HomeI don’t like checking email for the most part and I don’t like writing email for the most part. I have a lot of filming bookings to do and a lot of people that I meet at events to schedule for various things, like coffee meetings. I don’t like managing that kind of thing, not because it is unpleasant but because my time is spent in more productive ways elsewhere. For example, I would rather hang out with my brother Ross than check and manage emails and schedules.
A lot of people outsource their emails to their personal assistants, so I figured “why should I be any different? My assistant should do it too!” Well, I am someone who is pretty particular about how things that represent me, like me email, gets handled and it freaked me out a bit to give that to task to someone else. But, seeing as many people have done it with success, I figured I should try.
Here is what I did:
1. Created templates for particular types of emails. So for example, if I meet someone, find them interesting and want to meet with them further, there is an email template that I created for that called Coffee Request.
2. I send my assistant an email with the names and email addresses of everyone I just met and label each person with one of the email templates that I have created.
3. I shared my Google calendar with my assistant and inputed “Preferred” times already inputted into the calendar so he can just fill in the blanks. No room for failure there. Nice.
4. The email my assistant uses is actually an email address for me it is EStewart@WomanAnew.com so that people know who on earth is emailing them and BCC my personal email address so I can see what is going out.
5. Instruct my assistant to create a manual using my preferences that he learns along the way, so that any assistant after him has very little room for error.
So far this method has worked pretty well and the best part is that I don’t check a whole lot of email or schedule much myself. The hardest part for me about doing this was creating a solid structure for my assistant to work off of. I needed to be super clear as to what he was doing and what he was to say. Organization and structure here was king. I am slowly giving more and more responsibility to my assistant, with clear instructions of course. The outcome of this is I am happier. Epic win.