Dan here and in this video, I'm answering a question from a
fellow E N F P one of my free freelancers who also shares my
amazing gift of ADHD, which usually means that when we are
fighting our own fight when we are running our own race, we can
be absolutely unstoppable people with ADHD when we are let
loose and we can do what we do best. We are amazing. but when
we get caught up in things like Email, one of our ultimate
Kryptonite or some kind of Organization that we really don't
enjoy. We can go from this Super. Two the character in the back
of the scene that no one even notices because we're not doing
anything important. so it's really really important to learn
how to get on top of things like Email because when you have
your own business when you're dealing with clients or other
important communication. If you don't respond for six days, it
doesn't necessarily go over very well. So I'm gonna share three
strategies that when I use them lead me to be an Email
superstar to the point where I can even get to inbox zero a
couple times a week inbox zero. There's no way emails in my
inbox. I completely clear it out the first rule, which I will
fully admit. I've had trouble following recently, but I'm
really doubling down on recommitting to is to touch it once
what touch it once means is that you touch all communication
one time. So if you open your inbox and you're going to look at
Email you look at it and then either respond forward to someone
else to do it or archive it. You don't open an email. read it
and then say I'll respond later when you do the whole our
response. Thing you do two things one you really increase the
odds that you forget about it and never respond to it and two
is you're filling up your brain with these questions that just
drains your brain power right so say you're in the lineup at
the supermarket for three minutes and you make the mistake of
opening your inbox. So now you're reading an Email. it ask you
a question. you don't know how to respond or you don't have
time because now you're at the front of the line, you're gonna
be thinking about that question for the next 10 minutes. when
really, you could be thinking about bigger things important
things not. To respond to this one Email, when you're not in a
position to type on your phone or to respond one thing you can
do that makes the whole touch at once a lot easier to implement
is scheduled times you check email in a day. You've probably
heard this from people before. but if you say that you only
check Email at noon and seven PM, let's say and actually give
yourself 20 to 30 minutes or less or more. depending on how
much email you have to respond to Emails at those times. You're
a lot more like you know open the email read it and And then
move on whereas if you randomly check Email every time you're
trying to procrastinate something more important throughout the
day and I say this is someone who is guilty as charged on this
more times than I would like to admit publicly here. If you do
that, you're always gonna be checking scrolling through
responding to the odd email and your inbox will be an absolute
mess now number two personally. I'm pretty good at organizing
my inbox. I have all these filters setup. I'm not on a lot of
newsletters and generally I can get. Self to inbox zero
responding to most things most of the time, but I realized that
I have these lingering messages and a few other inbox
Kryptonite that really mess with me and I recently figured out
why and it's because I don't know what to do with those emails.
Here's what I mean is if there are certain questions you're
being asked and you don't know how to respond. So, for example,
in my case, I'll be very transparent with what they are is. I
received coaching inquiries on my website where people go to
the website dreams around the world dot com if you're curious
and they submit an interest. Working with me as their coach,
but there are many cases where I don't really know how to
respond. Maybe the person isn't a great fit or maybe I don't
have time in my schedule for consultation to see if they're
good fit for the upcoming weeks. and so I don't really have a
clear way to respond and I end up putting off responding to
those emails to say my schedule freeze up and I have time for
consultation or I figure out whether or not the person is a
good fit. This leads to the. Emails that I have no action to
take with. I can't archive them. I can't really respond yet and
they end up sitting there and once you have, it's kinda like
that broken window theory, you know once one window on a Street
breaks the likelihood of more windows breaking more graffiti
all that goes up and up and up. I think our inboxes are like
that as well. if we leave a few Emails just sitting there for
weeks or months and we don't take action on them. We let more
and more pile up where if you get in the habit of completely
empty in your inbox, archiving everything at the end of a day.
A week it becomes easier to keep up that good habit, so what
I'm working hard to do is to analyze the Emails that end up
clogging up my inbox and then coming up with solutions. so
figuring out how I respond to the types of emails. I get 90 -
eight percent of the time. I don't mean like creating
templates, but I just mean mentally knowing what I say and how
I deal with that. And when I've done that in the past, it works
really really well. It's really easy to get through my inbox
because no matter what email. I'm seen. I know how to deal with
it whereas if you're How to deal with them you don't know
really what the next step is for people. It's natural. you're
gonna let them build up and then your inbox will go to hell.
