I remember calling my brother Tom on the phone, just to tell him that I had my first e-mail address. 

This was back in the day when AOL sent snail mail CDs-by the boatload-trying to entice people into signing up.

Yes, I was thrilled…even though there was hardly anyone else I knew who had an e-mail address. I’m pretty sure that mine was belinda3126@aol.com.

Tom’s response to my earth-shattering news was simple: “Why would you possibly want an e-mail address?” 

To his credit, he thought that adding another way for people to be in touch would only make life more complicated. Neither one of us had any idea how right he would turn out to be.

Today, for most of us, e-mail runs our lives. It’s on our phones, our tablets, and our computers, so it’s pretty hard to ignore. Every time a message arrives, it makes a sound, pops up a little window, or causes our phones to vibrate.

Even if you’re smart enough to make your e-mail silent, it’s still there…gathering in your inbox every minute.

So, you might ask, “How can I manage this e-mail monster???” 

Well, here’s what I do:

1. I use Gmail for business. This isn’t free Gmail; it’s customized, supported and paid for ($60 a year). But it means that my e-mail is “in the cloud” and effortlessly syncs among all of my devices. If I archive a message on my phone, it’s no longer in my inbox on my computer and iPad, so there’s no duplication of efforts.
2. The only e-mails that I keep in my inbox are those that require action. Newsletters, e-mails from my favorite online stores, junk, and everything else deemed non-actionable are removed immediately from my inbox. If I’m wondering what’s on sale at GarnetHill.com (my favorite place to shop), I can look after office hours. During the day, my job is to keep my e-mail box clean of everything except what needs my focus.
3. When I read an e-mail that only requires a quick answer, I answer it quickly and am done with it. This way, I only touch it once.
4. I batch messages and read by client. Even though I monitor my e-mail all day, when it’s time to answer those that require a longer, more thoughtful answer, I do it all at once for each client. In other words, if I’m going to focus on Dave, I sort my e-mails to show me everything from Dave that’s still in my inbox. That way, I can handle everything that Dave needs, then cross him off my to-do list.
5. I ignore e-mail while I’m doing focused client work. For an hour or two at a time, as crazy as it may sound, I stop looking at e-mails and get work done.

I have the same compulsion as everyone else to read every e-mail the minute it appears in my inbox. But I’ve learned, over time, that this is a distraction that makes me far less productive.

Last weekend here in Boston was drizzly and wet from start to finish. My daughter Emily was away for the weekend and I found myself inside and alone with the pets (Marty, Max and Chester) for two days.

This rarely happens and so, on Saturday morning, I thought to myself, “What do I want to do with all this free time?”

I’ve been so busy lately that it took me a few minutes to even consider the possibilities: work on a photo project that I’ve been meaning to start; finish reading Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild; or catch up with reconciling my RocketGirl business checking account.

I chose the third option.

Since I track my income in Excel and check my online bank accounts daily, it’s easy for me to justify putting off bank reconciliations. But now, after getting caught up, I can tell you that I won’t be putting it off again anytime soon. It was simple to do and it feels great to have it all taken care of.

When you’re a small business owner, tracking your income and expenses is critical. Here are a few things I want to you know about how to save time and get it done:

Automate whatever you can. One of the big reasons I use Xero to manage my company finances is that it connects to my bank account, my PayPal account and Square, my credit card processing company.What that means is that Xero is constantly updating my transactions. Whenever I log in, even if it’s been months, every penny that I’ve spent or earned is listed for me to categorize. What’s also cool is that, if you have the same transaction over and over (your cell phone bill, for example), Xero remembers which account to assign it to.

Keep filing simple. Some years I’ve had very elaborate filing systems for both my personal life and my businesses. I would systematically file away pieces of paper in designated folders with beautifully printed labels. But what I finally realized is that I never or rarely looked at those papers again.Here’s what I do now: Each month I keep a white envelope on my desk labeled with the current month and year. Throughout the month, I put receipts inside the envelope. When I reconcile my accounts, I look at the receipts to make sure I used my RocketGirl credit card. If I didn’t, I add the receipt to Xero, using my iPhone app so I can track the expense.At the end of the month, I seal the white envelope, mark it reconciled and toss it in a box. When the box is full, I send it down to the basement for safekeeping until I’m sure I can recycle the contents. If I ever need receipts, they’re organized by month and easy to find.

Learn to “Trim Tab.” Trim Tabbing is something my coach taught me about last year. You can read about it here, but the concept is simple: Make incremental corrections while always heading in the right direction.

For example, while I look closely at my bank account online every day, it’s pretty impossible to spot trends that way. Little things can slip by easily, and it’s not until they’re in your financial software that you can clearly see what’s going on.

Last December I subscribed to some software that I thought was pretty cool, but after paying $9.99 a month for nearly a year, I realized that I never used it. In the big picture, $120 may not seem like lot, but I can think of lots of things I’d do with $120 if someone just handed me a check! Keeping up with your finances reduces the chances of leaking money.

With my finances in order last Saturday, I turned to my other two projects and made significant progress on those as well. Even the pets seemed very proud of me, I must say.