126: Inbox Zero - Email Inbox Management

1. Filter through your inbox. Identify the emails that are subscriptions and are either unimportant or distract from the urgent. Which emails have unintentional importance, which ones are good things to know and which emails need your attention? Get through the minutia and create some filtering so that you know how to attack each one of them.

2. Try setting a goal of only touching an email once. If you open an email, you should be trying to handle 90% of them right then. You’re not reading and going on to the next one. You’re taking whatever appropriate action is needed for that email at that time. 

3. What is your life if work is your hobby? Trust your systems that you’ve put in place. Trust your VA to handle your inbox. And check out during non-working hours and when you’re on PTO. Truly disconnecting and spending time not being at work, not being in an email, not thinking about all the things that are happening over there is just the best gift we can give.

Tricia Sciortino:

Archiving is huge. I archive everything. Me too. Everything is archived. Once I’m done with it, it’s archived. You can get it all back later, guys. It doesn’t disappear. I promise. It’s in there. It’s just not sitting in your inbox. Genuinely. And then honestly, unsubscribe is one of my best friends. I unsubscribe to things probably daily.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step, the most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip, practical tool and small step away from growing your business. One Next Step is brought to you by BEALY — the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with Virtual Assistants, Bookkeepers and Social Media Managers. Accomplish more, juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. And now to your hosts. 

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step, the practical business podcast that helps you run your business so it stops running you. I’m Ryan, and today two of our favorite podcast hosts, Tricia and Lisa will be sitting down together for a special masterclass episode all about email inbox management. As many of you know, Tricia is the CEO of BELAY, and Lisa is the CFO. So it’s safe to say they get their fair share of daily emails. That’s probably an understatement, honestly. In this episode, they’ll talk about their strategies when it comes to managing emails, how they delegate to their Virtual Assistants, and how they prioritize emails. This should be a helpful conversation for any leader out there who dreams of hitting that ideal state of inbox zero. But first, let’s talk about busyness because despite what conversations might suggest as of late, there is no award for most busy. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but busy rarely ever equates to productive. Enter BELAY. The incredible organization revolutionizing productivity with subscription-based Virtual Assistant, Bookkeeping and Social Media Strategist services. BELAY can help you cut the busy and reclaim 15 hours every week by delegating just five tasks. Accomplish more, juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. And now let’s jump into today’s conversation between LZ and Tricia.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Hey T, how are you doing today?

Tricia Sciortino:

Hi. Hi, my friend. I’m great. How are you?

Lisa Zeeveld:

I’m super, I’m good. I’m good. And I’m super excited because we’ve teased this topic out quite a few times, and we’ve actually talked about it in a lot of other episodes, but I don’t think we’ve ever dedicated an entire episode just to talk about email management. But at the crux of being a good leader is knowing how to manage your inbox. Right?

Tricia Sciortino:

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think a lot of us live and die in the, in that email.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. Yes. And you are the poster woman for inbox zero. I mean, you really do a great job, as the CEO of BELAY, my leader, my friend, I’ve been a great example of what it means to have inbox zero. And I love that you share it whenever you do like to encourage everybody else. So I think our listeners are gonna be in for quite a treat to learn so much from you today.

Tricia Sciortino:

Oh, gosh. Well, and you, likewise. And I secretly have panic attacks when I hear that people have more than like 20 emails in their inbox. I just dunno how they go about their day. I dunno how they live their lives. My husband is one of those. He is like 99,000 emails in his inbox. And I just, I can’t, I have to cringe at the idea that somebody lives their life that way.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I agree. I agree. I may not get to inbox zero all the time, but I never at any moment have more than 20 ever in there.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. I’m like, inbox five is my goal if I’m being honest, like five things and they’re literally in there because they need me for something.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes, absolutely. So I think that it would be really great for us to talk about how we use inbox management, how we really empower our Virtual Assistants, our executive assistants, to get in there and help us manage and how to do it in such a way that we feel relief, we feel in control, and really how we use email as a communication tool. Because I think that’s also important. There’s a lot of ways to communicate right now, whether it’s an instant messaging tool, whether you have a CRM that you can communicate in. And a lot of times those all filter back into your inbox. And so I think it’s just a good time for us to talk about how we live and die by our inbox and ultimately how we empower those who help us.

