Lately I’m lucky enough to have got some help with responding to email enquiries and such like. What a luxury.
When I was an in-house communications professional, I was awful, rubbish, utterly useless at:
- Getting back to everyone who emailed me
- Keeping my inbox tidy and filing things away
- Doing everything that was asked of me
But I was bloody good at my job. Our social media audiences were loving our work, we were winning awards, and I was using my creative skills every single day.
This was BECAUSE I am rubbish at email, NOT despite it.
I addressed work that I felt was priority, and didn’t beat myself up at the few people who were properly cheesed off at my unresponsiveness. Even when these people were my bosses.
I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice the creative ideas I wanted to apply to my work, just to be banging out emails to needy colleagues every two minutes.
I have always believed that being perfect, and doing it all, isn’t an option.
I felt: “it’s emails, or me”.
And I chose me.
‘Inbox zero’ is not a priority.
Remember, you are in control of your inbox, it is not in control of you.
