I prefer to pick up my mail after business hours. That way, I’m not wasting valuable productive marketing time on a task that can be done after hours.
“Always sort through your mail standing up,” recommends Eve Abbott (not a family relation), of Organizer Extraordinaire. Eve warns her clients that sitting down while reading your mail makes it easier for you to get too comfortable and then you’ll have a tendency to spend too much time reading something that otherwise you wouldn’t take the time to look at. I tried it and sure enough, I save about an hour a week using Eve’s system.
Sort your mail before you get it to the desk. Place checks on top, then invoices, and the correspondence you’ll need to reply to. Have a folder for what you need to follow-up on and even keep Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4 folders to make it easier for you to focus on on the papers you need to take care of each week.
There are also services you can find on the Internet where you can remove yourself from junk mail. That will save you a great deal of time throughout the year.