Tricia Sciortino:

Absolutely. I’m ready for it. We’ve gone through a lot of trial and error over the years figuring out how to best leverage a Virtual Assistant to help with inbox management, how ourselves as leaders to delegate and relinquish some of it and how to better organize ourselves. So I feel like, you know, maybe we can really share some great insights, tips, and tools to help anybody out there listening who’s just struggling with how to even get started and what ideal state can even look like and how it’s possible.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. Agreed. Agreed. So I’m gonna start with you. So I’m gonna ask, how do you really view your inbox and how do you leverage your VA to help you manage it?

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. Well, that’s a big question right out the gate.

Lisa Zeeveld:

It is. I figured somebody right now is listening, like, okay get to the meet.

Tricia Sciortino:

Here we go. Let’s just dig right in. I think like most of us, our inbox is our core is our central point of communication for our organization’s peer networks, our career platform, if you will. In my opinion, everything, like you said, everything filters in through the inbox. It’s almost like the central command center of all things going on as a leader that you’re managing. So there’s a variety of importance and lack of important things filtering through an email inbox. And I think knowing the difference about of those things is probably the first great step to start. And then, really leveraging a VA to help with that to me is I actually find that the place where I get most of my time back is having somebody help me with my email. Number one. Yes. You? How do you view email, your inbox, communication?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. No, I mean, I love the fact that you talked about how there’s a lot of unimportant things that come in, and I really feel like that is a stumbling block for new leaders. And I speak from experience, right? You wanna be the best in your field and so you’re gonna go out and you’re gonna subscribe probably to a lot of newsletters. You’re also gonna get subscribed to a lot that you didn’t even know about.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. Maybe spammed.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. But the ones that you actually do want to read, those start to come into your inbox and you feel sort of this draw to read them all because you subscribed, and in the moment it sounded really good. And so those have this unintentional importance that get assigned to it. And then there’s all of the FYIs, you get copied on something and you gotta read those too and those feel kind of important. And then there’s actually the stuff that needs your attention, which is truly the important part, right? That I feel like a lot of times gets pushed down into in all that minutia and that email soup that happens and those get ignored. Unintentionally get ignored because all of that unimportant stuff is there. So like you, it’s a great communication tool. It’s a fantastic tool for keeping up to date with your team, for connecting with prospects and clients and all of that good stuff. But you have to, in order to work really well with an assistant, you have to start putting some prioritization around that and be okay with filtering that happens because you’re never gonna be able to get rid of the stuff that’s going in there because it’s good stuff. But you have to create some filtering so that you know how to attack each one of them in the appropriate timeline as well.

Tricia Sciortino:

So yeah, I mean, placing priority on what needs your attention first, what needs it second and what maybe it’s not needed for, you could read at your leisure, you know, the newsletters and things like that. So creating a system around, an organization around those priorities is a really great place to start as you think through your email is, ‘What are the things I absolutely need me,” nobody can speak on my behalf. Because it requires me to make a decision. It requires my thought or my attention. And then there are ones that, like you said, a lot of the FYIs that you can just, you just need to read to know, but there’s no action needed on your part so.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. And I think that filtering that was both you and I have been VAs, so I think we have a leg up probably. But you know, email, depending upon what email application you use, they have a lot of great tools within inside that application that can help you have an inbox that it’s not 99,000 emails sitting in there that you can create and say, ‘Hey, these are spam. I want all of this particular, if they’re from a particular person, they’re this email address, it needs to go into high priority. If it’s from this one, it can go into read later.’ I know both you and I have folders like that. So if you don’t currently have a VA or you do right now, but leveraging those, filtering into those separate folders and then archiving I think is one of the simplest ways to start clearing out what is in your inbox so you can get through all of that yucky soup that we just talked about and find the things that are the priority.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. And I think that, you know, I view the inbox kind of like I view my mind. That the reason I’m looking for it to be as empty as possible is cause I’m trying to remove clutter and distraction and stay focused on what matters. So like you, I mean, there’s many different ways you can manage an inbox. Some people use a foldering system like you and I do. Some people use a starring or flagging system to prioritize things. Archiving is huge. I archive everything.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Me too.

