How I Manage My WA Emails
It's important to be part of the community here, but it's also important that doing so doesn't stop you from actually doing any work. You don't have to follow everyone that follows you, and you don't have to read every message you see. You can be selective with what you read, and you can be disciplined in how much time you spend on each part of your WA experience. I put aside a set amount of time for messages, then I move onto doing other things.
Firstly, you can change your notification settings. They are at the bottom of your main account settings. Here I have unchecked "New follower" and "Comment Like/Dislike". I feel I don't need to be notified for those, but that's just my personal preference.
In Gmail, I have a filter set up that automatically labels Wealthy Affiliate emails, and I have sub-labels within those called "Mine" and "Interesting":
First of all, I browse through my list of WA emails and tick any that are directly to do with me (replies, private messages, etc.):
I then add the "Mine" label to those, and go through those first:
If I run out of time after that, tough. I've got work to do. But if I do have a bit more time, I go back through the main WA list and try to pick out any that look interesting to me and give them the label "Interesting", and then I go through those. If there is any training I want to do, I don't do it then, I list it in my task list so I can do it when I have time set aside for doing training.
If I still have time after that, I have a quick look for any other messages I might want to read. If I don't have time, it's on with the rest of my day. It's about setting boundaries and having discipline and a plan, rather than just getting swept away with each new message I see.
Anyway, that's what seems to work well for me these days. Do whatever works for you. But all I will say is this: if you spend half a day reading and replying to messages, I think you're doing it wrong. If you have loads of referrals and you spend a lot of time helping out those referrals, then I can understand it. But if you have few referrals or none, and are spending too much time socialising, I think you're kind of missing the point. Do some training, write some website content, make a video, engage with SiteComments, etc. There is a lot you can do with your time, don't waste it.
Recent Comments
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Thanks for sharing. I have a very similar system set up. I was getting so overwhelmed before. It's much more manageable now (unless I go on holidays - that's a different story).
Hi Marcus, interesting blog to read especially as the longer we are here the more likely we are to get hundreds of notifications every day.
Here's what I do:
After the overnight build up I'll scan what I've got and send new followers to a separate folder, I'll let that build up over 24/48 hours and reply to all of them in one quick session...personally I think it's important to reply and thank new followers but maybe that's just me.
If I've blogged the previous day or so, I'll also put those emails into a folder and after a day maybe I'll go back to them, like the responses and reply to each one, again in one go.
I'll quickly scan the likes I've received and reply to ones that need it and that just leaves the blogs and questions to deal with. I'll check each one quickly and comment if I can add anything to the conversation.
All this might take an hour in the morning and then I'll just keep up with notifications as they come in at points during the day. In between I'll get some work done and it all seems to fit in ok.
After 5 weeks it works for me but I expect that'll need tweaking as time goes on.
Mark
Great reply Mark. It's interesting to see how different people have their own ways of doing things.
Great article Marcus! It is so easy to get side tracked and keeping up with the email notifications can be a job in itself!
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Thank you. I am at a point my day was saturated and I knew I was going to have to set up some filters. If this works for you it will work for me. Thanks again.
Glad you found it helpful.