I'm new to the VA biz...sort of. I had a single client for about 1.5 years, but chose to move on from that client and try to obtain several other clients who required fewer hours weekly (and could pay more!).

Anyway, long story short (too late) - I've found that I am inundated with emails from the couple of clients that I have! They use email to send requests to me (which is obviously preferable as opposed to telephone) and I find that I am constantly buried under tons of email! I've recently started using Google's To Do list feature (I use gmail) and it has helped some, but I still am not crazy about my system.

I imagine this is not a unique problem - what do you do to keep track of emails/priorities, etc.?

Thanks!!

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Melissa - VA & Web
isimplifyva.com (Coming Soon!)

Melissa,
I use Outlook and have several "rules" set up so that I can sort immediate, important and other emails and view based on priorities. This system also helps me when sorting and storing all emails especially by client.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Here's the way I do it, tho some might call it neurotic. I deal with everything immediately as it comes up - emails, phone calls, whatever. By 'deal with it,' I mean I decide what file it belongs to and what priority it has. So soon as I receive any communication, it's categorized. Then I can work my way through the categories and be pretty sure not to miss anything.

(Although I was late posting this month's interview - because Tess had to remind me - so some things do fall through cracks. Apologies to all ...)

Am I making sense?

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

That actually does make sense (to deal with it as it comes in). I have reorganized my gmail to also start "archiving" and labeling emails as they arrive into designated folders named after my clients. I think that is going to help on the clutter quite a bit, too. I've just downloaded a desktop software for gmail. It's free to try $10 to buy, I think. It's supposed to make gmail function more like Outlook, which would be really great. I love gmail and hate Outlook so perhaps this could be the best of both worlds!

Thanks for the quick replies!!!

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Melissa - VA & Web
isimplifyva.com (Coming Soon!)

Great question Melissa as I was wondering the same thing. I've been working for a single client for the past ten years and last year had a temporary client for about 6 months or so. Now I'm ready to expand and have 2 (and possibly 3) meetings next week with prospective clients so I'm trying to get everything in order now. I'm a little nervous about trying to juggle it all so your ideas are appreciated!

I was also wondering the average number of weekly or monthly hours your clients require assistance.

Thanks,
Lori
McCaul Assistance (coming soon)

I like the functionality of outlook, but find it can have issues, especially when receiving more than 150 emails a day! like most though I use it because it is compatible with my needs as well as my clients requirements.

I am really intereted to hear more about the gmail desktop software as my personal email and some personal business goes through that account. Do tell more please!

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Kristi Bennitt
Virtual Assistant/Bookkeeper

Kristi - what issues do you find with Outlook? I'm curious because I receive well in excess of 150 emails per day and have to say it works fine

Personally, I'd say the most important thing is to make sure you have rules set up for each mail account/client. Have folders in place for each client and subfolders for each assignment. Read & action each mail immediately - don't just skim through it and make a mental note to deal with it later; something more important may come up and it'll get overlooked. Make use of the flags to highlight Priority 1, 2, 3 tasks etc.

Also, if you receive a high volume of emails, one thing that will save your sanity is to turn off the auto-receive feature in Outlook - how many of us can ignore that 'ping' to let us know we have new mail? Use the time when you come to a natural break between tasks to check your mail and prioritise/action it.

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"Instead of looking for things that have gone wrong and trying to fix them...Look for things that went right and try to build on them" Tom Peters

I find that important emails can get buried within Outlook - so much can come in. Here's how I handle it. I work with Act 2009 (I just found Outlook's Business Contact Manager inadequate). My clients and contacts are in Act. Important email from clients requiring action gets linked to their record in Act as a "To Do" activity where I can set the deadline, set reminder alarms, etc. It works quite well, it's a new procedure but I'm liking it.

I've tried to get clients interested in using something like My Client Spot but they seem to prefer email. If I did get enough clients interested in a collaboration tool, I'd probably invest in a SharePoint hosting, but people seem to find email suits their communication needs.

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Julia

Julia, I've found the same thing. There's all sorts of great open source collaboration software to install on your own website. I understand, though, that it's much easier for my clients to fire off an email to me rather than login to another website.

I've been using google products mostly and they are great for my needs. However, I would really like to be able to assign tasks to my contacts and create tasks from emails. You can do this with gmail, but I use the gmail that comes with google apps for your domain and they don't offer access to Google labs (which is where the tasks app currently resides).

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Melissa - VA & Web
isimplifyva.com (Coming Soon!)

I have a different way of processing my e-mail. I recently switched from Thunderbird to Outlook because it can sync my contacts with my blackberry.

I check my e-mail at set times throughout the day. If I'm working on a particular client and am expecting something related to that client I will check at that time if needed. I do not have my e-mail set to automatically download.

I also do not have any rules set for Outlook. Every piece of e-mail that comes in goes to my inbox. When I receive my e-mails I process through all of it. I then create subfolders for specific client work. When I start working on a specific client I open that client's subfolder and all e-mail related to them are there. As they are finished they get moved to their subfolder in my "finished" folder then the inbox subfolder is deleted.

At the end of the day I do a quick review of any subfolders in my inbox to make sure there isn't anything that needs looked into before I leave. My inbox is always empty. Right now I have seven subfolders six are client work with e-mails from those particular clients and one is a "waiting for shipment" folder with e-mail confirmations of items I've ordered but haven't received.

It's uncommon for me to have that many subfolders but I was just off work for two weeks for the holidays so they are backed up.

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Lanel Taylor, CVA ~ Virtual Bookkeeper
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