How to limit email and admin time in your day

Most people start a business to gain freedom. But end up building themselves a job they can’t leave. Every client runs through them. Every email needs their eyes. Every decision waits on their yes. The irony? They quit a 9–5 just to work 24/7. • I didn’t want that. • I didn’t start my law firm to “scale fast.” • Or “10x revenue.” • Or "to get a shiny label.” I started it for one reason: I wanted my mornings back. To decide what I work on. Who I work with. When I log off. That’s it. Not hustle. Just control. And you don’t get that freedom by doing everything yourself. You get it by learning to let go. As soon as you make enough to breathe - delegate. Build a system. Buy back your time. Because freedom is never found only in revenue. It’s found in how your day looks when no one’s watching. And if you want to reclaim your time as a founder, here's what I recommend 1// Start delegating early As soon as you hit consistent revenue, hire for repetitive or low-value tasks (admin, invoicing, scheduling). Use freelancers or part-time help if you can’t afford full-time staff. 2// Build simple systems Document your workflows: onboarding clients, sending proposals, and delivering projects. Use tools like Notion, or Google Sheets to create step-by-step checklists anyone can follow. 3// Set boundaries on your time Block out “focus hours” on your calendar for deep work - no meetings, no emails. Schedule regular “off” time and stick to it. Let clients know your availability upfront. 4// Learn to say no Don’t say yes to every client or every request. Qualify leads and only take on projects that fit your goals and bandwidth. 5// Automate what you can Use automation tools for repetitive tasks: • Payment reminders (Razorpay, Instamojo) • Appointment scheduling (Calendly) • Email templates for FAQs 6// Review and adjust regularly Every month, review what’s eating up your time. Delegate or automate one more task. Keep refining your systems as your business grows. The real win isn’t just more revenue. It’s more mornings, more evenings, more life - on your terms. Build your business for freedom, not just for work. And start letting go, one task at a time. --- ✍ Tell me below: What’s one task you know you should delegate but haven’t yet?

Ever feel like you’re working hard but nothing actually moves? That’s the hidden tax of context-switching and most of us pay it all day long. Research shows it can take up to 23 minutes to climb back into deep focus after even a quick “got a sec?” ping. Multiply that by every Slack, email, and calendar pop-up and you’ll see why the day disappears. Here’s how I cut that tax to almost zero ⬇️ 1. Normalize asynchronous communication Urgency is rarely real. I tell my team: reply when you’re out of deep work, not the second a bubble lights up. It kills the always-on anxiety for everyone. 2. Park tasks outside your head Parking lot > To-dos. If a thought might boomerang while you’re in flow, capture it. Notebook, voice memo, Notion.....anything beats letting it rent space in your brain or causing you to jump from your current focus. 3. Batch, block and box Task batching: answer all email in one swoop Replying to LinkedIn comments at one time Time blocking: label calendar chunks “deep work,” “meetings,” “admin” Time boxing: Give each task a finish line before you start Structure beats willpower every time. 4. Remove the obvious distractions One tab. One window. One screen. Close what you know will drag you into a different head-space before it even tries. I literally ONLY have 1 tab open at a time. What do you think? Which of these is the hardest for you? Start here and you’ll buy back hours of true focus every week.

