My 30-Day No Email Trial: The Results

No email for 30 days In early June, I embarked on a radical experiment: I gave up email for 30 days. Here are my results…

When I started the trial, I felt completely overwhelmed by email, and I just wanted a way out. I was waking up every morning to an incessant barrage of PR people, sales letters, chain emails, people wanting me to write about their product, companies wanting me to promote them without compensation, and–generally–a bunch of junk. Not “spam”, really, because it was sent by real people (sadly.) But a ridiculous pile of useless crap that wasn’t easily filtered.

Since my email address is public, and my blog is popular, it seemed like every day I’d end up on some list that I didn’t ask to be on. People would sign my email address up for everything from political updates to PR posts about seemingly random companies sent from a “do not reply” address.

In short, my email inbox was a micro-Hell waiting for me every morning.

The First Seven Days: Transition

I woke up the day after I wrote my “I’m done with email for 30 days!” blog post, and realized I needed to have systems to handle my inbox. Email filters weren’t cutting it–I needed a real person’s help.

In Google Apps (Google’s Gmail solution when you have your own domain name), you can “delegate” access to your email account to another person. So I set Susan, my virtual assistant, up with an @erica.biz email account so I could delegate my inbox to her.

Now came the tricky part: Actually distancing myself from email.

Getting Rid of the Crap

I set up a brand-new email account that only Susan, Parnell (my co-founder), and Brian (my boyfriend) had access to. I disconnected my erica.biz email from my phone and set it up so that my phone only had my private email account on it.

Whew! What a relief! Finally, I had disconnected from what seemed like an endless stream of email. I set up a mind map so that Susan, with her new access to my email, could do routine tasks like automatically deleting PR junk and unsubscribing me from lists. She also sends me a summary email every morning. Here’s one summary email she sent me (names and sensitive data have been blurred out):

no email

You can see how much time this saves me every day. Instead of having to go into my inbox and wade through a pile of junk, filtering messages one by one, Susan does it for me. Based on her daily emails, I tailor my mind map and give Susan further instructions on how to reply and/or filter specific types of email I receive.

The Next Step: An Autoresponder

I then implemented an email autoresponder that would respond to anyone who emailed me. If you’ve emailed me since June, this will look familiar. Here’s what it said:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully…what I’m about to say is important.

I’ve made a radical change in my life, and I’m taking a sabbatical from email. (Note: I’m still around and working–just not replying to email!) This means that the email you just sent to me will likely NOT be read.

Please read this blog post for more details about why I am doing this:
http://www.erica.biz/2011/30-day-trial/

What should you do now?

1) If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer, please email [redacted] for assistance with your account, and our staff will get back to you quickly. (Always email [redacted] instead of me directly in the future.)

Please note that [redacted] is for Whoosh Traffic customers only. Any non-Whoosh Traffic-related email that is sent there will not only not get read by me, but will likely get you permanently banned from emailing that address again.

2) If you and I have corresponded in the past and you need to get in touch again, feel free to call me or find me on Skype ([redacted]). (Note: If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer and need help with your account, please email [redacted] instead.)

2) If neither of the above situations apply, please find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ericabiz and send me an @ reply there. (I will be checking once a day.) Alternatively, you can find me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ericadotbiz . I will also be checking this once a day.

Thank you for your understanding.

-Erica

I wondered if putting our Whoosh Traffic support email address would cause people to email us with all kinds of junk, but during the entire 30+ days, I only received one out-of-context email there (and promptly banned the sender, as promised in the email.)

As I implemented these solutions, the noise died down. I get just 2-3 pitches a day now (and I quickly reply asking them to remove me from their email lists.) Susan handles my inbox with aplomb.

In short, my 30-day trial was successful. The only drawbacks were few compared to the hours I gained back. The biggest negative was a few Whoosh Traffic potential customers who weren’t sure whether it was okay to email our support email address. I fixed that by updating my autoresponder. This is what I use currently:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully.

I am not currently accepting guest posts on erica.biz.

If you are a PR company emailing me about your product or service, I ask that you please remove me from your list.

I read all emails, but I may not have time to respond to you. My assistant, Susan, also reads my emails and may respond where appropriate. If she responds, you will see her name in the From field and also in her signature. If it says it’s from me, it’s from me.

