Weekender Issue #113

What I’m about to share with you is probably the most controversial soap box I’ve ever stood on.

The reason I’m deciding to address this is simple. In my 20+ years as an executive assistant, nothing has transformed how I work (and how I view myself as a strategic business partner) more than this one thing:

Putting email management in its rightful place.

According to a LinkedIn survey I recently conducted, only 22% of executive assistants said they close out of email in order to strategically create more focus and get more done.

16% said they’d like to close out of email but haven’t yet. A whopping 62% responded no, out of fear of missing something.

Equally fascinating were some of the comments I received on this post:

“Kinda the main point to be on top of it, no?”

“It’s part of the job responsibility that you don’t miss something, and communication is timely.”

“No no and no. I have a monitor dedicated just for my inbox.”

The 62% that responded, “no” to the poll, coupled with these comments, seem to point to one key underlying belief when it comes to effective email management…

Closing out of one’s inbox is irresponsible and neglectful.

As much as I hate to break it to you, this belief is one you’ll need to challenge if you want to maximize your effectiveness and show up more strategically for your role.

Taking Back Control of Your Day

I think we have all experienced what it feels like to let your inbox dictate your day.

You start out working on a high-priority project, only to be derailed when you are interrupted by an email. Instead of prioritizing the request accordingly, you find yourself taking care of it the moment it’s received so you don’t “have to worry about it”.

Before you know it, you’re sucked in the email vortex, playing whack-a-mole as your life depended on it. That higher-priority task or project inadvertently gets put on the back burner.

Putting email management in its rightful place on your list of priorities will solve this problem.

Determine how often you want to check and respond to email, then commit to it. Starting small is 100% okay.

When I challenge my clients to close out of their inbox I propose starting with 20-30 minutes at a time. (Keep reading for strategies on how to effectively implement this concept.)

Other Benefits

Not only will closing out of your inbox help you gain a sense of control over your day, it will also help you focus.

The benefits to focus are many and are backed by science. Please check out this article summarizing a variety of studies.

When you’re focused you’re more likely to create higher quality work with fewer mistakes. You also tend to focus on the right things, prioritizing tasks and projects accordingly.

In other words, if you want to show up more strategically, and get more done in less time (and with less stress), you’re going to need to pause the incoming stream of requests long enough to allow for focus.

A Strategic Mindset Shift

In May of this year, I co-hosted an in-person training with Melissa Peoples. At one point Melissa asked what an acceptable timeline was for receiving a response to an email. The answers varied from a couple of hours to the next day.

Do you want to know what nobody said? Nobody said they expected a response immediately or gave a timeline that was less than a couple of hours.

If we don’t expect this level of responsiveness from others, why do we ourselves feel obligated to be overly responsive to email?

The answer is simple and boils down to a strong desire to do a good job.

What if doing a good job actually looks like producing high-quality work, and maximizing your productive output? Both of which require focus. (Again, see the link above for the science behind this.)

If you’re an ambitious growth-minded assistant, what got you to where you are probably won’t get you to where you want to go. If you want to get out of the weeds and operate more strategically, you’re going to have to set aside the reactionary practice of living in your inbox (and messaging apps) and put email in its rightful place.

Take a deep breath! As I write this I can feel the collective panic. I’ve got you!

The How

Right now you’re probably thinking, “Okay Annie, I hear you. What if I close out of my inbox and miss something?” -or- “Annie, my colleagues expect immediate responses from me.”

If your colleagues expect an immediate response it’s likely because you’ve inadvertently trained them to expect one.

The fix for this isn’t to live in your inbox, it’s to retrain them by setting the expectation for a more sensible response time.

The next time you receive an in-person visit or a Teams message 2 seconds after they’ve sent you an email, you can thank them for checking in, then set the expectation regarding a reasonable response time.

Here are a few more strategies vital to your success:

• Have an open conversation with your executive about your desire to optimize your time, and create more focus by closing out of your inbox.
• Give your executive an alternate way to reach you in case of emergency. I’m also a fan of closing out of Teams & Slack. In my personal experience, a text works beautifully.
• Start small… especially if you’re afraid of missing something. Closing out of your inbox for 20-30 minutes at a time can be life-changing. As you begin to see the benefits, slowly expand your focus sessions.
• Lean into your discomfort. You’re trying something new which means your brain will likely go into high alert. This is part of the process, nothing has gone wrong. Take a few deep breaths and remind yourself of the amazing benefits of challenging yourself in this way.

I’ll leave you with this story…

While I was supporting my last executive, both he and I received consistent praise about my timeliness when it came to responding to email.

Want to hear something interesting? I was only in my inbox 5-6 times per day.

I have a theory about why we received this feedback:

1. I checked and responded to email as my first task of the day. I have a feeling this was translated by others as “responsive”.
2. My correspondence was well thought out and articulated. My focus on producing high-quality work meant that when I opened my inbox, it had my full undivided attention. While I have no proof, I speculate that others were able to tell.

Putting my email management in its rightful place was key to my success as a strategic business partner. Closing out of my inbox not only reduced stress and mistakes, it also improved productivity and increased strategic thinking.

What if managing your email in a similar way could lead to success for you too? You won’t know if you don’t try.

To learn more about Annie, please visit her website: WholeAssistant.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.