The email inbox is one of our most utilised tools, but it can take up soooo much time, make us reactive and hijack our day so easily. Today I'm sharing some simple tools and tips for inbox domination to claim back your productivity.

1. Purposeful checking

Have certain times of the day when you check your inbox. I like 10am and 4pm to catch everything. Carve out the time you need to dive in and answer everything thoroughly. It's when we're checking on the fly that things get missed and they take up too much brain space. 

Only touch once! When you check your inbox, do one of 4 things: 

• Reply immediately
• Delete
• File
• Flag - This is if it's going to take you a lengthy time to action what's in the email. In this case, allocate the time in your calendar when you're going to do it and flag for easy reference later.

2. Turn off notifications

On your computer if you have them flying in over your screen, turn it off. It's distracting you and stealing precious productivity. If you...

I was talking with a few people this week about getting more visible on video in socials.

Until you get in the habit, it's great to have a bank of ideas that you can pop one on each day and know what you're going to do. I challenge you to do a video on your instagram stories and a facebook live every day for a week and see what happens! :) I bet you'll love the results.

Some video ideas:

1. Answer a question that you've been asked more than once lately.
2. Give a video tour of your office
3. Have a chat to a team member about what they're working on
4. Introduce yourself if you haven't done that for a while.
5. Give tips that provide massive value to your customers
6. Interview or spotlight a customer
7. A teaser video for your next marketing promotion
8. A time lapse video of something you're doing in your business (I saw one of my favourite artists do this the other day and I loved it!)
9. Talk about other businesses you love 
10. Share something new that you've learnt that could help others.
11. Promote a...

Lindsay is the MD and co-founder of Chello, an agency that applies creativity to communication problems; connecting brands and people back to what matters most.

At the age of 25, Lindsay Rogers left a dream career – to build the company she couldn’t have dreamed of. It was 2014, a time where advertising agencies were staking their claim on digital content, and digital agencies were extending their offerings to campaigns. So it was the perfect time to start Chello; an agency that wheels and deals in all kinds of content. Chello offers small and large organisations – from corporates to small non-profits.

Chello started as two co-founders. In its first year, it turned over a million dollars and reached over 45 clients – including an international airline. Since then the company has grown to over 20 people and more than 180 clients.

In between, Lindsay has won Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year for NSW, 2015, and has been accepted to the...

The whole time I was interviewing Sara I was nodding along. I find that once you’ve gone through a massive life shift and had to change your way of life, it really does shift your perspective. It also gives you an affinity with other people who have also crossed over so to speak into that space in life. That space where you need to look closely within and ask yourself if the life you’re living is really the one that is going to optimise your potential and your happiness.

Sara owns SRA Corporate Change whose purpose is to unlock the potential of organisations and their leaders to cultivate high performance. They work with leading organisations in their core business areas of strategy, leadership, and culture.

Sara’s personal and professional experiences have refined her approach to the many facets of people development. These experiences ensure clients receive genuine results relevant to the way in which we live and work today.

Sara’s commitment to developing...

Kirsty Dunphey grew up immersed in an entrepreneurial wonderland: parents who had their own businesses and rental properties, who escaped the rat race and retired in their 30’s and who enveloped her in that culture working in their businesses from a young age. It was perfect until as the story always goes, it wasn’t.

The valuable life lessons she lived through in her teens started the journey that lead her to starting her first two businesses coupled with two part-time jobs under her belt at the age of 15, to her own award-winning real estate agency at 21 and continuing on that path to being a self-made millionaire at 23, self-made multi-millionaire by 25 and with the ability to completely retire for life at the age of 27.

Kirsty is a proud former National Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year (the youngest awarded to-date) and delights in sharing what she’s learned over a 20-year entrepreneurial journey.

Kirsty has written two books: Advance to Go, Collect...

Valerie Khoo is founder and CEO of the Australian Writers’ Centre, which is Australia’s leading centre for writing courses. Over 40,000 students have learnt at the centre and it has campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane – as well as a huge online learning community enrolling from all over the world.

Valerie is a former journalist and author of the best-selling book “Power Stories: The 8 Stories You MUST Tell to Build an Epic Business”.

She now combines her love of storytelling with her passion for art and managed a second career as a professional artist. Valerie focuses on creating artworks that serve as a daily reminder of meaning, emotion or vision for collectors who connect with her abstract style.

She has also been appointed as the City of Sydney’s Curator of the Chinese New Year Festival 2019, the third-largest annual event in Sydney (behind NYE Fireworks and Vivid) and the largest celebration of Chinese New Year in the...

Elizabeth Abegg is one half of sister-duo that makes up Byron Bay fashion brand Spell and the Gypsy Collective. With a background in video editing and a lot of gut instinct, Elizabeth drove the label into a global business by embracing the blogging and online shopping world.

Over almost ten years, the brand has grown from strength to strength, employing over 50 women in Byron Bay, stocked in American online retailers Free People, Revolve and Planet Blue and gaining over 1 million followers across their social media platforms. Spell & the Gypsy Collective was awarded the 2016 Australian Business of the Year at the National Telstra Business Awards and finalists of the Cosmo Women of the Year Awards 2017 in the Designer Category. Elizabeth is now the CBO  (Chief Brand Officer) of Spell after many years of doing everything in the business, and she will be focusing on heading up Spell's main focus of making the company sustainable, continuing to create better lives for our...

Leanne Haining is one of those people that you just feel calmer when you’re around. She’s the Creative Director of bath, body & home fragrance brand, Urban Rituelle.

Proving that they have a business to thrive in the test of time, Leanne and her partner, Co-founder, Scott Kelly have been running Urban Rituelle since 1999.

Having their products stocked in over 1,000 boutiques in Australia, Leanne has learned the art of adaptation and innovation throughout the changing seasons of business.

Urban Rituelle is more than a brand. It is a philosophy of passion, care, and unsurpassed quality and Leanne is the true creative force behind building this boutique brand.

Leanne’s vision is to create a business where every touchpoint makes people feel good; including the team, its customers, greater community & suppliers. She believes in creating a distinctive collection of indulgent bath, body & home fragrance products that celebrate & enhance our daily rituals.

Jacinta McDonell is an absolute unicorn of a human. She’s incredibly cool, fierce and also the most kind and generous person you could imagine.

Jacinta launched the US franchise Anytime Fitness into the Australian market in 2008. An entrepreneur and a mother of three, Jacinta has now exited Anytime Fitness and has turned her passion towards two new business ventures. Jacinta established The Human Kind Project in 2015, a not-for-profit foundation that funds life-changing projects in Africa and India. In 2015 Jacinta also opened a new style of yoga studio, W1LL, with every purchase supporting a human in need.

Pamela Jabbour is the CEO of Total Image Group, Australia’s leader in the uniform industry dressing over 250,000 people a day. She’s super successful and the business is 13 years old but it hasn’t always been that way. It took her 12 months to sign the first client after making 100 calls a day! Persistence anyone?

Doing what many people find astronomically difficult, she employs a large staff which also includes her father, brother and a good friend.

We talk about how she handles the pressure of a rapidly growing business and staying sane working so closely with her loved ones.