If I do respond, it may take a week or more. For Whoosh Traffic-related issues (sales *or* support), please email support@whooshtraffic.com, use the live chat feature on http://whooshtraffic.com, or use the contact form on our site. Please do not send Whoosh Traffic-related issues directly to me, as I can’t respond as quickly as our support team can.

Thank you for understanding and for helping to keep my inbox clean.

-Erica

(Note: This was different than the autoresponder I had previously…you may notice a few comments on this post referring to my old one.)

This cleared up those issues, and that’s what I plan to stick with in the future.

How Much Time Did It Save/How Much Did It Cost?

Susan spends about an hour a week on my email, so that’s a bit over $60/month in direct costs to me.

I use RescueTime to show me exactly how much time I spent on email then and now. RescueTime measures how much time you spend on each website and in each application on the computer you’re running it on, and is now my “gold standard” to see where I’m wasting time. If you want to know where all that time goes when you’re on the computer, RescueTime is your solution.

I went from spending 1-2 hours a day on email to 3-5 hours a week. That’s a savings of approximately 5 hours a week. At my consulting rate of $500/hour, that’s a $10,000/month savings.

Of course, not every hour I saved could be billed out at $500. But even if every hour I save is worth $50 (and I think that’s a fair assumption), I saved $1,000/month.

In other words, unchaining myself from email massively benefited me in terms of both having more time and having a better emotional state (which is, frankly, priceless.) I don’t hate waking up and getting on the computer any more. That’s huge.

Apply This to Your Business

As business owners, there are a lot of little things we do that are total time-sinks. I don’t even think we’re aware of them.

If you claim you don’t have time to do something, it’s time for you to get better delegation skills. If outsourcing your email scares the bejeezus out of you (like it did me until I reached my breaking point), that’s reason enough to try it. You may be pleasantly surprised with the extra time you receive back in return for having the courage to make a tough choice.

Recommended Reading:

RescueTime. Sign up for a free account and start seeing where you’re wasting your time. I am a huge fan.
How to Hire an Employee. My complete step-by-step guide to hiring an amazing employee.
How to Make Money on the Internet. There are three things you need in order to make money on the Internet…

Email This Post |

Print This Post

Previous post in this category: Dear California: I’m Leaving You. Here’s Why…

Posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2011

http://malexperience.com Graham Phoenix | Male eXperience

Erica, I unsubscribed from your list to save me wasting my time reading your emails. I find your approach arrogant and rude. But then I suppose you won’t have time to read this….

http://www.mikeciesiensky.com/ Mike Jr

Erica, I have remained subscribed to your email list and your RSS feed as I love all of the posts and emails you’ve ever sent out. Keep up the great work!
http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

I am just so frustrated with email and the crap in my inbox at this point that frankly I don’t know what else to do. Maybe I will do as David suggests below and just take it offline completely. Graham, you and I have corresponded before, so I wouldn’t say this to you…but I really am sick of people who haven’t corresponded with me sending me what are basically PR blasts.
http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

I updated it and posted it on this post. Trying to be less hostile. Really, that wasn’t my intent! I’m just so freaking frustrated I barely know what to do with email. It has had me in tears so many times–I can’t even count. I don’t want to offend people! But I want some semblance of balance in my inbox! I have a 10:1 ratio of PR crap:actual people emailing me. That’s what makes me so upset! I wish my inbox was flowers and roses, I really do. That would be meaningful. But it’s mostly not. I’m as sad about that as anything.

http://selvaraman.R selvaraman.R

This is wounder full way for internet business
selvaraman.R
http://www.debbyhallett.com Debby Hallett

I’m curious about your results, Erica.

How is it Susan can manage your email in 1 hour a week, when it took you up to 2 hours a day? That doesn’t seem to me to add up. What is it that you used to do that Susan doesn’t have to do? And wouldn’t you have had the same result if you handled your own email the way Susan does it? What have I missed?

http://www.coffeewithjulie.ca Coffee with Julie

This was the exact same thing that came to my mind too. I don’t get the difference in time. Would love to hear the answer to this.
http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

I think the main differences are 1) context switching (where I’d look at my email a few minutes every time something new came in) and 2) responding to customer support tickets. (My staff does some of this now, and some of it I do myself via our helpdesk…which I suppose I should count, but I don’t.)

Getting over context switching has been a relief. It’s enabled me to focus on building a product for you (my blog reader)–I don’t think I could have done this if I was still so attached to email.

