Welcome to the Getting Organized series here at Dad2One. This will be an ongoing project to help you (meaning me) get life organized. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter where you’ll find the hashtag #D2Organize.
With all the pressure us Dad’s are under, streamlining things and creating systems and processes can help us reduce stress, manage our time more efficiently, and avoid forgetting important things we needed to get done.
Most importantly, it can free up time to spend with our family! Assuming they want you around. If not, let me know and we’ll see if we can tackle that topic, too.
Yogas Design
Let’s get to the question.”How many email accounts do I need?” Or, “how many email accounts should I have?”.
Attempts to get organized in the past have brought me to the conclusion that you really need at least 4 email accounts. Possibly more. But you should probably keep it to 7 or less.
Personal Account
A personal account is NOT a catch-all, junk drawer, why-do-I-have-12,000-emails account. It’s for friends, family, and people you actually know. I do use mine for the few newsletters that I read every day or week depending on how often they are sent. That’s it. Keep the noise in this account to a minimum so important things don’t get buried or accidentally deleted.
Financial Account
My number one recommendation here is that this be a secure account. That means no Gmail, Yahoo, etc.
You’re probably familiar with the security and mystique of a Swiss bank account. Protonmail is a Swiss end-to-end encrypted email service founded in 2014 at the CERN research facility. It uses 2-factor authentication and the servers reside outside of US and EU jurisdiction. Basically, it’s secure and your info is protected.
You can get the basic option for free, or upgrade to a personal account for a few dollars (or euros) per month. This is not an affiliate link, it’s just the best option I’ve found for secure email.
Service and Opt-Ins
Use this account when you have to sign up to get the discount, restaurant coupons, membership sites, the Chick-Fil-A app, or any other site that sends periodic offers.
You could also use this for other newsletters you like to get but rarely read if it isn’t too full of coupons.
Junk
When you have to provide an email address, but don’t ever want to hear from the person, company, or service. Don’t make it obnoxious because it could come back to bite you if you have to give it out. Someone in a booth at the Home and Garden show might give you side-eye if you tell them your email is dontsendmeyourjunk@yourdomain.com.
Other Accounts You Might Need
Chances are you have a work email account, so we’re not including that one here.
Business Account
No, this isn’t your work account. A business account is one you use for anything related to your side hustle, side business, or income-generating idea. That’s where my dad @ dad2one.com address comes in. (Send me an email, let’s test it, just take out the spaces).
A good idea is to have it at your own domain such as dad2one.com so that people will see that domain any time you give them your address. Often enough, this is enough for them to wonder what that’s about and go check it out.
For that reason, it’s not a bad idea to use something with your domain extension for a personal account as well. If you want a personal account at your domain, then I’d create two accounts. One for personal and one for related business stuff.
If your side hustle is large enough, maybe you need other accounts such as support, marketing, etc, but keep these to a few and ONLY add them as needed. Don’t do it just to make your service or company look bigger.
Newsletters
If you subscribe to a lot of newsletters or websites, you may want a dedicated account for those. Chances are you aren’t reading most, so maybe you want to scale back on those instead of creating a dedicated email account.
Dating and/or Social Media
If you are single and on the hunt, maybe create a separate account for any dating sites and communications. You won’t have to give out your personal account to someone that may not need it later, and once you’ve locked down that long-term relationship, you can delete the account and move on. Worst case, it can help protect your privacy and security which is never a bad thing in the world of online dating…
If you have alot of social media accounts, you may want to separate them into their own email. Especially if they are branded for your side hustle or personal projects.
Now…pick the account you check most often and use it for that email signup on the right side of this page. Not only will you get updates, but I’ll be giving away some stuff in the future including free workout plans and possibly some products I use and recommend here!
Drop a comment below or on one of my social channels and let me know how many email accounts you have. I am GENUINELY curious!
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