want.

Be aware that folders can be helpful,

But they can also become overwhelming.

So,

Let me explain that.

If you create a structure of folders that becomes really large and really complicated folders inside folders inside folders,

It's going to be very difficult for your brain to remember.

Unless you have a system that you have followed for years and you remember,

You will need some kind of guidance for you to remember where to place the email.

So,

Anytime you notice that the system,

The structure of folders that you have created,

It is confusing and you don't remember,

That defeats the purpose of using folders to organize email because it is adding confusion,

It is adding stress.

Okay?

So,

You need to find your happy balance and every person will be different here.

So,

Follow your intuition,

Test ideas,

And if you see that they don't work for you,

Tweak those ideas,

Tweak the strategy,

Change it.

One of the things that I strongly,

Strongly recommend is to have a piece of paper and to make a diagram with your strategy.

Okay?

If you want,

This is really good for visual people.

If you have a board on the wall,

You can use that board to create like a diagram of a flow.

It's like,

How is my email going to flow?

This is my inbox.

So,

Any emails I receive around finances,

My household,

Bills,

Stuff like that,

I'm going to place them in this folder.

Any emails I receive from work,

I'm going to place them in this folder.

Any emails I receive from my friends,

They're going to go into these folders.

So,

Think about how you would like to structure that and then have a diagram that you can look at,

At least the first times that you use the system,

And then as you use the system,

Your brain will become familiar.

You will