I managed to delegate 95% of my email inbox when running an 1,800 client accounting firm. Here are 11 tips to reinvent your team's approach to email: 1. Send less email You don't get responses to emails you never send. Email is for exception handling, not ongoing repetitive work. 2. Eliminate inbox propriety Email isn't your private space, it's the receiving bay of your business. Radical email transparency solves a host of email-related pains. Find an alternative home for internal sensitive messages. Btw if you want tips like this in your inbox each week, join 9,112 other accounting firm owners on the list here https://lnkd.in/gKY9X4M9 3. Delegate Email's no more immune to delegation than any other work. The fact 10% of messages require your touch isn't a reason to DIY 100% of it. 4. Batch the FYIs For everything that doesn't require your direct attention, have your team send you a once-daily FYI digest of everything you ought to know to keep you in the loop. 5. Delegate monitoring Don't leave email up just in case something spicy arrives. The fact a client may have an emergency they want you to bail them out of isn't a reason to let yourself to be perpetually distracted. Instead, make it somebody's job to check your inbox a few times per day for anything spicy. 6. Don't start the day with email That way your day gets away from you at 11am instead of 8am. 7. Eliminate inbox propriety Let's talk about this one a second time because it's so important: Imagine an employee saying "I'll keep an eye on my inbox while I'm away" despite employing 20 other people to do the same job. They'll follow your lead, so lead by example. Let other people help. 8. Don't work out of the inbox Getting to to inbox 0 is like running in quicksand. They keep coming in as fast as you can get them out. Instead, have an assistant move messages to a "today" folder once per day, and work out of that one. 9. Don't send immediate responses Nobody gets more than 1 email per 24 hours. This change alone will reduce email volume by 50%. 10. Designate a fast lane Occasionally a client will be in the thick of things and need quick access to you for a few days. Create a temporary fast lane, let the team know to ping you if anything from the client comes through. Make this level of availability the exception, not the rule. 11. Don't let people jump the line When you respond to that text or take that call, don't expect that person to ever get back in the email queue. Clients are like mice in a maze, they'll find the fastest way to get to your cheese until you stick to your comms strategy. Email sucks. It's ok to get help. It isn't an admission of defeat It's what'll let you focus on what matters, and better support your team.

Want to free up 10-60 minutes per day? Try this e-mail productivity tip (the 4 D's) Every e-mail should be actioned by one of these 4 D's: Do it. Delete. Delegate. Delay. Many waste so much time re-reading e-mails, or lose productivity switching between getting work done and being distracted by e-mail alerts popping up. DO IT Quickly take action on emails that you can handle in 2 minutes or less. I live by the 2-minute rule and get through most e-mails during my 2-3 calendared e-mail dedicated times per day, usually leaving work with nothing in my inbox...and I get 100’s of e-mails a day. Bonus Tips: 1. See your e-mail when you decide to see it by setting aside specific time in your calendar each day to review and action your inbox. 2. Turn off e-mail notifications. Stop getting distracted every time a new e-mail message comes in; e-mail is not the forum for emergencies. See comments for how to do this in Outlook. DELETE Delete e-mails that are non-actionable and do not need to be kept for future reference. Get it out of your inbox. If you hate deleting, at least archive them away so they are not in your inbox. DELEGATE. Delegate e-mails containing actions that others can complete. Include what you would like the receiver to do and by when. DEFER/DELAY. Send emails to your task list that can wait, will take more than 2 minutes to complete, or will require your full focus. If you need time to complete an action from the e-mail, drag it directly to a calendar invite and book the time to do it. Or, if you use tasks, you can drag the e-mail to the task icon and then update the subject with a clear description so you know what you will do with that e-mail and can save time from having to read it all again. What other e-mail productivity tips work for you?

Have you noticed? You can answer email all day and still feel unproductive. And it’s easy to confuse being "busy" with being "productive." Leadership roles come with a flood of urgent requests - most of them not even yours. But.... 👉 The most important work rarely shows up in your inbox. It won’t beg for your attention. It needs space. So, here’s a time-blocking system I've been using for the past 2.5 years: ➡️ Block 90–120 minutes most mornings • I call it my “deep work” block. • No email. No meetings. No distractions. • I use it for: writing, planning, problem-solving. ➡️ Schedule email windows—then ignore the inbox • I try to use 11 AM and 4 PM as blocked time to respond. • Everything else waits. ➡️ Protect personal and creative time like it’s sacred • I block time for reading, journaling, or personal projects. • Sometimes it feels selfish—but this time is what allows me to feel I'm continuing to grow and sustain my ability to lead. ➡️ Review your calendar every Friday • I ask: Did I move the needle this week? • Then I plan the next week’s time blocks accordingly. Why this works? It forces me to: - Prioritize the important over the urgent. - Plan the week ahead instead of react to it. So, if you’re an academic leader feeling like you never have time to think—try this. Block it. Guard it. Honor it. No one else will do it for you. ---------------------------- ♻️ Repost this to help other academic leaders. 💬 Follow for posts about higher education, leadership, & the arts. #LeadershipGoals #HigherEdSuccess #HigherEducation #departmentchairs #deans #programmanagers #academicleadership