Tricia Sciortino:

Everything is archived. Once I’m done with it. It’s archived. You can get it all back later, guys.It doesn’t disappear. I promise. It’s in there. It’s just not sitting in your inbox. Genuinely. And then honestly, unsubscribe is one of my best friends. I unsubscribe to things probably daily because whether you subscribe to them in the past or somehow wound up on a list, you nevertheless get email that you shouldn’t. And then one of my rules of thumb that I love to use for email is my goal is that an email is touched once.

Tricia Sciortino:

So if you open an email, you are — 90% of them — you’re handling, right then. you’re not reading, you’re not going on to the next one. You’re taking whatever appropriate action is needed for that email at that time. And that’s also how I direct my assistant as well. If an email is opened as read, it is being taken care of in that moment unless it requires additional time, thought planning or action, in which case it might then be moved to a folder that is an action folder or a project folder so that you know this is an email that I’m intentionally not touching right now because there’s actually something else, or I need more time for it. But ideally you’re touching your email once and then the ones that you read, you open read, archive, open read archive, anything that you need to go back to, you filter somewhere for later and that everything is touched one time. That’s actually kind of my rule in life as well.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I like this, yeah.

Tricia Sciortino:

Try and touch everything at one time. It’s like when you clear the table, right? When dinner is over and it’s time to put the condiments back in the shelf and you take the salt and pepper and you’re going to put them back in the cabinet. But then there’s the person who actually picks up the salt and pepper and puts it on the counter closest to where the salt and pepper goes, but it’s still not back. It’s still not in its end place, and so then somebody has to go back and touch it again and move to salt and pepper onto the salt and pepper shelf in the cabinet. Does it sound like I’m speaking from experience?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. Yes!

Tricia Sciortino:

So move to salt and pepper one time. Touch your email one time. That is my rule of thumb for email.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. I would have to say when it comes to cleaning up the table, I am a move it and set it down kind of person.

Tricia Sciortino:

Oh no!

Lisa Zeeveld:

Because I have to get that one area cleaned. So I’m going, I’m gonna move it from the table to the kitchen counter and I’m gonna clean the table off. So that’s done. Like, because it’s the, I need to check the box to make me feel like I’m doing something. That’s my mentality on it.

Tricia Sciortino:

And I’m going, ‘But why? Just put it in its right place, then wipe the table.’

Lisa Zeeveld:

Then I gotta open the door and my hands are full and yeah. But I love that. It reminds me back, gosh, probably like 20 years ago when you know, before there was so much digital media that there was a whole movement on paper. Remember this? Like, you would get your mail and they would say only touch your mail once. Like, so you’d get your mail. Don’t stack it up anywhere.

Tricia Sciortino:

Same! I do that too.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah so that when you get the mail, you go through it, you get rid of it or you file it somewhere. You just don’t let it pile up. And so I think that’s for those who have been around a while, they probably remember that. And that’s really good coaching is to touch something once. I love that.

Tricia Sciortino:

Absolutely. It works for me.

Lisa Zeeveld:

So what about we have this thing at BELAY called the virtual nod. Why don’t you explain for our listeners a little bit more about that?

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. So our virtual nod means that you are responding that you have received something, even if you can’t address it at that time. So the person on the other side is not waiting on you to know if you even got their email, like they’re request didn’t go into a black hole. You actually received the information, but you don’t have time to answer it now, or you need to think about it, you’re gonna get back later. So a virtual nod would be, for example, if I got an email or my assistant would do this for me that says, ‘Hey, what do you think about X, Y, Z?’ And I’m in meetings all day so I can’t address that. I would nod or my Virtual Assistant would on my behalf to say, ‘Hey, got it in meetings all day. I’ll get back to you in the morning.’

Tricia Sciortino:

So the nod is really giving relief, taking the monkey off the back of the person who sent the email and taking it to say, ‘This is on me now. I own this email and I’ll get back to you accordingly,’ so that things don’t seemingly fall into a hole and the person on the other side is not wondering if you’ve received their communication. So that is just a best practice we recommend for all of our Virtual Assistants. We use it with our Virtual Assistants. We view it through the lens of that even as leaders and as a team that we would virtually nod each other because it just — increased communication is helpful when you can’t see people.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. Well that’s what I was gonna say is that it became such a thing for us, like a best practice because we were virtual before virtual was cool. And this was a way to know that you just weren’t lobbying something over the fence, to your point, and it falling in a black hole. And it, what has become now is it’s a courtesy and it’s a show of respect. I respect you enough to let you know that I’ve received this. I might needed a little time to ponder on it. I might be in a meeting, but what you sent me, I know how valuable it is and I’m gonna take care of it for you. And I love that.

