🎙️ Inbox management doesn’t need more willpower — just a simple structure that clears the noise and gives you back control.
You might relate to this more than you’d like.
Emails piling up.
Messages you meant to reply to.
Small admin tasks that somehow carry a heavy emotional weight.
Not because they’re hard.
But because they linger.
For a long time, admin was the thing I avoided most.
Chasing people. Responding. Checking messages.
I’d let it all back up… and then feel the quiet stress of knowing it was there.
I tried delegating it.
That helped—a bit.
But what actually happened was this:
Someone organised the chaos… and handed it back to me.
Which I then ignored.
So nothing really changed.
The shift came when I stopped treating admin as a solo task—or a background problem—and built a simple, human structure around it.
No fancy apps, no productivity hacks.
Not forcing myself to just “be better at admin!”
Just a short, focused rhythm that brought accountability, support, and momentum into one place.
In this episode of the podcast, I talk through:
- Why inbox overwhelm isn’t a discipline issue
- Where delegation quietly breaks down for many founders
- And the small daily structure that removed the constant background pressure for me
I don’t share this as a theory.
It’s exactly what I do, and it’s why admin no longer follows me around all day.
🎧 Listen to the full episode.
If task list and inbox stress have been sitting heavier than they should, this conversation may help you see a different way to handle them.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: A Smarter Approach to Inbox Management
- Turn Inbox Avoidance and Guilt into a Daily Win: Assign someone to handle your inbox. Every day, do a 15‑minute comms check‑in with them to cover anything that requires a decision. This quickly stops the constant background stress of ignored emails and messages.
- Stay Accountable and Productive: Responding to emails, etc., is still ultimately your responsibility. However, someone else can easily respond to the routine things that don´t require a direct decision from you. They can assist with the rest and help keep you accountable.
- Build a Unified Inbox System: Combine human review, appropriate AI, a well-trained and fully enabled VA with a short daily meeting, to turn your comms admin into one simple, repeatable process. Use Steve´s free guide to get it done.
BEST MOMENTS: The Turning Point in My Inbox Management
02:12 – 💬 “What I did was simple, but it has transformed the amount of stuff I actually get done.”
04:09 – 💬 “I no longer feel this ever-increasing amount of stress from things just building up and building up and my task list getting longer and longer.”
04:46 – 💬 “I'm pulled back in, if I've got somebody there to keep me accountable, somebody is actually forcing me to basically focus on what I should be doing, I can be highly productive.”
TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW
00:00 Intro: “Conquering Admin Procrastination”
01:40 Leverage VAs and Automation
02:30 15 Minutes Focused Comms Meetings
04:19 Unified Inbox Management System
Episode Transcript
Please note: This transcript was generated using automated transcription tools and may contain typographical errors or inaccurately captured words or phrases.
Dr Steve Day: If they were giving out awards for procrastination and avoidance of admin tasks, I would win hands down out of pretty much anybody I know. Whether it\'s chasing people up, responding to emails, checking my messages. Or just basically doing those admin things that just back up and just annoy the hell outta you. That is where I really, really struggle.
That was until I did one about to tell you today in this episode, which has totally transformed. It\'s super simple, requires no advanced techniques or apps or technology. It\'s a very simple technique that will help you as a business owner be far more productive. Especially if you\'re like me and you\'ve either got ADHD, or you just struggle with getting that annoying admin stuff done.
Okay, so today I wanna share a really simple framework that has totally transformed the way I approach admin. The way I am held accountable for doing it. And how I involve my team in that process to actually make it happen. I am brilliant at avoiding the stuff that most people find easy to do. I don\'t check my emails, I don\'t pay bills, I don\'t do my admin tasks. I just let them back up. Well, that\'s how it used to be.
However, a few years ago I started working with virtual assistants. And a few years later, I started to get them to check my messages for me. This then created a bunch of tasks for me to review with my team member. In the beginning, I did this asynchronously. So they would go and check my inboxes.
They would stick stuff into my task management app, then I would look at it. The problem was, I didn\'t. I ignored it. Just like I ignored my inboxes in the first place. This used to frustrate the hell out of my staff and also mean I wasn\'t actually getting anything more done. But I was paying someone to basically be the piggy in the middle between me and not doing my work.
