Email is one of the essential communication tools today. Do you check your emails every day too (probably even several times a day)?
Would you like to free up 28% of your workday? That is 13 hours if you work 40 hours a week, and as a busy entrepreneur it is very unlikely you work only 40 hours a week; sometimes it probably feels like 40 hours a day! Imagine having all those hours back. What could you do with them? All you have to do is stop reading and answering your emails.
That thought alone is enough to strike terror into even the bravest heart. You are probably thinking: “How would that even be possible?!”
We have come a long way from the first thrill of “you have new mail” (remember when getting email was exciting?) and now live amid constant pings, from your dry cleaner’s notifications to clients to family. The idea of disconnecting from that stream is enough to shake most of us: “How will I survive? Won’t things slip through? I can’t just NOT answer emails!”
To lift the email millstone off your neck, all you need is a virtual assistant (VA), a few ground rules and a willingness to communicate clearly. Doubtful? Let’s take a closer look at how it works.
Here is how it IS possible:
Set the goal
Do you want someone to take over your entire inbox, or to handle only the routine emails? You can start with the latter and move towards the former over time, as trust grows and you have trained your virtual assistant enough.
Depending on your goal, you need to set up your email to allow sufficient access. That can mean giving the VA the password directly or through a service like LastPass, which masks your actual password while still allowing access. If that is a step too far for now, you can add limited access on most email servers, or set up rules that forward most emails to your VA. This is a great moment to practise breathing out and letting go: delegation is the foundation of success.
Create clear rules, channels and instructions for your VA
The basic truth: your VA wants to help you and do the best possible job. Your side of the deal is giving clear instructions and answering questions.
- Agree with the VA on fixed times for sorting the inbox. Usually 1–3 times a day is enough.
- Decide whether you want your VA to reply in your name or their own. Replying under the VA’s own name usually works best. Your VA can do it from your inbox or via forwarded emails (automatically or manually) from their own address. It also avoids situations where someone contacts you saying “we wrote about such and such” and you have no idea. When the VA replies under their own name, the other party knows they were talking to an assistant and will likely start with “I spoke with your assistant and…”
- Define which emails you want to see yourself, which ones the VA should discuss with you before answering, and which ones the VA can handle directly. Describe your archiving system to your VA, or build one together, so you only see the emails you really need to see, while knowing where everything else is stored in case you want to review it.
- Prepare drafts and templates, or let your virtual assistant draft replies for the emails that keep getting the same answers. We all have typical emails that can be answered with a simple copy-paste message. Approving those templates and handing them to the VA frees your time and lets your VA handle those emails most efficiently.
- Work out how you want to receive updates. It can be a summary email, a quick phone call or a video call. Your assistant can brief you on the last few hours, days or weeks, forward the important messages and ask for guidance on new problems (without you having to read and dig into the emails yourself). This lets you communicate with hundreds of people while emailing just one person a day, saving both energy and time.
Finally, give it all a little time. By investing a couple of hours a week (at first) into training your VA to support you, you will see the returns very quickly. Spend a little time now to save a lot of time in the months and years ahead!
What can inbox management cooperation look like?
One of the biggest time thieves is reading and answering emails. Do you know how much time it takes you each day? One email (reading it, answering, gathering the information and so on) can easily take up to an hour of your day! At the same time it is one of the scariest things to delegate. How could you give a stranger access to your inbox, right? In reality there is no reason for fear…
There are actually several options:
Emails are sent from the assistant’s inbox, option A
- you have access to all inboxes
- you choose yourself which emails you forward
- you know which emails have been answered (so you do not answer twice from your own inbox)
- the assistant only sees the emails you want them to see
- if you want to answer something yourself, you can add the assistant in copy (cc, bcc)
- you do not see emails sent directly to the assistant’s inbox (unless you have agreed that replies are copied to you, or you check the assistant’s inbox yourself)
Emails are sent from the assistant’s inbox, option B
- you have access to all inboxes
- the general inboxes are usually gathered into one (the assistant’s) inbox
- the assistant notifies you of, or forwards, the emails you should handle personally
- the assistant sees all emails routed automatically to their inbox
- you do not have to worry about most emails; the assistant keeps the inbox in order
- you can enter the assistant’s inbox at any time and reply yourself (email signatures can be chosen as needed)
The assistant has access to your inbox
- the general inboxes are usually gathered into one (your) inbox
- you continuously see yourself which emails have arrived and what needs doing
- the assistant sees all incoming emails
- emails are handled according to your mutual agreement, and the assistant also keeps the inbox tidy (signatures can be chosen as needed)
Does it still feel like every email is your duty?
If so, pick a suitable system and hand your email management over to an assistant. If you get stuck with forwarding your email addresses, you can turn to us or check this guide: Forward all your emails to one place: Gmail!
If an email management service could be useful to you, get in touch with us! And if this page could help your friends as well, click “Share”! Thank you for your feedback!