For an assistant to be effective, they need to be organized. With so much to manage each and every day, there’s a constant risk of something falling through the cracks. This risk, however, can be greatly diminished if one can stay on top of everything – it’s just a matter of finding processes and systems that work for you and your workflow.
With that in mind, here are five tips you should consider following to become more organized.
Sticky notes are your friends
While smartphone apps and other software solutions are great innovations for keeping an assistant organized, sometimes the older more tangible ways of organizing are the best. Slapping a bunch of sticky notes to a board or your monitor can be just as effective as keeping those things you need to be on top of at the forefront of your mind.
Maintain a database of important information
An assistant’s role requires storing and managing an exceptional amount of information. From more important things like client intelligence to the more banal like restaurants your Executive enjoys, there is value in maintaining databases of useful information.
It’s much easier to find what you need when you know where it will be stored. You can use specialist programs, but often a simple spreadsheet will do the job.
Give yourself time to plan every day
The value of spending some time planning every day simply cannot be overstated. While it might feel at first as though you’re wasting time, the faster speed at which you’ll be able to complete tasks over the day will more than make up for anything lost in the beginning.
Use your own calendar
Like most assistants, it’s likely you’re totally on top of your Executive’s calendar – but what about your own? Sure, there might not be as many events to populate it but there’s certainly a use for a calendar to manage the calendar.
De-clutter everything
When your desk, your calendar, your hard drive and more are cluttered up with junk, it can be difficult to think clearly and be productive. Giving yourself time each month to de-clutter everything in your work environment can make it a great deal easier to start with a clean slate – and a clean slate means your mind doesn’t have to be distracted thinking about the past.
Becoming more organized is easy when you have the right systems and processes in place.