I’m working on even more delegation in my business so that I don’t respond to so many customer support tickets.

http://AmazingSalesPersuasion.com CR James

Graham,

This is great post, btw. Although, I don’t see myself doing it this way. However, it has resurfaced the idea (again) to think of new ways to cut down on “email time”.

@ Graham. I’m curious (mainly for selfish reasons) to what makes her arrogant and rude. Someone unsubscribed to one of email lists and in the comment box (which I rarely read), he said the exact same thing…

http://malexperience.com Graham Phoenix | Male eXperience

@CR, it’s not the idea of getting rid of email that is the issue, it’s arrogance with which she treated others. I particularly object to the email she sent,

1) I am not currently accepting guest posts on erica.biz. Please do not email me regarding this.

2) I am not interested in writing about your product, service, company, or event. Please take me OFF your list if you are a PR firm or you want me to write about your company. Period. I don’t care if we’ve met before or your product is the coolest thing since sliced bread. I *will* report your email as spam so your emails have a lower chance of making it into anyone’s inbox. No exceptions.

What a way to treat people who are just doing what she is doing, making a buck. Make no mistake, Erica is in it to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that, I do the same, but there is no need for her to be so superior and rude.

Graham
http://www.brianfryer.com brian

@Graham:

“Make no mistake, Erica is in it to make money.”

^ And that is where you are oh so mistaken. Erica doesn’t write this blog to make money (although it’s a nice bonus). She puts her heart and soul into this blog because she wants to help people and make a difference.

http://cathypresland.com Cathy Presland

Good idea for a techno-detox BUT for those of us who find it a step too far I think outsourcing that first trawl of the inbox is the best way to go long-term.

Cathy
http://mikestevens.com Mike Stevens

Something doesn’t feel right here…

While I can relate (totally) to your feelings about email overload, it kinda goes with the territory of being a blogger doesn’t it?

OK, let me see… you want us to buy your products, but you don’t want to invest any time in providing service or reading our dreadful emails?? Maybe that’s not what you’re trying to say, but there is an arrogant undercurrent here that will hurt your credibility.

To make matters worse, you sound angry and condescending in this post.

-mike

http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

See responses above. Mainly I am just frustrated. I have a 10:1 ratio of PR flacks:people who actually read this blog who email me. I wish it wasn’t the case.

I have updated my autoresponder and posted the new one in my post.

http://www.commonsensemarketing.net Sarah Russell

Meh – I suppose you could read arrogance into the autoresponder email Erica set up, but all I hear is the frustration of someone whose time is being constantly wasted (which I think we all feel, though maybe not on the scale that Erica does).

Besides, this isn’t any different than what Tim Ferriss does, but you don’t hear people telling him how arrogant and condescending he is…

http://www.optimalhealthbridge.com/protocol Garey Simmons

Once you hit best selling author celeb status, of course you delegate. Erica is right to delegate, but she needs to remember she teaches guest posting on others blogs, it’s right there in her success manifesto. Remember your roots, while blazing trails to new heights!
http://undercoverfeminist.com K00kyKelly

First – you do hear people criticizing Tim Ferris.

Second – one option for Erica for guest posting would be to setup an email interest list if guest posting were ever opened up in the future
http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

Yes…frustration.

Kelly, I agree on the interest list–it’s a great idea. But I’m not sure that I will ever want to accept gust posts. And if I do, I think I might just email a select few people I really respect and ask those people to do a post for me. It just feels weird, having guest posts on a blog called erica.biz.
http://www.freeyourmind-dogreatwork.com J. B. Rainsberger

Actually, I hear all the time from people who find Tim Ferriss arrogant and absurd, but I mostly don’t care about that. I use his ideas; I don’t need to befriend him.