Tricia Sciortino:

Absolutely. And, and that’s, you know, coaching I give my assistant on my behalf when she’s managing my email is to nod for me. ‘Hey, I, we’ve gotten this, I’ve put it in a a folder for Patricia, she’ll get back to it this afternoon. She’s podcasting today,’ whatever that may be. And it’s really is a professional courtesy in my opinion. There is — and maybe it’s a pet peeve of mine — but I have a pet peeve that if I don’t hear from somebody or hear back from somebody within a certain amount of time, I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated waiting on responses from people. So I don’t want people waiting on me because I don’t enjoy waiting on them.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And I always think too that, especially within our team because we know, it’s a little bit harder when you’re dealing with outside partners or vendors, but if there’s a delay, it usually is like a little bell ringing that either says, ‘Hmm, is that person overwhelmed? Is their workload high right now? Or is there something in the email that’s causing them to ponder longer than it normally would?’

Tricia Sciortino:

Yes, you fill that gap with something that’s not positive typically.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right? Yes, so then you’re sitting there thinking, ‘Gosh, do I need to add more context? Was there, was the tone bad?’ You start making up reasons. And so as the receiver, it’s really nice for the sender to be like, ‘Hey, everything is cool, I just need a moment.’

Tricia Sciortino:

Absolutely. Totally agree.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Now, what does it mean for folks right now who are probably going into a panic? Does this virtual nod thing mean that they have to respond to every single email in 24 hours?

Tricia Sciortino:

Well.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Like is it every, is it every single one? Help them understand what it means, and I mean you kind of let the cat outta the bag a little bit, but it’s also getting help, right?

Tricia Sciortino:

Yes. I mean, I am not personally virtually nodding to every single email. That’s where a Virtual Assistant comes into play. I think you have to sort through, obviously if it’s spam, you’re not virtually nodding it. If it’s somebody trying to sell you something, you might not virtual nod that. I think you, you have to come up with what are your agreed upon terms with certain people. Like for us, I know if it’s anybody inside of BELAY, inside our organization that I have an email from, I actually will respond same day. So I’m not even saying 24 hours, if I get an email at three o’clock, I will actually respond same day or four o’clock same day. I will typically not let something sit overnight. That is just my personal, that is what I have decided that I’m giving to BELAY. Right. But organizationally, we agree 24 hours as a global team. So I know if I send an email to anybody in this company, I should hear back within 24 hours. And I think that’s fair. So that’s maybe a little aggressive. I mean I’m a hyper responsive person, particularly. So that’s just my personal opinion on email and virtual nodding. How have you used it for you?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, I think it depends on the season that I’m in. If I’m doing a lot of things, if I’m in a season where I’m doing a lot of things. So for example, CFO audit stuff. If I’ve got big legal projects on my plate at the moment and an email comes in at three, but I’m in a meeting, and I’m not getting outta that meeting until 4:30, 5 o’clock, I may not be able to respond to that email that came in during that time. But definitely the 24 hours, I’m trying to circle back around and say, ‘Hey got this, thank you so much.’ But most of the time it’s not even the virtual nod. I am trying to answer those emails and get them out of my inbox as quick as possible. And so I’m taking the time to do that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Because I also know that our team members are giving me the grace of 24 hours. And so instead of me going, ‘Hey, I got this, I’m gonna get back to you,’ I’m gonna try to answer it and solve it within the 24 hour time period. So that’s sort of how I use it. But definitely, my assistant is in there for longer gaps. Like if we are in meetings all day, she’s gonna handle those for me. So that way something that came in in the morning isn’t sitting around until the next day. Like to me, a full day of working hours feels very long.