That had to change. And what I did was simple, but it has transformed the amount of stuff I actually get done. What I did was to have a 15 minute meeting every single day with my staff member who deals with my comms. Because comms, as in like emails, messages, DMs, whatever. That\'s where the majority of the incoming requests and work come from.
And I sit with that person. And they\'ve al already filtered through all the noise. Got rid of the spam. Unsubscribe from stuff that\'s obvious. File things that we\'ve already like seen before. But then in that meeting is a list of action items that I need to either be involved with the decision making. Or actually reply to personally or maybe do something.
And in that 15 minutes, I don\'t just go through and sort of say, yeah, yeah, I\'ll deal with that later, I\'ll deal with that later. I actually do the work there and then. I found that 15 minutes a day is enough for me on average to get through most stuff. It don\'t, I don\'t get through everything every day.
Some days it\'s far less to do, so again, I catch up a little bit. And then now and again, I might sit down with them and do a little bit of a longer session just to clear the backlog. The key here for me is having somebody in the inverted comms room with me. I do this on Zoom with my virtual assistant who based in the Philippines. And I sit with them and they basically watch me do this.
They also help out so I can actually dictate a message to them. And I use an app sometimes called Typeless. Or you can just literally, I just dictate it to her and say what I wanted to say. She goes away and does something while I\'m doing something else. So it can be quite a productive time in that. She\'s not just watching me do some work.
She\'s actually part of the solution. So she might be filing something for me that I\'ve actually responded to. Or she may be sending an email I could just said, or sending a message. Or chasing up or finding something for me, or finding a Template while I go and do something else. But that 15 minutes of collaborative working, of focused time on getting admin done. Of checking my, or going through and replying to my inbox, not actually checking my inbox, because that\'s already done.
That 50 minutes of highly focused, productive admin has been game changing. It means I no longer feel this ever increasing amount of stress. From things just building up and building up. My task list, getting longer and longer. I\'m doing a small chipping away every single day in a really focused, controlled way. And the key is, especially because I\'ve got ADHD, I don\'t get distracted. Because I\'ve got somebody else in the room who\'s pulling my me back in all the time.
So if I go off on a mad tangent, I empower that person to say, hey Steve, let\'s focus on the thing we were meant to be doing. And not, you know, redesigning your entire core system. Because you had an idea halfway through this conversation. Like, I need to be pulled back in. That\'s the way my brain works.
So if I\'m pulled back in, if I\'ve got somebody there to keep me accountable. Somebody who\'s actually forcing me to basically focus on what I\'m meant to be doing, I can be highly productive. And that is how, or this is how I do it. So if you\'re interested in learning more about the, what we call the Unified Inbox Management System. That includes getting somebody else to check all of your emails and messages and DMs for you.
Whether or not you use AI to augment that, we still have a human involved in that process. To be able to actually then take things to the next stage, to action things, to file things. To actually then pass things over to me. And then getting involved in the loop for say, chasing up stuff, and all of that. Plus our 15-minute meeting where we actually go through and action the stuff that needs to be done. Is what I call our Unified Inbox Management System.
If you\'re interested in learning more about that, head over to sys.academy/guides. On there, you\'ll find more information about the Unified Inbox Management Framework. So you can actually get started and using this in your business today.
If you like this episode, please do hit subscribe so you don\'t miss future episodes. Whether we share cool stuff on how to make yourself more productive and live with more presence, purpose and peace.
Until next time, thank you very much for listening in, and I\'ll see you soon.
VALUABLE RESOURCES
- Get free access to our Unified Inbox Management System Framework now—here's the link to our best Guides, Frameworks, and Templates: https://sys.academy/guides
LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE HOST
- Podcast: https://www.systemizeyoursuccess.com
- Website: https://systemsandoutsourcing.com/
- Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@drsteveday42
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drsteveday42
ABOUT THE HOST
Steve moved to Sweden in 2015 and transformed how he ran his businesses—switching to a fully remote model. A former NHS doctor, with a background in computing and property investing, he now helps overwhelmed business owners systemise and outsource effectively. Additionally, through his courses and coaching, Steve teaches how to automate operations and work with affordable virtual assistants, freeing up time and increasing profits. He runs his UK-based businesses remotely with support from a team of UK and Filipino VAs. He is also passionate about helping others build scalable, stress-free companies using smart systems and virtual support.
For more articles related to delegating email and social media inbox management, you may also like:
Using Virtual Assistants for Social Media Message and Notification Management