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Clear the Clutter: Unanswered Emails · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're continuing our Clear the Clutter series, and our topic today is one that, if you take action on it, can have a big impact on your relationships and your business.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm talking about is all those unanswered emails sitting in your inbox.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if when I said that you just felt a tinge of guilt when I brought up this issue, no worries.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I am definitely here to help.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've all done it, we've all been there.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see if we can make some forward progress with this little issue that can cause us a lot of stress.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let's cut right to the chase.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you have a lot of unanswered emails in your inbox, it causes you stress.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because those are open loops of communication.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like having a bunch of open tabs on your internet browser.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you see them, you feel guilty because it's something that you haven't dealt with and you don't have time to do it right now, but you know you've got to do it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's taking up space in your brain and it frustrates you because you can't really totally focus on things that you want to focus on because of this open loop.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the problem just keeps getting worse and worse and worse over time.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And before you know it, you've got this mountain of emails that you haven't gotten to yet and you feel guilty about it, but you don't really have the time, you know, to take hours to respond to all these emails.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, and again, we've all been there, haven't we?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: We've all been in that place where we've got these things we've got to respond to.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then we've got people who are expecting response and we're avoiding their messages, which makes us feel stressed and also makes us look unprofessional to those other people because they expect a quicker response.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a little business secret.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: The most successful professionals are not necessarily the most talented ones.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: They are the ones who take action and who get things done.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of deals are made and a lot of business is done just because people follow it up in a timely way.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: You might be the greatest writer in the world, but if you can't answer your email in a timely way, you're going to frustrate people who are looking for a response.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you're also going to lose out to other writers who may not be as talented as you because they're more responsive and they build better relationships with their readers, clients, or customers.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to have great relationships with people and also be highly responsive.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let me share nine simple tips for getting through all those unanswered emails.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when I said nine tips just now, remember Ferris Bueller's Day Off, that movie from the 80s, where there's a storyline about Ferris, he's absent from school, and the principal of the school is talking to his secretary.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's been absent nine times.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nine times.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea why that just came to mind.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But when you're a child of the 80s, these things just pop into your head randomly.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So my apologies and condolences.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you love Ferris Bueller, I recommend that you check it out if you're trying to procrastinate even further on answering your email.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that aside, let's get back to the actual podcast episode right now.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, nine tips for getting through all those unanswered emails.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is set a timer.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is something I do frequently.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'll set a timer for 30 or 60 minutes and I will rush like mad to get through my emails for that afternoon or even for the day.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you have some kind of huge, undefined block of time when you're working on email, it's going to take a lot longer than it should.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you sit down and you're like, well, I'm just going to work on email for a while.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: That while is going to turn into three or four hours where you're just taking all this time to respond to these emails, you're sending long replies, you're getting stuck in task loops, you're doing all these things, and you're not really focusing on all the things that you probably should be doing.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So set a timer and just plow through those emails as fast as you can.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is make decisions quickly on items contained in emails.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you get an email and it requires you to decide something, make the decision as quickly as you can and then just move on.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, don't use your inbox as a task list.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I see people do this all the time, and it's tempting for me to do this myself sometimes.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: If an email requires you to do something, don't just leave it in your email inbox because that's just a collection of unrelated and random messages for the most part.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, move that action item to a separate task list where you can then prioritize those tasks, then get rid of the email.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Number four is keep emails short.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really big one.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: My friend David Hancock, who is the founder of Morgan James Publishing and a very successful author, he is a master at keeping emails short and sweet.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you get an email from David, then he has this uh little link in his emails that I'd have to go back and look at exactly what it says, but basically it says something like, Why is this email only five sentences or less?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it goes to, I think it's a website or something where it explains the value of having short emails.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw that in his reply two or three years ago whenever we first connected, and I was like, that's really interesting.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: David is really, really good at writing short emails and just getting right to the point.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as a business owner, as a very busy and successful person, um, he has learned the art of keeping emails short and not sending, you know, 500 or 1,000-word emails when you can be much more efficient with your time.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: You would be amazed at how much more productive you become when you limit yourself to five sentences per email.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: It really, really does work.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to give that a try.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Number five is set up a call for longer conversations.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I have noticed that because I communicate with a lot of people in books and writing, I've noticed that a lot of writers send very long, detailed emails.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I also do this sometimes when the situation calls for it, but I don't do it nearly as much as I used to.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I try to be very cognizant of not taking up people's time by sending them a long email.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Email is really not a good tool for in-depth conversations.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: A phone call or a Zoom call is typically way better.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got to have a long, complicated conversation, don't do it through email.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do it through Zoom or a phone call if you can.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Number six is don't be everybody's hero.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons that we get sucked into email sometimes is because people are asking us for solutions and answers to specific things.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So use this opportunity when people ask you things that require a complicated response.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Use this opportunity to create a blog post or a lead magnet or a book or a coaching package or some kind of resource that answers people's common questions on your topic and point people to that resource instead of answering the same questions over and over and over again.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be everybody's hero.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be everybody's savior or therapist or counselor over email.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: So don't try to be.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Number seven is I encourage you to reply within 48 hours of getting an email.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or better yet, if you can, 24 hours is even better.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can also use the genius technique that my friend Anna Ray Corter uses.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: She is a successful author, an awesome business coach.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a part of her Empire Builder's Mastermind.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that she does is whenever you send her an email, she has it set up so that you immediately get an autoresponder that says that she has received your email and she'll reply to it in a timely manner.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's pretty cool because what people really want to know whenever they send you an email, they want to know that you got it and that you are acknowledging the fact that you received that email.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: People know that we're all busy.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's something that requires some time for you to respond to, they don't expect a response typically like within 10 seconds.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: But just having that autoresponder set up and saying, hey, I got your email, I'm working on it, I think that really, really can help a lot.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Number eight is make a video instead of sending an email reply.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now I use this all the time and people really, really love it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of sending out a long and drawn out email whenever it requires a more complex response, a lot of times I will use the Loom app to send a personal video.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can use, you can record a video on, you know, just on your phone, or you can use um Zoom, or it doesn't really matter what you use.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the point is recording a video where you're answering somebody's question or giving them a reply, then sending them a link to that video.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really nice personal touch that honestly requires just two or three minutes.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's faster than writing a big long complicated email, and also it's way more personal.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I send videos to people, 90% of the time, they really, really love it.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that they will say something like, Oh, that's really cool that you sent this personal video.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it really does make an impression.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, and if there's one tip that you can use to help build really great relationships with people, that's one of them that works super, super well.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just sending a personal video reply to people.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, number nine is don't respond to every email.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody sends you a message and they are critical or they're out of line or they're just being kind of weird in some way, you don't have to respond.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's no such thing as the email police who are going to come to your house and arrest you because you didn't respond to every single email.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a lot of power in taking control of the people that you let into your life and the people who you don't let into your life.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody is emailing you and they're being inappropriate or abusive or snarky or critical or they're bringing something negative into your life, then don't respond to it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just delete it and move on.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with that.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there you have it nine tips for dealing with those unanswered messages.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if you find your email inbox constantly growing and causing you a lot of stress, these tips are really going to help you to make more mental space for other more high-level activities in your life and in your business.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Choose one of the tips that I've mentioned and put it into practice right now.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if I had to pick just one, I would recommend the tip on keeping your emails to five sentences or less.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: That tip alone is really going to revolutionize your email time if you are typically responding to a lot of emails and you're sending long messages.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: That alone is drastically going to cut down on your time in your email inbox and immediately improve your productivity.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So give it a shot, and I'd love to hear how it goes.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I will see you tomorrow.