Any sufficiently annoyed person will interpret “arrogance” and “rudeness” at will. I prefer directness. I would much rather read “Please do not email be about this” than an empty implied expectation of receiving a response.
http://www.commonsensemarketing.net Sarah Russell

Haha – Yeah, I guess you do hear people criticizing Tim Ferriss about that… I’ll admit to having spoken too quickly out of frustration with the criticism of Erica’s specific wording versus looking at the lessons of the experiment as a whole. My apologies!
http://www.webserviceslab.com Dan Abra

Hey

What would internet marketing be without a system to filter out unwanted email.

http://www.optimalhealthbridge.com/protocol Garey Simmons

Build a castle, dig a moat, rent some alligators, pull up the drawbridge. Fire volleys at the enemy from the walls. Medieval thinking. Delegation is laudatory, but truly, we are all in this to provide products and services to solve problems, are we not? Dan Kennedy doesn’t have email and only returns phone calls once a month. Why? Because his rate is $10,000 an hour plus. He is creating content and solving problems for Gunthy Renker, et al. So let’s all do what Dan Kennedy does. Right?
K00kyKelly

Your second iteration of the autoreply email seems like it would put off potential woosh traffic customers more than the first. Most people don’t think of their interest in a product in terms of “sales”. Changing that to “new customers” might be more effective. Beyond that the autoreply seems to be written from the assumption that this person wants to waste your time. Going back to something between the first and second iteration would likely be better received. …or maybe taking it in a new direction. Something like, in order to serve my readers and customers better and focus my time on the most important tasks I’ve implemented an autoreply so that everyone knows what to expect.
Dante

Sometimes you just have to know when to say no. Good job Erica! The most valuable resource we have is time.
http://www.davidrisley.com David Risley

Erica, you know I luv ya…. but I do think you might want to re-work your autoresponder. Or just change your email address altogether. Your email box is there to be used, especially if you post it in public. You shouldn’t threaten people who use it, IMO.

I mean, with that approach, you might as well take your contact page down. Because, why else would a person on this blog want to email you besides the very things you’re threatening them for? You and I have exchanged emails in the past about Blog Masters, and now, I get you’d report ME as a spammer if I mentioned it to you again.

Just a thought… hope you and Brian have an awesome time at Burning Man.

http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

Maybe I should take it offline completely, and let those who want to get in touch with me do so some other way. I did write that autoresponder when I was frustrated and it probably shows. I am STILL frustrated with the state of my inbox.

Edit: Updated my autoresponder and posted it on this post.

http://www.realmenrealstyle.com/ Antonio Centeno

I agree with Mike and Graham – the idea is brilliant but the execution is flawed. It fails to treat the person on the other side of the email with respect. Sure – most of the incoming messages may be spam or business inquiries – but if you’re going to send out an email like this it should read as you would speak to another human being. If someone spoke to me in this manner – I would be offended.

Again – great idea – just needs to be implemented with more respect for the person on the other side.
http://www.coach4lifechange.com Janet Eisenbise

Wow! I get the need to cut down the time spent dealing with email. And your strategy sounds like it works. But I agree with the need to change the hostile tone of your autoresponder messages. Using a “scorched earth” approach can’t be good for your credibility or your business. We all have lots of choices for where to do business on the Internet and not many people will put up with being spoken to like that.
http://howtosellyourvideos.com Kim

Erica,

Thank you for the recommendation of Rescue Time. I’m signing up today!

I just whittled my email down to 5 in my inbox and in our business, I’m my husband’s “filter.” One of the big things we did was to take off our email address on our blog and weekly newsletters. We have our toll-free number on there so people know they can reach us there. That significantly cut back on our email traffic.

I also only check it 3 times a day.

I’ve toyed with sending out an autoresponder email but I’ve received a few and I was left with a bad feeling…especially one from a business associate who was always wanting things from us ASAP but restricted our access to her. I just delete most of the unsolicited inquiries I get for business. I figure email is just a tool for communication that I control, not vice versa.

Thanks for sharing your results!

Kim
http://www.lisaangelettieblog.com Lisa Angelettie

I use different email addresses to deal with this. Sales. Media. Support. I like to handle certain issues myself – I just do. I like personal attention and so I make sure to give it. I also have my VA’s handle certain things. It’s just a matter of sorting and organizing. I have to agree with some of the other posters that the autoresponder message would be a bit of a turn off for me. Not so much having one – but the tone of this one. You are frustrated and probably rightly so but potential clients don’t have to know that.
http://dool.in/ Dave Doolin

Have fun on the Playa, most of my crew and I are passing on this year, see you there next year maybe!
Keith Seay

I love your blog and your manifesto! The autorespond message was regrettably harsh and you were probably under a lot of stress when you wrote it. It had a “get away from me and stay away from me” tone that is, well, bad for business.

It would have been better to draft it and run it by the warmest and fuzziest person you trust for suggestions.

Otherwise, great blog. I will stay subscribed.

http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

Definitely will consider running things by others in the future!