The third strategy definitely relate to the first two and it's
to be as final as possible with your Emails. Let's say you get
an email and you're not quite sure how to respond another way.
This comes up for me is with websites that want to host my
training courses or they want me to go on a podcast or do
something that I don't really wanna do like. First read their
email. It's not that interesting to me, but being an ENT, FP, I
have trouble saying no to opportunities so I kinda leave it
there or worse. I'll start engaging with them and asking
questions even though really my gut instinct is like this isn't
worth my time and so that ends up creating this whole back and
forth with the person. When really from the beginning. If I
didn't wanna do the thing they were asking me to do from the
start. so I could have just said no and been done with it, but
I allow things to drag on. Totally in ENF thing of not wanting
to say no or be final, but it really isn't important habit to
get into with your inbox along the same lines you can make more
final emails. so, for example, if someone wants to set up a
meeting with you respond and say, yes, I would like to set up a
meeting. I'm available on these days and I'm available on this
time so give them a few different times where they could meet
with you or do something I do, which is use a scheduling
software where they can book their own appointments. That's a
lot better than. To someone and saying, hey, yes, I am
available to meet and then they respond when and then you
respond to time and you see where this goes. It is not the most
efficient way to do things Recently. I posted my apartment here
in Prague on a couple of different sites to sublet it as me and
my girlfriend Gabby prepare for some big adventures and moves
in 2020, and I noticed very quickly that I've received the same
kind of questions from people. A lot of them were those really
stupid questions like is it still available? Yes, I posted it
20 minutes ago like what do you think happened in those 20
minutes so to save my time insanity. I basically put together
like a 500 word template respond for everyone where I explain
every single thing they could possibly wanna know and then
allow them to make a clear decision and commitment and what I'm
probably gonna do next. I haven't moved to this step is if
someone wants to come see the apartment actually make them put
some kind of deposit down again just protecting my time. People
who were just asking questions like is it still available or
like I'd like to take a look, but I really can't afford it and
all this sort of stuff. so if we were to summarize these three
strategies and how they go together, Here's how it works. first
have dedicated time to checking your Email as much as possible
and try to touch an email only once in fact, don't try just
touch an email. Let's open it and respond or delete but be
final with each Email. The next is know what you should be
doing with certain. Nails, right, create processes and systems
so that when you're getting an email that maybe you received
the same kind of email a few times a week, you're not thinking
through what to do each and every time and wasting a ton of
mental energy. and then with those emails try to be as final as
possible. Trying to move things forward, Maybe use a scheduling
software maybe use some templates if that helps you but ensure
that all your communication is really moving things forward to
some kind of conclusion or outcome and not just going back and
forth unless you. Like going back and forth in the point of the
email is to chat with people, but if the point is to get to a
destination, then make sure your emails are really moving
things forward and being decisive. The last thing I'll add here
is if your inbox is past the point of no return. If you have
eight thousand 942 Emails and you think this is absolutely
hopeless it absolutely is for you at this stage. You are not
going to be able to go through all those emails. so what I
would suggest is you just nuke it all if you're in. Gmail, You
can select all Emails, archive them, and then yeah, you'll
probably miss a few things you meant to do. you'll probably
annoy a few people who you didn't respond to. but guess what
the person you didn't respond to six weeks ago is already
annoyed at you and they don't expect a response if anything it
probably looks worse to respond now than just to ignore it in
some cases, so I would say archive it all start fresh and work
from a good beginning and promise you. You're not gonna get to
9008 Hundred and 42 Emails again and instead are going to
make an effort to get to say inbox zero once a week that is
really the only hope you can lie to yourself and say you're one
day gonna respond to all those emails but come on. We both know
it's really gonna happen so better to make a big decisive move
now get rid of them all and start from scratch using the three
strategies I shared in this video. Thank you for watching. If
you are new to the channel. my name is Dan. This dreams are And
I published new videos each and every week helping you become
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so thank you for watching. See you in the next video soon.