Tricia Sciortino:

It is.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I don’t know why the evenings don’t feel long to me. Maybe because I’m thinking that everybody else is shutting down, but a full business day feels very long, and I typically won’t let anything sit there for a full business day without giving that virtual nod. So even if I was in that meeting, and I was really busy in the morning and it’s now 4:30, 5 o’clock and I got something early in the morning, I’m going back to those and saying, ‘Hey, I got this. I’m so sorry I couldn’t answer you today, but I’ll get to it first thing in the morning.’ I’ll tackle those first.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah, yeah, totally, totally agree. You gotta set priorities and also, we kind of have this unspoken rule, which is really good. And it goes for email too as an organization that we don’t email after hours and weekends and different things like that because us trying to get something off of our plate and in off hour actually creates work for somebody else at an inappropriate hour. So like you and I, we will not send an email at 7:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. because it’s actually putting the burden on the person on the other side. And we’ve had team members who may email us or other people on those arrows, and we’ve actually had to say, ‘No, please don’t email at 8, 7, 8 o’clock at night. That’s not, you’re putting that on that other person then now they feel they may have to respond to you at eight o’clock at night.’ So we’re super thoughtful about the time with which we actually are actively emailing and my Virtual Assistant as well, she knows to not be managing that off hours because I don’t wanna create a ripple effect for anybody else.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes, exactly. I mean, I think with technology it’s such a great tool to have email at your fingertips, your business email, but you’re trying to get something done. Maybe you’ve had a busy day and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m cooking dinner. Let me just get a couple of these virtual nods out. I know it’s seven o’clock.’ But your team member might be at the ball field watching their kids play and they get a se a 7:00 p.m. email from the CEO. All of a sudden, yes. They switch off from being mom or dad or aunt or uncle into work mode and go, ‘Oh my gosh, well the CEO emailed me, I’d better get to it.’

Tricia Sciortino:

That’s right.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And that was never your intention. So the wait in order to stop that all together is just don’t do it.

Tricia Sciortino:

That’s right. That’s right. 

Lisa Zeeveld:

Schedule it. We love scheduling emails.

Tricia Sciortino:

We boomerang that baby and it goes out in the morning. Or you just literally shut it down because really you should be stopping work anyway. So that’s a whole other episode.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes, yes. So I think we’ve talked a little bit about like the maximum number that we both like to have in our inbox at one time. You said five, I said maybe 20 at most depending upon, you know, the season that I’m in. Are there any other pro tips that come to mind when you think about managing your inbox or back in the day when we used to manage for other people. What are some things that you really felt like made a difference?

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. I think there’s a couple of key steps to go into, which we’ve touched on briefly is it’s definitely develop a foldering system that is right for you. It’s different literally for everybody. My system is different from your system, which is different from our chief revenue officer’s system. Developing what are the right folders that you need to file your emails into your, or I better say this, your Virtual Assistant files your emails into for you that you haven’t agreed upon system. Try, it doesn’t work, change it. I mean, I’ve been through a couple of different systems of like, ‘Eh, it’s, I’m not feeling this. Let’s try this other way.’ And until you find what feels comfortable for you as a unique leader and with your Virtual Assistant. So that’s like tip number one is really determine what you’re gonna go for and then literally go all in on it and just give it a try.

Tricia Sciortino:

And then the second thing I would say is, and this has been one that I have really grew and had as a goal for myself over the last like two years, is to really give more of it to my Virtual Assistant. Yeah. And so I have a secret love for my email inbox, which is probably what a lot of our leaders problems are, is like, we love our email, we love being in it all day. We feel so connected and alive, but it’s also a huge burden. So I really set goals for myself literal key performance indicators like KPIs for myself that I was gonna delegate a certain percent of my inbox to my VA and each year or half year, I’ve increased that percent of my email to my Virtual Assistant. And she has those KPIs and measures for herself too.

Tricia Sciortino:

So right now she knows 50% of the email that come into my inbox, she’s responsible for and I am not gonna touch. And we have to hold each other accountable because we’re both charging towards the same goal. But we have a good framework to say, ‘Okay, she wants me to handle half these, so let me get through this and see what I can do.’ So it’s really, really clear how much I want them in there. It used to be 20%, so it’s like okay, one in five emails, now we’re at half. And setting those expectations and then setting the groundwork to teach them how to handle those emails. And then my last big pro tip is vacation mode. Just be out completely. 1000% out. Which I am, I’m kind of like the pot calling the kettle black on some of this, but be out, be out of it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

What would you add?

