If you've followed the clean-up for this week, you should have a squeaky clean inbox. Congratulations! Now it's time to look at how you are using email.
Specifically, are you using the right accounts for the right reasons? In other words, do you have enough email addresses? Before you throw something hard at me, hear me out. I have three accounts each for very different purposes. Instead of making me crazy, keeping these accounts separate keeps me (somewhat) sane.
Personal
I have an account that I'm don't share with you guys. It's my personal account. I use it for emails to my mom, online shopping, and keeping up with my college friends. It has nothing to do with publishing and I like it that way. I know that I can go several days without checking that email and the world isn't going to burn down.
As an added bonus, I use this account when I sign up for anything new (workshops, newsletters, etc.). This is where I test drive them to see if it's something I will want to keep reading. If so, I add them to my blog reader. If not, delete and unsubscribe.
Publishing
This is my Gmail account SarahNegovetich (at)gmail.com. This is the account I list on the site here. It's where I have all my publishing related accounts linked to. I have my Google alerts set up here, social media notifications and all the emails from places like Publisher's Marketplace. This is where all of my non-agency, but still publishing related emails go.
This account creates a public place that I am comfortable sharing with the world. I still want to hear from the people who contact me here, but I don't want these emails crowding my agency inbox.
Agency
Finally, I have my agency account. Obviously, this is the email I use to contact my clients and editors. If email from one of these people accidentally gets sent to one of my other emails (it happens occasionally), I forward it to my agency address so I can keep all of these emails in the same place.
This is an email account I keep open all day, every day. Yes, even on the weekends. I recognize that this kinda makes me crazy, but it works for me.
Each of these emails is set-up so I don't miss emails and they get the attention they each deserve. Maybe one account works best for you. If so, that's great. But if you often find yourself missing crucial emails because they are buried in the avalanche of junk mail, you might want to think about adding a new email.
I like having multiple accounts as well, Sarah. The only caveat is: Don't reroute all your emails to your personal one because I've accidentally answered from that one in the past. Now, I like to sign into them all separately.
ReplyDeleteYes, I used to try to route them all to one spot but found that to be more difficult than just having one address. It takes a bit longer to check them individually, but I am able to keep it all straight that way. :)
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