You hear that familiar sound, you go tearing through the house as fast as you can and about break your neck tripping over Johnny and his pile of toys on your way to your computer. You know who you are…the compulsive email checker. When you get there, what do you find? Yet another junk e-mail. Nursing your hurt toe, you limp off wondering why it has to be this way.I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t HAVE to be this way.

I used to be like you, rushing to the computer or worse yet, not leaving my desk at all for hours upon hours just so I wouldn’t miss that all important email. Finally in the middle of a breakdown caused mainly by a frustrating client, I realized something had to change.I decided I needed to automate and organize my emails. I already used Outlook for my email so all I needed to do was utilize Outlook more fully to accomplish this.

The first thing I did was create folders and subfolders. Then I created rules using the Rules Wizard. (This is where you set criteria for certain emails or email accounts and Outlook will deal with those emails).

So how did I organize my email? First, I created a main folder for each client. Inside this folder I have subfolders titled: received, sent, web forms. I also created folders and subfolders for my household, personal and business needs. I have a folder named Bills and within that I have subfolders, Personal and Business. In those, I have subfolders titled, paid and unpaid. I could go on and on here but I’m sure you get the idea – find what works best for you but don’t go overboard. J

After creating my folders and subfolders, I started creating those rules I mentioned above. So now, email from each client goes to that client’s folder, emails I sent to clients go to the clients sent mail subfolder. This has saved me immeasurable time alone…just to be able to pull up an email I need in an instant instead of searching many minutes or even hours for something I’ve sent to a client.

In order to stop my compulsive email checking I went one step further (this works with Outlook 2003 and higher) and attached a certain sound to each clients incoming email so I know if I’m away from the computer and I hear that sound, it’s something I need to check otherwise I leave it be for later.

STOP compulsively and obsessively checking that email. Retake control over your life!

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Last week, I had seemingly accomplished very little even tho’ I had spent the better part of 16 hours at my desk. Why you ask? In one simple word-interruptions. Unless you live in total isolation you are going to deal with interuptions of one sort or another during your day. This is true for all of us whether we work at an office outside of the home or at home.

How do you stop interuptions from totally taking over your day?  If there is one thing I’ve learned about working at home that is you absolutely have to stay in control of your time and your environment as much as you possibly can.
Here’s a few tips to get us started:

Close the door to your work area. Put up a curtain. Hang a sign. Do whatever necessary to prevent someone from invading your workspace.

When someone asks for a few minutes of your precious time, schedule it. Look at your calendar and be specific. “I can speak with you for 10 minutes at 12:30 tomorrow”. Or, if they say they need to talk to you NOW have a handy kitchen timer on your desk; set it for the 5 or 10 minutes they are asking for when the timer goes off, the conversation ends immediately. If there is still discussion to be had, schedule it with the person for a later time.

The latter especially works great with the kids (and spouses too). My now 7 year old daughter constantly was saying she needs to show me this or that. One day I counted up that I was spending roughly 45 minutes of every hour dealing with her. I could not make money actually working 15 minutes an hour!  We began looking for ways to implement better strategies and this is one our psychologist suggested. I took that tip and ran with it. There are so many ways you can It’s been a real life-saver. Now, if she needs me, I tell her I’ll be there in 5 or 10 minutes, set the timer for that time period and she knows when she hears the timer ding that I will be there to tend to her whims. It has cut down on the stress both of us have because she is not constantly ocming in the office asking me stuff and I’m not yelling at her to give me a minute more.