VAL

Erica,

Completely understand – Been there. Done similar.

For this could be filed under, “Growing Pains” of a successful start-up business.

After doing similar, all I had managed to achieve was the creation of an elaborate filtering system. Many of the emails had still required my involvement and/or some type of decision. The delegation of my inbox was not as simple as hoped.

I am working on my new challenge which is giving autonomy to my designated team members to respond on my behalf (If a response is required) or forward to me only if a major financial decision is required (Which should not be sent in an email).

Also, checking email at designated times (Tim Ferris) helps tremendously and allows me time to spend on more pressing activities.

Side note, in the process of doing the same with phone calls and voice mail messages. The idea is to remove myself completely from the day-to-day operation.

Appreciate the great post and the insights you provide on this blog!

PS. I would strongly suggest that you remove your personal email from the public and replace with ‘Generic’ department email (techsupport, billing, bizdev, etc…).

http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

Val, definitely. I need to get Susan and others more involved so they feel more comfortable responding in my stead…

http://www.kathywarddesigns.com kathy

erica –
thank you for all this info. about how to deal with the craziness of online e-mail. this is so timely for me, because it has been driving me crazy and in the last week, (before i even knew about this) – i was unsubscribing to every possible e-mail i could, which really helped. – i thought hey, if i want such and such, i know where to go to get/find it, etc. it dawned on me, if you use the idea of the physical mail you get in your mailbox outside your home – and you told people that every morning you went to that mailbox, and then spent about 1-2 hours every day dealing with all this physical paper – people would say, that’s crazy, why are you wasting so much time…. well that’s what many of us are doing with our online mail. when i did unsubscribe from so many e-mails, i stopped at yours, and kept it, because i think you are honest and give a lot of good information.
thanks so much,
kathy
Tim Vinson

Erica,

I am not at all offended and applaud your efforts to have complete control of your time.

Tim V.
http://www.jeffreyburnsonline.com Jeff

where to start where to end….professionally speaking I was expecting something diff in the blog. couple that w/ all the comments and wooo or wow or whoosh! Too much negativity in the world as it is cant really see coming to read all this drama. Originally i liked your blog for different thinking not negativity. I would figure 30 days would have allowed you to get a clearer frame of mind. Take a break maybe you’ve got burnout taking place. I’ll give you a pass but agree w/ some others…guest blogging you speak of in the manifesto now your against it but only on your blog????? cmon erica your better than this. I ll check in next month hopefully all have moved on to more productive ideas/thoughts.
Hang in there….to all of you finding success,
Jeff
http://blog.40acreleads.com Donald

Erica,

I think that what you are doing is great, and the sensitivity is ridiculous. It’s refreshing to have someone pour real emotion into their content and not be so absolutely intent on pleasing everyone…it will never work.

The point of a lot of businesses, and I think in Erica’s case this is true, is to have a vehicle for helping others but also to achieve a personal lifestyle that is above and beyond “owning” a job.
http://www.patchworkposse.com/blog becky

have you read 4 hour work week? this is the same idea. taking something that is bombarding our time and figuring out a solution. i sometimes get a bit put off by the auto-responder, but you lay out a contact plan…. just don’t leave it hanging. like i’ll get back as soon as i can sort of thing.
when there becomes a dread at opening the email, then there must be a change. + i am totally overwhelmed when you are gone for a few days and there are over 200+ unread emails. ugh.
i recently took unsubscribed to a lot of emails because they never were opened in the first place! good job.
do what you need to do.
http://www.blogstash.com Satrap

That is an interesting experiment to say the least.

I too struggle with time management, specially when it comes to email. My problem is that I simply can not ignore any legitimate email, whether its from my blog readers, someone on my list, an advertising company and so on.

The other problem is that I just cant say NO to people ad I like to please everyone, so my replys are always long and full of explanation, so just replying to one email takes me more time that it would most people rearing and replying to probably 10 emails.

