You may have noticed that I didn’t send a letter last Saturday.

I’ve taken on some additional writing projects, so I’ve decided to slow down a bit on The Baseball Recruit Letter (at least for the time being).

Going forward, I will be sending a new letter every other Saturday morning.

As always, however, if you have any any questions between letters, please reach out. I’m happy to chat.

Now on to this week’s letter!

With the invention and growth of social media platforms in recent years, direct messages have replaced email in many areas of life.

This is NOT the case for the college baseball recruiting process.

In an attempt to “meet players where they’re at,” coaches are using social media more than ever for recruiting, but they still use email quite often.

Most programs have access to mass email platforms that make it a quick and easy to get general information to the players they want to recruit.

They typically transition to text messages and phone calls quickly, especially for top recruits, but email is still alive and well.

You Need a System for Processing Emails

Most high school players miss opportunities because they don’t have a system for processing emails.

They don’t check emails consistently, and when they do they don’t get through them in a timely manner.

When their emails go unanswered, coaches assume the player isn’t interested and either cross him off their list or forget about them.

If it takes a long time for a player to respond to an email, coaches think the player isn’t organized or isn’t serious about the program.

For YOU, following a system will ensure you back to coaches promptly.

It also may help elevate you on their list.

Every email you receive is an invitation to capture a coach’s attention, and attention is GOLD in the recruiting process.

Don’t miss these opportunities.

Even when you receive generic emails from coaches, your reply can capture their attention and potentially lead to a more personalized contact.

The ATAC Email System

I created the ATAC email system to help you process emails so you don’t miss messages from coaches.

Here’s a quick note before I get into the acronym:

First, allocate 20-30 minutes to process emails every day (or the system won’t work). If you don’t check your email daily, the messages will pile up in your inbox and seem insurmountable.

Here’s how the system works:

Go through your email from top to bottom, one email at at time. You have four (and only four) options for each message:

• A = Act

• T = Trash

• A = Archive

• C = Calendar

For the system to work, you MUST do one of these four things with every email the FIRST time you see it.

Here’s a breakdown of each option:

Act

For any email that will take two minutes or less to “act” on, you act on it.

If you receive a generic camp invitation from a coach, for example, have a standard reply to get more information to determine if the camp is worth your time and money (click here for advice on camps).

Trash

Immediately delete any email that isn’t important or relevant.

Obviously this includes spam, but some recruiting emails may fall into this category.

For example, if you receive a generic camp invitation from a coach at a college you know you don’t want to attend, just delete it.

Note: If you receive a message expressing legitimate interest from a coach at a school you know you don’t want to attend, you should respond and let him know you’re not interested.

Archive

Archive any message that’s important/relevant, but you can’t (or don’t want to) act on right away (most email platforms have an icon for this).

This will get the message out of your inbox, but keep it in your system for future access.

Note: You need to go back through your archive regularly (I suggest weekly) to make sure you don’t forget about these messages.

Calendar

Use your calendar to store emails you need to act on but will take longer than two minutes to complete.

I recommend creating an appointment, event, or task in your calendar to block out time for acting on the email at a later time/date.

Note: You can learn more about how I use my calendar as a task manager in my free “Chaos To Control” productivity and journaling system.

There you have it.

Follow the ATAC system and you’ll never miss an important email from a coach again.

Thank you for reading!

Matt

P.S. If you could use an advisor, advocate, and mentor through the college baseball recruiting process, reply to this email to schedule a free consultation with me to discuss your specific situation.