3 Simple Traits Elite Athletes and Your Email Inbox Have in Common

Although the year’s not quite finished, 2021 certainly has been a year to celebrate some incredible athletic performances, from the Olympics and Paralympics finally being able to take place in Tokyo to the Melbourne Football Club breaking its 57-year AFL premiership drought.

And these amazing sporting achievements have got me thinking about the similarities between elite athletes and your currently-chaotic email inbox.

Because, when you stop and think about it, athletes who excel in their chosen sport and people who have super-organised email inboxes have three simple traits in common.

Let me explain.

1.     Focus on your end goal

Of course, the goal of every elite athlete is to claim the ultimate prize in their chosen sport, whether it’s an Olympic or Paralympic gold medal or being part of the premiership-winning AFL team.

So, for elite athletes, the countless hours of physical training, the early morning starts while most of us are still sleeping, the hard work and dedication in the previous months and years, have all been preparing for and focusing on one goal; winning.

How does this relate to your currently-chaotic inbox, you ask?

Well, I bet you’d love to have your inbox under control, am I right?
You know, be able to find specific emails when you need them, action your emails in the correct priority order and know how to handle those emails that you can’t action today and not miss them.

By focusing on your end goal of having a stress-free inbox, putting practices into place which will help you get there become so much easier because you know what you ultimately want to achieve.

Which brings me perfectly to my next point.

2.        Practice, practice, practice

We all know that you can’t expect to win a big race or game without being completely prepared for it, right?

And any elite athlete will tell you that the winner is the one who has the best stamina and endurance for the entire game or race. Because there’s no point being in first place for the first half, only to finish last, is there?

So, elite athletes train to outplay and outlast their opposition. And while some may have natural ability and talent, success generally doesn’t just happen; it’s endless hours of practice, practice, practice that leads them to glory.

Now, back to you and your email inbox.

Sure, sometimes life gets in the way, or you just can’t be bothered, and it’s easy to let things slip and perhaps even give up completely.

But here’s the thing. Doing simple tasks often, will mean that you’re well on your way to achieving your end goal of having an organised, stress-free inbox. And knowing you’re on the path to success makes it easier to push through the tricky times.

BUT

All the hard work and dedication in the world won’t help if you don’t have the right processes in place.

Which brings me to my final point.

3.        Systems Create Success

How likely do you think it is that coaches or elite athletes themselves begin training for a big event or race without having a plan or system in place of how they’re going to reach their end goal?

Definitely wouldn’t happen, would it?

Of course, every coach and elite athlete has systems and processes in place for the years, months, weeks, and even days leading up to their event or race, giving them the best possible chance of success.

And again, this so easily relates to the disaster that is your currently dysfunctional email inbox.

Without having the right systems and processes in place, how can you expect to achieve success?

BUT

Most people don’t know where to start with their inbox process and systems.

Here are 3 systems to focus on improving first:

1.     Have a filing system in place using the most effective, ideal folder structure which will help you find what you’re looking for quickly and easily and ensures you don’t spend all your time filing.

2.     Start using an email scheduling system for those emails you can’t action immediately.

3.     So that emails don’t distract you throughout the day, use a white noise system to hide them so they won’t interrupt other important work.

So, now I’ve been able to shine a light on the similarities between elite athletes and your email inbox, if you’d like to chat about where you currently are and where you’d like to be with your email management, I’d love to hear from you.

Because my greatest satisfaction comes from being able to help my clients transform their email inboxes from chaotic and confusing to systemised and successful.