By the way, Thanks for the link to rescuetime. I hadn’t heard of it before and it seems like a time savor!
http://www.lifeisasafari.com Gavin

I think Erica is an honest soul just trying to make her way through all the muck. The brain has so much extra sifting to do when hit with the speed of a computer by all these “communicators” that it’s quite understandable when it gets burned out. I recall buying Ritoban Chakrabarti’s Profit Instruments for $700 via Erica. Then someone on her blog complained about spending $2000 to get proper backup service on that system. Erica did reply, saying she would do something about that for the guy, but if $2000 did not get full service, what the heck? Plus, the “system” training warned that Google often shuts down the sites, which just made it seem like a grey no-go zone. I did not want to feel like a sugar cane rat chasing after field mice (lived on a sugar cane estate in Zambia in the 1960s). So I asked Erica for a refund. The response was that I must contact Ritoban myself. Needless to say, they fobbed that off. I feel I was the mouse taken by the rat. Now I follow people for a year to get a feel for what they do, but don’t jump in. Remember how “You’ve got mail” was so exciting when AOL sent out those CDs? The novelty was great, but it sure has lost it’s lustre now.
NB: Erica, I totally understand how you got burned out.

http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

Hi Gavin,

Ritoban didn’t give you a refund when you requested it? I wish you would have followed up with me on this, as I had no idea.

Anyway, I haven’t promoted a “make money online” product since then, and am currently working on my own product in that same niche.

I’d appreciate it if you could follow up with me on this–send me your original emails, your emails to Ritoban, etc. so I can see if there’s anything I can do.

Thanks!
-Erica

http://www.foursides.ca James M

I believe you have some valid points on how to cut back on the amount of emails you’re receiving. That’s important, but then you are still stuck with some messages that are too long to really get through (and poor Susan having to read the 1,000 word emails to make sure nothing goes missed). Maybe try a Shortmail.com email address. Messages are limited to 500 characters so people are forced to be concise with the message when they do want to get through to you.

Your focus was on business emails but one of the things I’ve been working on is cutting back on the amount of notifications I receive via email (i.e. the “Notify me of followup comments” checkboxes). It cuts out a lot of the unnecessary crap for my personal account.
http://ibiblio.org/pjones/blog/category/noemail/ Paul Jones

Erica (and friends),

I’ve been doing a #noemail project that begun on June 1 this year (with a one month warning and warm up period).

I was inspired in part by Luis Suarez of IBM who is heading into his fourth year without email and in part by the trend toward better integrated communications streams and in part by having noticed the change in communications behaviors of my students (and by most folks under 25 or 30).

I have to say that I was also driven by frustration, as Erica was, but that my own frustration was built up over 30 years of developing and promoting email applications and use. I’m not only changing my ways; I’m atoning for previous sins ;->

My point is that there are increasingly better alternatives to email, but if we don’t explore them, we won’t get the benefits. I’m not selling anything or offering a service. I’m a university professor who has been teaching and researching in tech for the past two decades.

For much more and references to a lot of studies and to similar project see: http://ibiblio.org/pjones/blog/category/noemail/
http://www.breakingzero.com Brian Yang

I look forward to the day where too much e-mail becomes my problem… to the point that I need a VA to handle it!

As they say, be careful what you wish for…

Either way, 30 days without e-mail would make me crazy.
http://www.bighitcopy.com Nigel Cockle

Graham –

I am compelled to ask two questions:

#1 – Have you ever had an inbox that was completely overwhelmed with *stuff* you didn’t ask for, and don’t want?

#2 – If we change the name ‘Erica Douglass’ to ‘Bill Gates’, as a PAYING customer would you still expect a personal response to every email you send?

I realize you are a business person, and I realize you expect a certain level of service and respect, but I would ask that you be realistic. As a business owner becomes more and more successful, they will have more and more tasks thrust upon them. Delegating is essential – even when working with paying customers like yourself.

Bill Gates – regardless of what you think of him, cannot possibly answer all of the emails he gets – and I would venture to guess that his customers pay a LOT more than you have paid Erica for any goods or services.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not trying to start a flame war or be hostile… However, as someone who has had an inbox or two go berserk – I’m here to tell you that Erica’s solution is civil, pleasant, respectful and yes – in the best interest of her paying customers. She cannot hope to give her very best to those who truly need her services if she is constantly expending her finite energy extinguishing brush fires in her inbox.

Graham, if I may….I would like to ask one final question:
When you finally see amazing success with your own business; when your inbox goes crazy with similar PR nonsense and it takes you hours upon hours to wade through the mess….

What is your plan? What changes to Erica’s actions will you implement?

I will grant that Erica’s autoresponder may be a bit harsh, and that you can craft something a lot more warm and fuzzy…..But other than changing the tone of the autoresponder, what will you do?

