SAN FRANCISCO — You don’t have to live in fear of your e-mail inbox or be a slave to it, says Merlin Mann, a writer and Web personality who spoke Thursday at the Real Estate Connect conference.

Mann discussed his philosophy and strategies for quickly sorting through the many messages that can divide your time and attention if you’re not careful — he promotes this plan to get to "Inbox Zero" at his 43folders.com Web site.

His presentation began with the disclosure of the sprawling e-mail address he obtained in 1993: merlin@freenet.scri.fsu.edu.

SAN FRANCISCO — You don’t have to live in fear of your e-mail inbox or be a slave to it, says Merlin Mann, a writer and Web personality who spoke Thursday at the Real Estate Connect conference.

Mann discussed his philosophy and strategies for quickly sorting through the many messages that can divide your time and attention if you’re not careful — he promotes this plan to get to "Inbox Zero" at his 43folders.com Web site.

His presentation began with the disclosure of the sprawling e-mail address he obtained in 1993: merlin@freenet.scri.fsu.edu.

In those days not many people were using e-mail and it wasn’t hard to keep up with the flow of messages, he said.

Nowadays, he said, the flow of messages can be overwhelming. And that holds true for real estate professionals, who can be in constant communication with clients and other business contacts via phone or e-mail.

"There is a huge disparity in the number of requests that you will receive for your time and attention today and the amount of time you have to respond to that. I believe more than ever in 2008 that you’ve got to have some kind of system," he said, to manage the inbox influx.

And it’s important not to treat your e-mail as a "place to hang out," he said. "It’s not like your local bar. It’s a place to get into and out of as quickly as possible."

Mann suggests five ways to process incoming e-mail: Delete, delegate, respond, defer or do.

Don’t feel obligated to respond to lengthy messages with an equally lengthy response, he also offered.

His system is intended to eliminate that "groaning feeling of not wanting to check your e-mail because you’re so far behind," he said, by quickly whittling down the messages in your inbox.

Also, don’t feel the need to check e-mail every time you get a new message, he said. "How often do I have to really, honestly check e-mail? Nobody needs to check e-mail every minute.

"Consider ‘firewalling’ time when you go in and (check e-mail). You need to firewall this stuff or it’s going to take over," said Mann, whose mother worked as a real estate agent (see Inman News article).

Mann summed up this time management as "no fiddling," and "lose the shells" — with the latter he displayed a picture of peanuts. "Once you’ve gotten the nutmeat out you can throw the shell away," he said.

He also had some advice for real estate professionals in how they spend their time and money in marketing to consumers.

"Would you continually spend $40,000 a month on a marketing campaign if it was only bringing you $5,000 in business?" he asked. "Time and attention are the most precious things you have in life. How many of us are learning how to manage our attention?"

Read more about Merlin Mann and his views on managing time and communications in these Inman News articles:

View Merlin Mann videos at Inman.com:

***

What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story.

 

 

***

What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×