You’re spending an evening powering through some catch-up work, when you get a new email – a question from a colleague. You scan it quickly.
It’s not life or death. “I’ll come back to this later,” you decide, and get back to what you were doing.
Then you wrap up, and wake up the next morning with every intention of responding… but your inbox is bursting with new messages. You’re immediately distracted, and last night’s email gets forgotten.
A few days later, a follow-up note arrives from your colleague. You can’t believe it – how could you be so absent minded?!
Yeah – that feeling.
You’re not alone. It’s happened to all of us at one point or another. We’re entrepreneurs, after all – which means we’re always juggling 894 things at any given moment.
But why is email such a prevalent source of frustration, even for the most organized folks?
I have a theory: it’s because we have our email as an item on our to-do lists. So something as crucial as client communication gets jumbled up with the hundred other things on our plate.
Your email is likely the backbone of your business’s communications – and it deserves a system all its own.
What if you had an interactive to-do list specifically for email-related things? Something that could keep track of who you responded to and when, as well as reminding you when you have yet to respond?
There is. And it’s called Boomerang.
I use Boomerang to manage to-do’s related specifically to my email, as opposed to another to-do list software (like Things, which I use for non-email tasks), because it’s specifically designed to work alongside my inbox – and my schedule.
Boomerang works as a Gmail add-on, which includes a “Boomerang” button in your emails. It lets you schedule emails ahead of time, create follow-up reminders, and also alerts you if someone hasn’t replied to an email within a timeframe you expected.
Awesome, right?!
Want to know how it can work for you? Here’s a peek into some of the ways I use Boomerang to take back control of my inbox for good.
3 Ways Boomerang Is My Secret Weapon
Although there are lots of ways to make use of Boomerang for your business, here are three of my favorite Boomerang-worthy tasks.
Managing my sales and client process
My assistant and I use Boomerang to ensure we’re keeping track of and following up with prospects seamlessly.
After my assistant invites a prospect to schedule a consult, she will Boomerang the message for 5 days out to be sure the prospect has set their consult time.
After a consult with a prospect, I send her a follow-up email with a payment link. I Boomerang the message to return to me in 3 days to make sure she’s completed her payment.
Staying on top of tasks
After I send work to a member of my team (my assistant, web guy, designer, whoever), I Boomerang that message to return to me the day after the deadline to make sure the project was completed. This makes it easier to keep track of where we are work-wise, without digging through my email or trying to keep track of it in my brain.
Keep track of my outside commitments
The guest posting content manager at LKR Social Media sends my posting schedule for the second half of 2013, and I Boomerang the message to return to my inbox 2 weeks before any given deadline as a reminder of both the topic, and the due date.
I also use this for other “feature” requests where I have a future deadline I need to meet.
What Are Your Secret Weapons?
Are you feeling the relief already? If you’re excited, Tweet about it!
Now I’ve told you all about my secret weapon – what’s one of your favorites? What app, add-on, or downloaded software have helped you kick out big problems in your business? Dish it in the comments below.
Boomerang is an incredible tool that’s made managing my email easier than ever. Grab it right here!
I’ve just started experimenting with Boomerang recently and so far I’m loving it! Thanks for sharing how you use it, Jenny! Gives me lots of ideas 🙂
Another inbox add-on I’ve been absoutely LOVING lately is Rapportive (http://rapportive.com/) — it shows your recent email history with a contact plus their social profiles, all in a sidebar within Gmail. (And it even has an add-on for MailChimp & Aweber so you can see your subscribers clicks & opens in their Rapportive profile.)
Have fun experimenting, Jackie! I like Rapportive as well. I didn’t know about the Aweber add-on. I’m going to have to go check that out for sure!
Thanks for this tip, Jackie! Just installed, love that it shows social networks for the contacts.
This sounds perfect – do you have a recommendation for non-gmail peeps?
Boomerang is a lifesaver.
Another good option is at http://www.followup.cc . It gives you the ability to “CC” for a given date/time follow-up reminder. Since it’s not GMail specific, it works for anyone’s email app.
Check it out. It may just be the option you’re looking for.
Thank you – will check it out!
much appreciated
claire
Thanks for sharing that resource, Brent!
I’m giving it a try now. Thanks for the tip!
I just installed Boomerang last week and am starting to discover all it’s wonderfulness! My initial interest was to schedule some time sensitive emails to a small group of workshop participants that I didn’t want to send through Mail Chimp but was going to be challenged sending at the right time through Gmail.
But I’m loving the idea of using it for reminders for myself. I’m the worst at planning to get back to an email and then forgetting. I had been marking as Unread to keep it in my line of sight but I like the idea of Boomeranging it better! Thanks for sharing your tips, Jenny!
An additional Boomerang tip I got from a fellow entrepreneur is when you need to reply to someone who you know is going to reply back to you immediately. In order to avoid that “real-time” email convo loop, you can set your responses to go out a little later, when you have closed your email, and then you aren’t caught in the trap of urgency and immediate replies.
Yay, Stephanie! Boomerang will work way better than marking emails unread because it gets them out of your inbox and helps you see them only when you need to!
