Marie Kondo has become famous for helping people declutter their lives.
Have you ever read The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss?
I read it in 2007.
It was the first book which showed me how powerful Remote Work could be.
Also, based on Tim's recommendation, I immediately hired a Virtual Assistant and started giving him all kinds of tasks to do.
I even had him call my wife on her birthday and tell her how much I love and appreciate her.
Eventually, I ran out of stuff to give him.
But the concept made sense:
Outsource admin tasks which steal my time from more important work.
In email, you are currently doing a lot of low level, admin work.
Like deleting the same emails every day.
Or processing low priority emails just like the more important ones.
Instead, why don't you hire a free Virtual Assistant to do the low level admin stuff?
How?
Use Rules, Filters, and Automation.
For example:
- set up a rule or filter to auto move emails with 'Unsubscribe' in them or where you are CC'd to a folder you scan 1x per day
- set up a Zap where, if you star an email, it gets added to a spreadsheet for tracking or to be handled by someone else on your team
- after sending an email, Snooze it to remind you to follow up if the person doesn't respond
Don't let low level tasks suck up your most valuable and scarce resource: time.