Nigel
http://malexperience.com Graham Phoenix | Male eXperience

Nigel

Thanks for the questions. My answers:

#1 – Yes, frequently. I have my fingers in many pies and they all generate email…

#2 – Yes, it may not be from the person I sent the email to and I would not expect it to be rude or arrogant.

#3 – Employ a VA to sift the email, as Erica did. I would not have an impersonal auto-responder that treated my correspondents as insignificant or irrelevant.

If you look back at my original comment I was not against her dealing with the flood of email I was against her attitude. It’s not about being warm and fuzzy but about common human decency.

I have employed many people in my life and I have always treated them, my customers and suppliers as people doing what I did, working to earn a living.

In the design industry I worked in most design firms treated sales reps with disdain, discouraging them from visiting and only communicating with them when the designers needed them. I took an opposite view. A year after I had started a new business I, with the support of my partner and staff, threw a Christmas party for all the reps who visited us to thank them for their support during our growing period. It took time and money to do it but the response we received was over-whelming. The reps had never been treated like that before and long afterwards gave us incredible service in growing the business.

We are all people and when we forget that we end up just exploiting people. Erica is in danger of going down that road. Look at how many commenters have complained about her giving advice to look to guest posting to grow their following while she rises above the throng and denies them even a hearing.

As a copywriter, Nigel, you should know about appealing to people and getting them on your side. Would you seriously propose the auto-responder that Erica used to a client?
http://www.getencouragement.com Rob Cross

Hi Erica:

Thanks for sharing your experience of dealing with email overload. I’ve met Erica in person and found her to be unusually sharp when it comes to marketing and the internet. That’s probably why this is one of the only blogs I read.

I think having to step away from email overload is a natural price to pay for reaching a certain level of success and I’m appreciative of her sharing her experience. I thought maybe you were going to use some kind of zendesk customer ticket solution like a lot of the gurus.

Rob Cross
http://AutoRunIncome.com Dennis

A credibility alarm is going off for me. Why would I want to buy or promote a guest post secrets product by someone who doesn’t allow guest posts on their own blog?

Yes just like I would not buy or promote a blogging to the cash machine product from someone that doesn’t have a popular blog.

Don’t just talk a good talk but walk a good walk as well.

http://AutoRunIncome.com Dennis

Though I am happy that you’ve found a system of handling your email in a way that works for you. It’s a template that could help others as well.

Pedro Alonso

Hi Erica, good idea, but there’s something that I don’t really get from your post. You say:

“I went from spending 1-2 hours a day on email to 3-5 hours a week. That’s a savings of approximately 5 hours a week.”

This translates to: from 5-10h a week to 3-5h a week.

You also mention that Susan spends about 1 hour per week. Why can Susan filter your email in 1/5 of the time that you used to do?

Maybe your plan is that Susan can handle a bigger percentage of your email in the future and lower your 3-5h to 1-2h.

Thanks.
http://www.automatedsocialnetworking.com Treb

Thanks for sharing a very wonderful post… This is very useful…
http://www.secretarylist.com Filip

The virtual assistant was good idea.:-)
http://www.prototekmanufacturing.com Bruce Isabelle

Nice blog erica, i have subscribed to your list as well, you should not close your email you was set to your mobile, better to change it and keep the current one…..
http://myyearwithoutsport.wordpress.com/ Peter Evans

Hi Erica, have followed the latest steps of your journey with interest. Good to see some robust conversation going on here as well.

I think any intentional step away from non-stop connectedness is a positive one, even for business owners. You can’t do it all and at the end of the day, the most important people in your world are not your customers – it’s your family and loved ones. Yes that may cost you a few $$ but will in the end give you something far more significant.

I hope you find the head space you are seeking, giving you energy and enthusiasm for your work, life … and this blog from time to time
http://www.tameaburdphotography.com T. Burd

Loved this post! We’ve all become so chronically reliant on technology, it’s a very good thing to be reminded that we can reduce our dependence!
http://www.webbusinesstoolbox.com/blog/2011/09/12/31-days-to-build-a-better-blog/ Monja

hi erica,
great idea you had. i know that NOT sticking to emails saves tons of time. sometimes i just have the feeling that i HAVE to answer because otherwise my readers/subscribers might be mad with me. but they often ask questions where i know they could look it up themselves or just blame me for things which are there fault (e.g. not reading the instructions) so from time to time i just press the DELETE button and don´t care if they are mad with me or not.
http://www.thecreativehomestead.com/ Susan

I don’t really find this to be a radical experiment, honestly. But she ultimately figured out a better system that sheds insight into new strategies. I also don’t understand how her virtual assistant accomplished reigning the inbox in a fraction of the time.

