Lisa Zeeveld :
Welcome back to One Next Step. All right, Tricia, let’s jump right in. How do you prioritize your most important emails so they don’t get lost in the mix?
Tricia Sciortino:
Oh, so this is important because we don’t wanna miss the good stuff. But it goes back to the priority system that I’ve set. So for me, I have an action folder and I know that anything, an action, an important folder that anything that my assistant moves into that are the things that absolutely need or require my attention. If something is lower priority, that is not uber important, it’s going into a read folder, read later folder. So I think you have a system on where those emails are placed so you know that they get your attention first.
Lisa Zeeveld:
I love that.
Tricia Sciortino:
What is your process?
Lisa Zeeveld:
I’m a flagger. I love a good flag.
Tricia Sciortino:
A flagger?! Is it a red flag? A green flag?
Lisa Zeeveld:
I mean I use all the flags. Here’s the thing.
Tricia Sciortino:
You have color coding?
Lisa Zeeveld:
Out of sight, out of mind for me. So I’m a big archiver, like you said, if I don’t need it, it gets archived. I have probably three folders in my inbox. One of them is for my assistant to use on PTO. And so if there’s anything while I’m gone that I need to read, she’s gonna put it in that PTO read when you get back, just FYI stuff. We happen here at BELAY to use the Google suite and so it’s Gmail and I have the separated inbox.
Tricia Sciortino:
That is a blessing.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Yes, yes. So what she does and so like the red like exclamation point, right? I think is what it is. She’ll put that and so I see them at the top of all the things that are super important that need my attention right away. And I actually use the flagging system too. I love the little question mark because if I have a question and I send an email to somebody and I’m waiting on a response, I’ll put the little question mark that means I’ve asked them a question and I’m waiting for something back.
Tricia Sciortino:
Oh, that’s a good one.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Right?
Tricia Sciortino:
I like it.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Yellow is just sort of like, ‘Hey, I just need to get back to it.’ And then every once in a while I’ll throw a green in there because it’s BELAY and it just feels fun. Like go green.
Tricia Sciortino:
Let’s go. Well, you have to have a green if you have a red and a yellow. So, yes.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Yeah. But yellow doesn’t mean pause for some reason. Yeah, I think it’s because yellow’s the first one. Well like when you go to hit the flagging system, the yellow star is really the first one that pops up. So I think a lot of times I just get lazy and use the yellow one. But that’s because what I find is if I had an action folder, you’re more disciplined than I am. If I had an action folder, everything that was coming in my inbox, I would still see that first. And so I like that separated with that because it’s at the top for me that says, ‘This is your most important things you have to work on.’ Everything else that’s coming down here, you guys can’t see my hands but on the bottom part of my inbox that’s not gonna be, is take the priority over the things that have been flagged. And so tha’s really why I use that system.
Tricia Sciortino:
Yes. I like it. Mine’s almost reverse. So I have a Cameron box, so Cameron’s my assistant. So I move things into the Cameron folder that I want her to do if I got there first. If she gets there first, we have a race. So if she gets there first she moves it into the Cameron folder and sometimes she will text me. Darn it, you moved it into my folder before I did. Like we had this like game that we play, who can delegate it to her faster.
Lisa Zeeveld:
I love it.
Tricia Sciortino:
The things I’m like, ‘Oh she can handle this,’ I’ll put it in there. If there’s things she knows, I’m gonna do this for her, she will put them in there. So the Cameron folders at the top.
Lisa Zeeveld:
I got you.
Tricia Sciortino:
She’s at the tippy top of my inbox and the goal is to keep filling hers.
Tricia Sciortino:
But I think right, to summarize, both of us use our own systems, which we were saying like uniquely have your own system, but it’s most important to actually just have a system.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Yeah. Because I think what I have heard from a lot of people who have those 99,000 emails is that they don’t touch it just once. They don’t have a flagging system, there’s no foldering system. They’re afraid to archive it because they’re afraid to lose it. Those types of things. They don’t just trust themselves and trust the process. And so everything kind of gets jumbled up together. And so you have to have some organization. If you’re not organized anywhere else in your life, like I don’t care what your closet looks like, your bedroom, your car, please find time to organize your inbox because that’s your business.
Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah. Peace of mind. Empty inbox.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Well this has been awesome. Thank you so much, Tricia, for being on here and sharing all of your wisdom. And I think it’s really important and helpful for other business leaders and officers to hear that you can run a very successful business and not be overwhelmed by email. This is not a given, folks. It’s actually the opposite. If you wanna be successful, if you wanna grow your business, find organization in your inbox.
Tricia Sciortino:
Absolutely. It’s a distraction if not otherwise.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Well I love doing these deep dives with you.
Tricia Sciortino:
Thank you too.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Thank you so much. Love sharing with our listeners. So thank you, guys, so much for joining us. For our bonus next step, be sure to join us next week for more practical tips and actionable tools to advance your business one step at a time. Start by making today count.
