For many busy freelancers and entrepreneurs, waking up to a ton of email is a cause for stress. Today, with all the joint ventures going on in marketing, you’ve no doubt signed up for a webinar or two, only to be put on the newsletter list of a joint venture partner you don’t know. I’m sure you’re also getting personal email in your business in-box that you’d prefer not to receive from family and friends. If this is the case and your email in-box is stressing you out, here are a few tips to sort through things:

• Set up filters – If the little messages from family and friends make you smile throughout the day, just set up email filters, so they don’t clutter up your in-box first thing in the morning.
• Separate personal from business – You can also have your family members and friends message you at a personal email address and check it when you get time during the day.
• Don’t simply delete but unsubscribe from Newsletters you don’t want to receive. Taking a minute or two to do this will greatly decrease the messages you don’t want to see in your inbox.
• Scan your messages in the morning for any problems with clients or customers and try to address those immediately. Then circle back and work on the other messages in sequential order, so that those who’ve emailed you first, are dealt with first.
• Lastly, you can hire one of our Virtual Assistants, for an hour or two a week to sort and manage your in-box. We do this for several clients who say it gives them a calm feeling to know that when Monday morning comes, they’ll only see messages that they need to address personally.

This is Shilonda Downing, signing out for Virtual Work Team LLC!