Interesting tip about sending something later. Hadn’t thought about that one, though I totally know what you mean about real-time conversations! Thanks for sharing!
Love this Jenny! I’ve been using Boomerang for the send later bit but haven’t even played around with the actual “boomerang” feature. My inbox definitely gets crowded with flags and marked unread emails. I’m going to have to ‘steal’ this email system! 🙂
I have to say, I think the Gmail flag system can make the inbox issue even worse! It encourages people to keep things in their inbox, which make the already crazy problem of email overwhelm even more overwhelming! Steal away, Liz! Steal away!
Love these tips Jenny, thank you as always for your tips!
I’m curious – is there something like this, if you use Mac’s Mail program?
I personally don’t like using gmail online for a bunch of reasons. Namely, I have a filing system setup in Mail that I use, plus I have so many email addresses, it’s a nice way to keep them all together and not have to switch between multiple accounts.
Thanks!
Check out followup.cc that Brent recommends above. That may be your ticket!
Brilliant, thanks m’dear! xo
Hey Stephanie.
You can use GMail to check all of your email accounts and have them all show up in GMail. It’s a “one stop shop”, so you only end up having one place to go check for any emails. PLUS…you can reply from any of your addresses, right inside GMail, so there’s no confusion for the person receiving the reply.
Thanks for these tips, Jenny! I’ve been using Boomerang for the past month for sending out emails at later times so clients don’t know I’m working “after-hours”. I just have the emails scheduled to be sent out the next morning. I didn’t realize that there are other features to Boomerang especially for follow-up… that’s going to be HUGE for me. The money is in the follow-up, right? 😉
Smart move on scheduling emails for the morning!! Follow-ups (with my team, colleagues, or prospects) is the main area I use Boomerang! And yes, as Kendrick Shope has taught me so well, the money is in the follow-ups, for sure!
Secret weapon. I like it, Ill have to try boomerang. I kinda have a secret weapon. I work with an internet marketing company, and I have to tweet a lot of stuff on twitter. I use HOOTSUITE to schedule tweets and stuff. It keeps me more organized, and helps to stay in contact with affiliates. What are your thoughts on online affiliate programs, Jenny?
I like Hootsuite, too. I have my how-to guide for smart usage here: https://jennyshih.com/2013/03/steal-this-my-simple-social-media-system-for-building-your-list/
As far as affiliates, I’m really careful to promote affiliate programs and only do so for ones I have personal experience with and love. So when I promote someone else’s stuff here on my site, it’s because I love-love-love it and have personal experience that’s off the charts!
I do make referral shares on occasion (like Boomerang), and always and only when I’m loving them 100% 🙂
I’m a big fan of it gives you one email at a time, with the boomerang feature as well.
Loved this tip. I haven’t been using boomerang often enough.
thanks!
Love seeing everyone share resources. Thanks, Farideh!
I recently discovered Inbox Pause which turns off incoming email until I unpause it. It keeps me from wasting time constantly checking all day (bad habit).
I love the sound of that! Definitely going to check it out.
I LOVE Boomerang! It’s fabulous for everything you mentioned.
I also like using the Send Later feature when I want to respond to something right away to get it out of my inbox, but don’t want someone to think I’m always so quick to respond, so I’ll write the message and set it up to send in an hour or two.
Another tip is that if you tend to work crazy hours (and perhaps don’t want your clients to know that), you can schedule the emails to go out at a more “normal” time. 🙂
Thanks Jenny!
I use Apple Mail with all email accounts. Does anyone know of any similar recommendations that integrate with Apple Mail??
Thanks!
Libby
Check above, Libby. A few folks left their recommendations in the comments. Good luck!
Jenny, thanks for not only suggesting Boomerang, which I’ve read about often on people’s blogs—but for going the extra step to describe how you use it on a day-to-day basis. Makes it a lot easier visualize how to put it into practice. I just started using it a few weeks ago, and this is a big help. Thanks!
Thank you so much, Jenny! I really appreciate the work that you do in the world and have gained much for being connected with you <3 Much Love!
I was JUST going through my crazy inbox when I came across your newsletter! This is just what I need! Thanks Jenny! I’m going to check Boomerang out now! 🙂
How funny – I just wrote a two-part series on how I get to Inbox Zero. My strategy is to keep “non-email” such as receipts, newsletters, articles I want to read, documents I want to save or print, to dos, shopping lists, recipes, etc OUT of my inbox. I do this by creating a system so I know where everything goes. I have a separate email that my “receipts” and newsletters go to – I use it whenever I sign up for something so all the junk goes there. I use Evernote for anything I want to save for reference. When there’s an article I want to read, I send it to Pocket. For documents I want to have access to (everyone prints at the office, or creates a file they want to have on their home computer while at work), I use Drop Box. I use ToDo to manage my tasks, and have both the desktop and iPhone versions so it’s with me wherever I go. I also wrote about my daily habits that keep me at inbox zero in the second post. Can’t wait to try out Boomerang!
Too funny! I just wrote a post the other day for LKR Social Media about how to use Boomerang to make the Inbox Zero approach that much better. Great minds…. 🙂
Indeed 😉