You don’t need to check your email – someone else can do it

Getting an assistant to manage your email isn’t a luxury, it’s a pragmatic business decision. Here’s how you do it.

Getting an assistant to manage your email isn’t a luxury, it’s a pragmatic business decision. Here’s how you do it.

How long did you spend checking email this morning? 20 minutes? An hour? When time is money it makes little sense that top industry professionals spend it managing routine correspondence. After all, we already have people to answer phones and deal with walk-in visitors. Social media expert Alexandra Samuel has explained in the Harvard Business Review how you go about delegating email to an assistant, and why technology has made this easier than ever.

Whether to delegate

If you’ve got a trusted assistant, then they should give you daily assistance with your inbox – allowing them access to your outbox is another step entirely. If you have part time of virtual assistance – available through sites like Zirtual – then you will have to decide what they see, rather than the other way around. Don’t forget to talk to your colleagues – there may already be a system in place, or it could be more economical to share an assistant.

Beginning delegation

Certain email services like Outlook and Gmail have functions which mean you don’t have to do disclose your password to an assistant. You may also want to set up a second email address for particularly confidential information. Discuss a clear protocol with your assistant for dealing with mail, and write them a few sample replies, particularly if they will be sending messages as you.

Maximising delegation

There a number of technical tools that can make you and your assistant’s lives easier. Get them to check email at a certain time, and perhaps from only a certain folder, to save them time. Conversely, get them to ‘flag’ mail you need to read. You can tag certain messages so they can automatically get forwarded to your assistant – invoices and meeting requests would be typical examples. Samuel also suggests that, when you hire someone for an individual project, you should make managing email relating to the project a part of their job description.

Read Samuel’s original article here. Have you taken MPA’s poll yet? We’re looking at attitudes to brokers giving property investment advice – closes on Wednesday.