Hate All Those Emails?

Baby Sitting at Desk Using Computer
I don't know how many times I've heard it: "I tried FlyLady, but I hated all those emails cluttering up my inbox!" I am here to help! Here are several solutions to the too-many-emails problem.

• Make a folder in your e-mail program. It's easy. I don't know all the instructions for every email program out there, but I use one of the more common ones, Outlook Express. To make a folder in Outlook Express, open your mail program, go to the Tools menu at the top of your screen, scroll down to Message Rules, and click on Mail. Follow the instructions for setting up a new folder. I set mine to have any messages with the word "FLYLADY" in the subject to go directly to a folder I named FlyLady (I'm very creative like that!). I also made a folder for Testimonials, so that my reminders and the testimonials are in separate folders. If you need help understanding your email program's instructions, just click on Help at the top of the program and search for information on making new folders and/or message rules. You can also search the internet for your email program.

• Delete the messages as they come in. If you don't want to bother with making a folder, you can simply delete the messages as they come in. This kind of defeats the purpose of getting the emails to start with, but there is no rule that says you have to read every single email that comes into your Inbox! If you're deleting the messages, you're at least seeing the titles, and those will be little reminders themselves.

• Set your FlyLady subscription to Web Only. I do this when I'm going to be gone for a few days or just when I get overwhelmed. To set your email to Web Only, go to the home page for FlyLady Mentors. At the top of the page is your username and email address. Beside those is a link to Edit Membership. After clicking that link, scroll down to Step 2: Message delivery. Click Web Only, click Save at the bottom of the page, and you're done. You are still subscribed, but you aren't getting any emails in your Inbox. You'll have to go to the email group home page and click on Messages to read them, but you're not bothered with an overflowing Inbox.

• Get the Daily Digest version. Do the same thing you did above to set the messages to Web Only, but click on Daily Digest instead of Web Only. All your emails from FlyLady will be consolidated into one single email per day.

• Read the reminders online. You don't have to get the reminders by email at all; FlyLady has each day's reminders on her website. Go to the home page and scroll down to the section titled Today we are in Zone . . . There are three links here: The Current FLY Zone, Sneak Peek for the Week, and [Today]'s Email Reminders. You can see at a glance what any day's zone, mission, or email reminders are. All without one email in your inbox!
  

The bottom line is this: if you think you'd like to try FlyLady, don't let the volume of email stop you. Use one of these solutions and try it for a few weeks. See how it works for you. Then if you find it still doesn't work for you, you'll at least know you gave it a good try.