Going on a trip?

Then don’t leave it till you’re at your destination to find out if you can access your email.  This is something that should be organised before you leave – not afterward.

When my husband and I went to Canada and Alaska in 2009 I knew I’d need to check email daily. While I had left my business in the hands of some of my VA team, I expected there would be occasional questions about how to deal with a situation or anything else that cropped up. So having daily access, even if only for 15 mins each day, was important to me.

I manage multiple email addresses and I didn’t want to have to set them all up in Outlook on my laptop. Nor did I want to be logging in and out of different accounts. It made sense to have them all accumulated in one spot.

What worked for me was setting up a gmail account and then set up each of my email accounts to download to gmail before delivering to Outlook.  That way I only had to log into one place while I was away, via a browser to view all my email, respond, delete, or whatever.  I didn’t have to worry about whether the mailserver was working and connected ok at Outlook, I didn’t have to worry about firewall settings or anything else, other than having internet access.

gmail allowed me to accumulate all the email in one place and once I got back home I was able to download it to Outlook at usual. It also meant that my mail server didn’t get clogged up with email that hadn’t been downloaded.

It was easy to set up – but did take a little time to do so don’t leave it to the last minute. I actually did mine about a month before we went away so I could be sure it was working ok and there was nothing I had to changed, edit or tweak when I went away.  Made for a smooth time away and minimal time needed online with maximum time on my trip being enjoyed!