As a teacher, one of my favorite things to do is to figure out a word picture or to take something that is so close to you that you’re literally living through it and make it so obvious that you can’t unsee it going forward. A couple of months ago, I came up with the title for this podcast and I thought “Yes!” and I’ve been thinking about how email is the laundry and dishes of work. In this week’s episode, I’ll explain!

Doing laundry and dishes is administrative, it’s repetitive, it’s hard to outsource. Yet it is essential for your well-being and your cleanliness; and so that you won’t be naked when you leave the house! Laundry and dishes are NEVER DONE. 

I’m a middle-of-the-road person. I’m not going to leave everything in my inbox, but I’m not going to use one single folder either. If it’s in a folder, it doesn’t exist to me. That’s why file cabinets don’t work for me. I had a beautiful color-coded file cabinet. It was pointless. That’s my limitation – if it’s out of sight, it’s literally out of mind. For me, it doesn’t exist. Everything in my email that’s in process must be visual.

STEP ONE: You should only have companies and emails coming into your email inbox that you want to do business with. So that means UNSUBSCRIBE!

STEP TWO: Once you have emails coming into your inbox, you need to learn to triage and respond in the appropriate time.

I’ll never get to inbox zero. I’m fine with it. Also, there’s no need to respond to email within 24 hours. Scary, I know. Unless your company has a policy, you’re not breaking any laws, I promise. My personal response rate? 7 days. Terrible, horrible I know…I can’t believe I said that out loud! 

We need to give ourselves grace and understand that laundry, dishes, and email are never going to be done. We need to pace ourselves, and when you stop trying to get email, laundry, and dishes done – you free up so much mental capacity and time for things that are bigger that you’re uniquely created to do. 

I’ll leave you with a couple questions. What if you didn’t reply to emails within 24 hours? What if you didn’t reply to emails on Sundays? What if you didn’t reply to emails from Friday at 5pm until Sunday at 5pm? 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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Lisa Woodruff Founder & CEO of Organize 365®

Lisa Woodruff is the founder & CEO of Organize 365®.

Lisa, along with 87% of America, believes organization is a learnable skill. Yet less than 18% of those same Americans feel they are organized. Through The Productive Home Solution course, Lisa aims to teach Americans young and old the skill of organizing and unlocking their time for what they are uniquely created to do.

As the host of the top-rated Organize 365® Podcast (which has 17 million downloads and counting) Lisa shares strategies for reducing the overwhelm, clearing the mental clutter, and living a productive and organized life. Her sensible and doable organizing tasks appeal to multiple generations. Her candor and relatable personality make you feel as though she is right there beside you; helping you get organized as you laugh and cry together.

Under Lisa’s direction, Organize 365® has conducted academic research establishing the definitions of housework, home organization and the weight of paper in the American home. This ongoing research is making the invisible work at home visible to all. The goal is to eliminate it and free people from the monotonous tasks of daily living; and unlock their time for what they are uniquely created to bring forth in the world.

She is the author of four books including: How ADHD Affects Home Organization and The Paper Solution. Lisa’s understanding of the lived female American experience has helped her to create products & courses like the Sunday Basket®. These products and courses externalize the routine tasks that take up the executive functioning capacity of our brains; freeing us up to think and create again!