If you remember or need a refresher, I recently wrote a post titled: 3 Ways To Start Outsourcing Your Email and I immediately started implementing those after reading Tim Ferriss’s book 4HWW which I think is great, apparently not everyone and we’ll get to that.
At first I thought it was a success. I literally cut down all my ‘conversations’ down to zero which was very time freeing for me. I literally would previously spend more time via email than any other activity combined and that’s no joke.
I started notifying my inner circle and team members that I will be using my Gmail account for specific purposes and that part has been working great. I do have another email that is related to this site(if you think really really hard, you could probably figure it out) that gets forwarded to my yahoo account. I will tell you that I’m glad I’ve reduced my yahoo interaction because I am so sick and tired of getting spam emails in my inbox whereas Gmail, spam goes where it belongs and I LOVE that!!
What I started realizing was that ultimately, you could very easily get to my cell phone without much effort and this wasn’t something I immediately thought of at first. See, if you get my email(again, super easy to figure out) you would get the automated response as taught by the great Tim Ferriss himself.
In that response, you would get a phone number to my office line which is actually on of my Skype(affiliate link) phone numbers. Now, the problem with that is if I’m not in front of my computer then I won’t answer it, but…………I leave a voicemail greeting that says if this message is urgent then to call my cell phone at (well, I’m not actually going to give that out here of course). But, think about it, I’m trying to reduce the amount of pointless chitter chatter but I’m not taking into account some of the little things like that.
So, First thing to consider is changing that process slightly to make it a little harder to get my personal cell phone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I don’t want anyone getting in contact with me. I’m just simply saying with all of the ways of easily reaching me, I don’t want my personal cell phone always going off while I’m at dinner with the family or watching one of the many sports my 5 kids play.
Now, here is something I never considered until earlier today and it certainly has some value behind it’s meaning. I was lurking around and checking out a new favorite site of mine: escapingthe9to5.com where a very attractive and brilliant Maren Kate delivers some heat with her site. I’m also hoping that I get a chance to have her appear on some guest posts here so keep an eye out for that. Back to the point, I was reading a post by her: The 4 Hour Work Week is B.S and she had some valid points. I would only argue that she’s barking up the wrong tree because many of you know, I’m lucky if I even work 4 hours a week most of the time and I’m doing just fine.
Its what she referred to in her post that sent me to Penelope Trunk’s site and a specific post titled: 5 Time Management Tricks I Learned From Years of Hating Tim Ferriss where you can tell, there is an obvious dis-liking for him by her. I’m not one to indulge in negativity but there was a point she made that I was able to relate to.
She referred to the exact same auto-responder idea that I just took from Tim Ferriss and in my eyes, discredited it and I agree with her. She says instead of telling people that you’re only going to check your email so many times a day, just do it and not fill up the other persons email with the automated message. It made sense. I know Tim mentions and I also agree with him that you must train those around you but I certainly think it can done without filling up the senders email with auto-responders from you.
So, second thing to consider is removing the auto-responding email that I currently have and just physically check the email once a day, which by the way is becoming really easy to do, I’m actually having to remember to check it because I’m getting so used to not being on the email wagon all day. This way, I’m not inadvertently ‘back spamming’ those people reaching out to me.
So what do you think? I’ve reduced the amount of ‘conversation’ via email but could I be right to follow Penelope’s advice and kick the auto-responder to the curb?
photo cred:newsman05
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WTH!!!! No comments? No ReTweets? Is it because I didn't shower today? I didn't know you could smell me through the computer, I'm sorry, it won't happen again.
I ain't gonna lie to you, I didn't like getting the auto response, but that was just me.
Well, it's good I took it off then isn't it
I actually felt a little spammy knowing that it was getting sent out. I did receive some responses to my response email telling me they thought it was cool, funny or awesome but I really didn't like it.
I am glad I got in the habit not living on my email though, that is very refreshing in itself.
I think auto responds is best when someone has a news letter subscription or someone feels out a form on a website or something to that effect. Not when it come to a general email responds. I think it was a good move.
I”ve been trying to train the people at my JOB to send me emails instead of calling or coming over to my cube but I have failed miserably. When they call they like to chat, or throw un important problems at me and it's even worse when they come over. It really disrupts my train of thought when I'm programming away and kills productivity. I have to be training them wrong.
This isn't exactly what you are talking about but it's related. How would you train them?
I am a new Maren Kate fan thanks to you!
Thank for the comment. I'm glad I made the change to remove the auto-responder. I think more so that I was able to train myself to not live in my email was the ultimate lesson here.
Thats a great question Scott. There are some mentions in Tim's book that refer to these types of things that you could incorporate. When someone calls, tell them you don't have any time right now(your in the middle of something) but if they email you, you'll get back to them quickly(well on your own time of course but don't tell them that)
The 'Drop in' would be great to use the same strategy, half ass look over your shoulder at them and say you're really busy and tell them if they email you, you'll get right back to them.
I think your problem though Scott is you're too passive(I know this from speaking with you on the phone). Try to get more assertive and see if the results change.
she's hot isn't she? Well…….ok, that's not 'professional' but she does rock it with her blog though, I think thats awesome!! Hopefully we see more of her, I think she has a lot of value to bring to any table.
Never really bothered me to receive the email (and you're not the only person I've received one from) but that's because I'm not easily bothered. LOL! More notably however, I think I'm not bothered by it because I knew where it came from and understood what the sender was attempting to do.
However, for someone who has never read 4HWW, I can see how they can be a little miffed or put off by it. I think you can get away with just doing it rather than doing an autoresponder that tells people what you're doing, and people will eventually figure out that if its urgent they need to call you. OR you can tell them that yourself when you finally check their email and realize it was actually something that needed a faster response than 24 hours.
I'll have to check out this Maren Kate blog. Thanks for the recommendation.
I agree with Shae. They didn't bother me for the same reasons she mentioned. I don't think I could do the auto-responder. I would (and am) just train myself to check my email less often.
I'm going to have to find the time to sit down and start reading 4HWW.
I've actually found the best solution, don't be in the office and give nobody your home phone number. hahaha. That does work well
But when I do get back to work I will be more assertive and report back on the success.
ya, like I mentioned, I think this the most valuable lesson I personally learned was to not live within my email. That alone has given me a lot my day back to me.
Brian, don't 'find' the time, MAKE the time to read it. You'll be glad you did. Remember what I mentioned in the Wave, there is a trend among a few of you that haven't yet tasted any success and it was that none of you like or have read a book in some time. Do you think there's a reason for that?
Looking forward to it Scott