All Season VA, LLC

• Keep all your information in one place. Many people who use a computer for work have a to-do manager, a contact manager, a project management service, a wiki, multiple email accounts, lists, multiple online documents, or one of the many other services available for managing our information. “The trouble is that all those systems can make things a bit disorganized,” says Carlene. “You can simplify this and keep yourself organized in one simple step: keep all your information in one place.”

• Stop the interruptions. “Even the best intentions to get organized can go awry if you are continually interrupted by clients and colleagues wishing to talk to you either by telephone or in person,” says the virtual assistant. “The best way around this is to schedule your organizing during off hours, if possible. If not, schedule an appointment with yourself to focus on this activity, and during this time, let your calls go to voice mail and close your door to unscheduled visitors, if necessary.”

• Use rules to tame your email inbox. “Does it take you nearly all day just to sift through them to find out which ones you need to deal with now, which ones can be dealt with later, or which ones are just junk?,” she says. “Then create rules that filter important emails, such as from customers or clients from newsletter subscriptions.”

• Think delegation for elimination. Business owners should be focused on the big picture items that grow your business. “What you should not be doing is worrying about getting your invoices out, mailing products, providing troubleshooting help, scheduling your time, and all those other administrative duties,” says Carlene. “In fact, the more time you spend on all the minutia of running a business, the less time you'll spend on tasks that can actually grow your business. That’s why delegation to others, including a virtual assistant is vital.”

Did you know that close to 80% of "InBox" messages have little or no value?  Did you know that the average business person receives approx. 80 e-mails per day?  There is a way to successful manage this daily activity.  Here are my suggestions to help you with the email blues:

• Take your name off lists.

Unsubscribe using the link provided in the email, or send an email asking to be removed from their email distributions and mailing list

• Reserve a seperate email account for important communications you want to receive.

Share this with anyone you want to have direct access to this account.

• Check Email only once or twice per day.

Calendar this activity and stick to this schedule so as not to be chained to your desk or computer.  Respond to incoming mail twice daily.

• Handle your Email in box, like it was paper.

      a.  If it has no value, hit the delete key

     b.  If it requries a quick response, respond and delete it

     c.  If it requires a response but not necessarily your time, see if you can delegate it

     d.  If it requires a response and your time, plan to complete it later and enter it into your calendar or day planner for follow up.

Taking control and dealing with Email in this fashion will most likely take you about 1 hour per day.  Don't let Email control you or seal away hours in your day when you can concentrate on more important tasks at hand.

Consider assigning Email tasks to your Virtual Assistant as an important step in helping relieve you of your administrative duties.

*Written by allseasonva.com, VA to entrepreneurs. All Season VA is a leader in providing Virtual Assistance to small businesses leaders, busy executives, executive coaches, speakers, authors, doctors and ?virtually? anyone needing assistance with daily administrative duties.