Lisa Zeeveld:

I have to say, and I’m just gonna be very transparent, building an organization and a needy one at that. I.e., BELAY. Ithink this speaks to every business owner, right? There are moments, especially being in finance and, and there’s just deadlines and things that can’t be moved is I made this thing up in my head that what was okay if I was standing in line at Disney and I just opened up my inbox and all the things that my assistant had filed away. I mean I could just read those because I’m just standing around, right? Or I could be at the beach and just laying on the beach. I mean, I’m not doing anything anyway. Why don’t I just open up my email and see what my assistant has filed away for me, right? Like I feel like we — me — I won’t even talk about other leaders. I had made time excuses where I could be on PTO but still feel connected to what was happening in my inbox because I was afraid of being away. Because I didn’t wanna miss anything. I love what I do. I love the people I work with. I don’t wanna miss anything.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. FOMO. FOMO in email.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And I had this epiphany, I’ve been reading a couple of good books and getting some coaching, and I had this epiphany that inadvertently what I was telling my team is that I didn’t really trust them because I kind of felt like I needed to be in there just a little bit. So I didn’t really trust them. And what I was telling you, my leader, is that my team isn’t quite capable enough. And that was never what I wanted to communicate. What I wanted to communicate is I’m just sort of bored and I have nothing else to do right now. And so I’m gonna jump in my inbox and I’m gonna look at the things that have been filed away. But that doesn’t allow me to shut off because becoming a great leader means that I have a full life and it’s full of creativity. I really, really recommend anybody who wants, even if you don’t love to paint, read Winston Churchill’s the Art of Painting. Even if you read, just read the first 50 pages, you’ll learn something as a leader. It’s a fantastic book. And he talks about how important it’s for us leaders to have a creative side to who we are. And we can’t be creative, and we can’t be full if well I’m bored and I’m going to look at email.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah, agreed.

Lisa Zeeveld:

If you’re bored, find something else to do. And it was the best thing I could have done because I empowered my team to do what they’re trained to do. I came back and I was happy and they were happy. And guess what? I can’t wait to go on PTO again.

Tricia Sciortino:

I love that. To the moon and back. Yes. I love it so much. I could learn a thing or two. It’s harsh, and you’ll know this because my husband literally said to us just last week.

Lisa Zeeveld:

You’re not! You’re gonna open up this wound? This is tough. Oh my gosh.

Tricia Sciortino:

He said, ‘What is your life if work is your hobby?’

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. We were at dinner, and he said that to us.

Tricia Sciortino:

Crushing. I was like, ‘Whoa. Those are fighting words, Mister.’ But truly disconnecting and spending time not being at work, not being in an email, not thinking about all the things that are happening over there is just the best gift we can give. Cause to your point, you have to disconnect, you have to refresh, you gotta let it go and trust great people. I 1000% trust that my Virtual Assistant and my team are doing all of the right things in my absence. And knowing that if I did open my email on my phone, it’s going to be emptied because everything has been filed into a folder that can give me peace.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes, absolutely. And trust your team is doing what they should be. Take time away as a leader. And if you find when you’re out of the office that you’re bored and you miss work and you’re gonna go back to it, challenge yourself. Set a KPI to find a new hobby or something else that interests yous. Don’t fall into, ‘I’m gonna open my email.’

Tricia Sciortino:

Amen.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. That’s a great place to end.

Tricia Sciortino:

It’s a perfect place to end.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, that is awesome. You know, I think we could probably come up with maybe one more thing that we could tease out to our listeners. So what do you say you stick around and we offer up some bonus content.

Tricia Sciortino:

Sounds perfect.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Awesome. Well, you guys do not wanna miss it, but in order to hear that clip, you must subscribe to our email list and we’re gonna send you a link to this bonus content. Or you can always visit onenextsteppodcast.com where you can find a link in our show notes.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

I don’t know about you, but I was taking notes during today’s interview. I always love when they have the opportunity to sit down together for a masterclass episode. Now today we have one next step for you to take. Head to the show notes page for today’s episode to access the fantastic resource we have for you. And take the first next step towards elevating your business and clearing out your inbox. Thank you so much for tuning in for this week’s One Next Step. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcast or follow us on Spotify. And if you’re ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less, go to belaysolutions.com. Join us next time for more practical tips and tools to help you advance your business one step at a time. For more episodes, show notes and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com.