Comments on: 12 Rules for Getting a Grip on Massive ProBlogger Email

By: wholesale from china

wholesale from china — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:53:31 +0000

Added, thanks for this post – it was a good read.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:00:10 +0000

This is the second time I’ve read people fawning over “gmail” over Mail.app or other alternatives. Why?

By: The Crazy Colombian

The Crazy Colombian — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:56:23 +0000

Email clog – a big problem of modern day life. Some of the suggestions in this post are a part of ‘Getting Things Done’, an organising system devised by David Allen to streamline your productivity. I strongly recommend his book (go to Amazon.com and search for ‘Getting Things Done’).

Sometimes, the answer to getting less email is writing better emails; A lot of the email I get through the day is electronic Q&A. If you want to find out how to write better emails, you can head over to my blog’s post 5 things you need to know before you write your next email

-The Crazy Colombian

By: Marina Martin

Marina Martin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:05:36 +0000

I don’t believe in checking email just once or twice a day. When your job is on the Internet, it’s your responsibility to be available.

The key is to reduce the amount of time you spend interacting with your inbox. Learn GMail shortcuts. Install GMail Macros and learn those shortcuts. (There’s no email I can’t process by typing three letters on my keyboard — lightning fast.) Use filters so emails get sorted appropriately — things to be read later are sorted into “To Read,” newsletters from your favorite stores are “Shopping,” etc.

I totally agree about starring action items and getting them out of your Inbox.

By: David

David — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:11:20 +0000

Joshua: I don’t like to ignore people either. I figure if people took the time to write to me, they should get the courtesy of a response. But it does become too much sometimes, especially when people write very long messages with many questions embedded in them.

So I have a message in a Word document that I cut & paste, and use that as a response.

The message says something along the lines of that I’m happy to hear from them, mentions a few places on my site where they might find a response to their particular questions (a few links and my FAQs), and notes that I appreciate their taking the time to write. I can also personalize it as well by adding a few sentences, if I want.

Another option is to set up a mailbox for the blog and have an auto-response that say something to that effect, too.

It seems like a good way to handle many of the emails and has made my life a lot easier; plus you don’t feel guilty about not providing a detailed response.

By: Bernard Deschler

Bernard Deschler — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:10:30 +0000

Hello-i am a new bloger–my question is how do get the thing telegraphed–in toher words how do i get out to the world –or must i build a contact list and then send the new post by e-mail as a group mailing–http://www.artandthecatholicchurch.blogspot.com/
i thank you in advance
bernie

By: Jen-o-topia in TN

Jen-o-topia in TN — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:48:51 +0000

Great article, and great tips from all of the readers! I guess I have been operating under the unconscious assumption that I MUST use plenty of time and attention to every single e-mail, and I have to confess I never even considered being generous with the delete button ~ or working my box down to zero. I am going right now to get that thing CLEANED OUT! Thank you. I feel more free already. *sigh*

By: John

John — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:17:22 +0000

I’m pretty sure you could have just summarised that entire post into one rule.

‘Delete as much as you can’

By: Joshua Dorkin

Joshua Dorkin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:06:08 +0000

This is a great article. I’ve struggled for years with handling mass amounts of email from BiggerPockets and have yet to get it down to a science. The struggle comes in deleting those emails that may be questionable.

You can’t answer every message in detail, but some should get a response . . . how do you tackle those? There just isn’t time in the day!

I hate to ignore people, but it seems necessary in order to remain productive.

By: Khürt Williams

Khürt Williams — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:39:32 +0000

Great article. I have been using the Inbox Zero method from 43Folders.

By: Jean

Jean — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:15:57 +0000

Same nagging stuff by Leo. I have read these tips at least 20 times in 20 different blogs… Try translating them to other languages Leo…

By: Robin Capper

Robin Capper — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:29:44 +0000

Don’t even let it get to your inbox in the first place.

I use MailWasher to delete or process/read 80-90% of my mail before it even leaves the ISP’s mailserver. If I need to reply it gets to Outlook otherwise it’s deleted before download

It’s also useful for seeing those valid emails tagged as spam by ISP filters.

I have them mark, but not delete potential spam, then review in MailWasher before it’s blitzed.

see more at http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2006/07/activewords_mai_1.html

By: JoLynn Braley

JoLynn Braley — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:57:52 +0000

I like the tip of writing an FAQ page, something I have on my to-do list, and have been checking my email only twice a day for a few months now – it really helps cut back on distractions to keep it closed the rest of the time.

By: Tony Lawrence

Tony Lawrence — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:42:36 +0000

I agree about using Gmail, but with one extra step on Mac: also setup Mail.app to download your Gmail messages (assuming you can spare the disk space, of course).

The reason is that Leopard’s Spotlight can ferret out text in messages even faster than Gmail can, I don’t actually *use* Apple Mail – I use Gmail directly, but I do let it go get my messages just because Spotlight is so good at finding things.

By: Neil Duckett

Neil Duckett — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:53:38 +0000

Gone are the days when i’d open my mail hoping to see heaps to read ….. quite the other way now.

Some good tips there and i’ve been excercising the ‘open my email twice a day’ one for a few years now. I do it to gain productivity in my other work … email can be very obtrusive if not controlled.

By: soultravelers3

soultravelers3 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:52:51 +0000

Excellent ideas, thanks! I don’t have the email that Darren or Leo have to work with, but still have too much. We have had a major glitch with our rss feed and I still manage to get too many repeat questions in tons of emails from followers.

So I have been nervous about how to handle this once everything is working well. We travel the world, so go in and out of internet connection which adds to our challenge.This gives me some solid advice!

By: Julie Scipioni McKown

Julie Scipioni McKown — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:40:19 +0000

Looking forward to the day when I have so much email coming in that I have to follow 12 Rules to get a grip on it. :)

Peace,
Julie

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:48:29 +0000

This sounds like some really good ideas for keeping the email load down to a minimum — without totally jilting your audience.

By: thehealthblogger

thehealthblogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:10:16 +0000

I recently read over at Tim Ferriss’ blog (the author of the Four hour week), that he outsources his e-mail reading to some company in India. He seems to have the same problem of receiving too many emails, and for a nominal price, the emails are read/sorted and only the important ones are given his attention.

By: Terra Andersen

Terra Andersen — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:07:16 +0000

Wonderful advice! I got a lot of reader email as well, and most of it is welcome.. especially when young entrepreneurs are looking for advice or help. It makes me feel so useful!

I definitely agree with the one inbox rule…

Great post!