I’ve written countless blogs and recorded endless podcasts on the subject of email. However, I have yet to drill home the importance of having 2 different accounts — one personal and one for business.
Today’s the day!
Personal email account.
This is the account you’re using to:
- send private messages to friends and family members
- buy personal things
- send medical records
Bottom line: All things that don’t relate to business!
How to manage both your personal and business email accounts.
I would set up a new personal account and use the word personal or private somewhere in the actual email address.
This way, you know what it is and so does the recipient.
And when you first start doing this, you can actually set up an email rule so that those emails automatically get forwarded to your business account.
I know what you’re thinking,
“Wait a second, Chalene! Doesn’t that completely defeat the purpose?”
Nope.
You just have to set up triggers and rules so that anything from your personal email account goes right into a separate folder.
In that folder, you can then sort things accordingly.
Most entrepreneurs combine both their personal and business emails and, therefore, every single email that is received feels like it’s work-related — even if it’s just a dumb forward your dad sent about some silly thing he saw on Facebook.
It’s time to start setting boundaries around work and entrepreneurship.
If all of our emails are going into the same inbox and creating that fight or flight response in us, then we’re not doing ourselves any favors.
The result is our whole email inbox overload problem just gets:
- bigger
- messier
- more cluttered
Speaking of cluttered…
Think of having 2 separate email accounts the same way as decluttering your home — making sure that every item has an intended space. As in, you know where to find and put ANYTHING.
Hence, before setting up this separate email, think to yourself,
“Alright, if I’m setting up a personal email account, what kinds of things are not urgent and don’t relate to my business?”
And then start using your personal account for those things!
That way, all those emails can default to a personal folder (in your biz account), allowing you to look at those sends after hours.
The other reason why I really want you to get in the habit of setting up these two separate email addresses is…
When I share with you (in the podcast below) how I personally structure my inbox, the only way it will work is if you start the process NOW of having a personal email account that no one, including your virtual assistant, can see.
It’s just for you!
For much more related to the topic, listen to this episode of Build Your Tribe now:
And don’t forget to subscribe to BYT for weekly shows dedicated to your entrepreneurial life!