’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but a favourite line from a client of ours was: “I’m addicted to firefighting. Answering emails and putting out fires is more satisfying than putting together a strategic plan for 2013”.

Well, I hear it over and over again from businesses we work with:
“I would do more process improvement work, but I don’t have time.”
“I have SO many emails to get through every day.”
“I’m buried in emails? When can I do a strategic plan? Help!”

Sound like you? Well, I feel the same way.

Today’s post is a simple one: New year. less Email.

The tip below is beyond simple. I mean it. Its barely bloggable, but I think if I saved every person that reads our blog (there must be millions right?) a few seconds a day, I can validate the fact that I am sitting on my couch today writing this blog with my dog Barkley sitting at my feet keeping them warm. 🙂

I figure I should use the Whiteboard way. So first I started with defining my simple problem:

I spend too much time reading and deleting non-value added emails. I receive about 35 emails from various clothing stores, shoe stores, women’s health magazines etc. every day that I delete and archive. They make my personal inbox cluttered and make it difficult to find important emails. I spend 5 minutes every day reading these emails * 365 days a year= 30.42 hours a year.

So I invested 20 minutes to unsubscribe from all the emails that weren’t valuable to me.

That leaves 30.22 hours a year to me doing value added things.

I’m working on Proving It! I’ll keep you posted on the results of my improvement, as some email subscriptions don’t take effect for up to 10 days.

Next time, I’ll tell you how to book a meeting (or girls night) in less than 15 emails.

It is a small step, but every big change takes a number of tiny steps. Today, let your tiny step be to free yourself from the email beast! Click to Tweet.

Tell us how it worked at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or on Twitter @whiteboardcons using #betterfastercheaper.

Until next week,
Nicole.