Regardless, I don’t really see how you can run a customer service oriented company (like whoosh) or a blog with info products and get this irritated by the email overload territory. It’s part of the business. In fact, seems an integral part of the business.

Why not just have the virtual assistant answer everything instead? Or hire a dedicated customer service person?

Not accepting guest posts also seems odd if you’re selling a guest post info product. Or writing about building an audience.
http://www.getencouragement.com Rob

Hi Erica:

I like your blog. I was subscribed to receive future comments regarding a post on your blog. I’m now receiving spam comments made by others for that post on your blog. I have now unsubscribed from receiving future comments on that post. Do you have a strategy to keep spammers out of your blog comments?

Rob
http://www.arabian-affiliate.com Nancy

I love your ideas, you need to open the discussion on your blog for longer time so we can share more information. I see you get a lot of comments very fast
http://www.newideasyndrome.com Helen

I’m undecided about autoresponders.

The kind of folks you want to get rid of with them (PR, marketing, unsolicited mass e-mails) they aren’t the type of folks that read the bounce backs they get from their latest e-mail blast. They’re the ones with the donotreply mail address after all!

I’d be interested to see if any companies remove you from their mailing list – based purely on the request from your autoresponder. Hopefully if they do, your volume of mail will reduce over time.

The only folks that read autoresponders in my opinion, are genuine enquiries unsure where to direct their question. I think autoresponders used for filtering are great! Especially scenarios that point people in the right direction e.g “if you were asking about this,this or this please e-mail …”

Also I totally see how someone else can be really objective about clearing your mail account for you. I know I’ve done this in the past for the family company. I whiz through, delete all spam. Then I respond to any common business questions with copy/paste stock templates. Finally all that’s left unread is about 10 or so genuine emails that require new emails formulation. If I think a scenario will occur again, I save my response as a template to be used in future! That’s usually down from 800 mails a day!

Sometimes I think a good mailbox purge is needed. Just spend 30mins physically unsubscribing from unwanted junk pays off really quickly.

Really the damage outweighs the benefit with a sharp, blunt autoresponse. If it’s polite, human and helpful I think it builds a process that works.

With a few tweaks this autoresponder scenario will work well for you Erica. I think we’ll need a 6 month update to see the true picture.
http://www.onlinebusiness101.info Kris Beus

You know after reading this I realize how much time I spend constantly checking my email when I could be creating content. It may be time to rework my schedule. Thanks.
http://beginideas.com/blog Usman Uddin

Erica,
Where are you? I enjoy your articles…hoping to hear an update from you.
Harry

I tried to download your Blog Success Manifesto. Since I am a subscriber it does not take me to the download page, merely to a page saying I am already subscribed. With no contact method under you contacts I was tempted to forget it and just unsubscribe. Still am, sorry.
http://www.pandorabraceletsukshop.co.uk Pandora jewellery charms

Pandora Jewellery is a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of hand-finished and modern Pandora Bracelets Sale made from genuine materials and Discount Pandora Jewellery
http://www.uggbootssalecheap.com/ Ugg boots sale

LZL6JAJH983TSKVSLN
Merchandise and options traded at on-line retailers are retained on the benchmark agenda many a lesser allowance costly than persons from close by retailers,
http://mdsfinance.com/ Joel

I have to admire your bravery. Good luck!
http://GoldaSmith.com/ Golda Smith

This is fabulous and the same approach can be applied to the phone. I used to waste so much time taking calls whenever my phone rang. No more. I don’t take any calls that aren’t scheduled. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message and more importantly, if it’s important enough, I’ll call back.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Angie-Brackin/100002663760275 Angie Brackin

Get paid to click
http://www.neobux.com/?r=picrender
http://www.cbbia.com/ Carl Burke

I have been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the net will be a lot more useful than ever before.
http://commercialloan-rates.com/ commercial loans

Thanks, for very interesting post. I have a high regard for the valuable information

Starting Your Own Business with Successful Entrepreneur Erica Douglass