5 Effective Time Management Skills Executive Assistants Need

In today’s fast-paced corporate environment, the role of an executive assistant (EA) has been transformed from a simple administrative role to a workload requiring a wide range of skills for various tasks. Technology continues changing the way we work, but becoming confident with the latest tools and software requires training and practice, and that all takes time.

For a busy EA managing one or more senior executives, time is not something in abundance.

Gone are the days when an executive assistant was responsible for answering phones, scheduling appointments, and managing paperwork. Nowadays, an executive assistant must have expertise in project management, financial analysis, public relations, travel itineraries, and online and offline meetings, in addition to their traditional administrative duties.

If, as an EA, you’re struggling to manage your time to complete all your tasks, Priority Management has tips for daily efficiency, from reaching ‘Inbox Zen’ to time management techniques. Our courses provide information on how to help with meeting management, prioritising deadlines, time blocking, and collaboration skills.

1. Mastering Inbox Management

Emails are a blessing for efficient business communication but can be overwhelming when the notifications pile up. Having an empty inbox, or ‘Inbox Zero’ seems like an impossible feat, but your daily performance can quickly improve once the steps are taken to organise your emails.

Here are some simple ways to become Inbox Zen:

• Unsubscribe from newsletters: There’s nothing wrong with some light reading, but when the amount of subscriptions starts to overshadow your unread folders, ask yourself if it’s content you still enjoy.
• File incoming mail: Rather than treating your unread messages as an inefficient to-do list, file incoming mail instead. Folders or tags can be for a specific year, project, or people.
• Schedule blocks: Set aside specific times in your calendar to read your emails, rather than opening your phone at every constant notification interruption.
• Deal with emails with one click: Reply, delete, or archive emails straight away to overcome inbox procrastination.

In Priority Management’s time management courses, we help clients with time management tips for email organisation, such as developing habits for creating folders and subfolders for filing, making the most of the ‘Sort and Delete’ function and maintaining order to reach Inbox Zero. Whether your executive assistant skills are with Outlook or Google apps, our team at Priority Management understand their systems to maximise your email efficiency.

2. Adapting to Dynamic Work Environments

Managing tasks in a digital, fast-paced work environment becomes challenging when work-life balance blurs. With everyone online, we transfer decisions, feedback, and thoughts from the palm of our hands. Our workspace is portable. It can be hard to plan when meetings are organised or cancelled at the last minute, situations and schedules change, priorities are refocused, and new projects are prioritised. The modern business world crucifies someone who is not proactive, self-disciplined, and can flexibly navigate interruptions.

The first step to self-discipline is to begin your workday with the correct mindset. Grab your coffee before you go through your activities for the day. Ward off any distractions with regular, meaningful breaks to manage stress and fatigue, and remain committed to ticking jobs off your list.

A to-do list is imperative. They should be comprehensive and achievable goals, classified according to their difficulty, priority, or deadline. Attention to detail with your checklist will encourage proactivity, calendar management, and stress management as you maintain perspective on your progress. That way, when new, unexpected tasks are thrown your way, you’ll be better equipped to focus and delegate accordingly.

3. Efficient Office Hacks

Simple changes have a big impact on your daily organisation. Tidying your desktop and workspace, and investing in an ergonomic desk and office chair will ensure a clean mind and comfort to commence your day.

• Schedule standing meetings as they tend to run shorter than sitting ones (fewer distractions and time wastage!). Standing meetings keep discussions succinct while promoting more developed ideas. It’s also a great way to encourage a healthier, less sedentary lifestyle among office employees.
• Lock your phone in a drawer. Schools have seen an increase in student productivity with the introduction of magnetic phone pouches in 2019. Why not utilise this success in the office?
• Wear noise-cancelling headphones to concentrate on the task at hand. They’re also a sign to your colleagues that you do not wish to engage in conversation with anyone at that point in time, therefore controlling potential distractions.
• Learn keyboard shortcuts to save even more time. With long periods of typing documents, itineraries, and reports, you can save a lot of time with keyboard shortcuts to streamline repetitive activity, even basic ones like Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste.

4. Working Smarter, Not Harder

Decision-making and problem-solving pressures can wear you down. As an executive assistant, alongside your usual scheduling problems and client requests to address, colleagues may ask your advice on questions that cater to your skill set, which can impact your workflow. This is called decision fatigue.

Therefore, limit the decisions you have to make in your own life. Build regular habits and routines. Plan your wardrobe and lunches at the beginning of the week, and delegate unnecessary decisions to team members. Start your day early, utilise your peak energy levels, remain concentrated, and select one job, broken into manageable steps, to accomplish in the morning.

A great time-saving tool to maximise your time at work is to automate repetitive and simple tasks. Using software and templates for email responses can save you precious hours throughout the week that you can redirect to projects with hard deadlines.

5. Utilising Effective Time Management Tools

Apps like RescueTime and Toggl Track have time-tracking and distraction-blocking functionalities that run in the background of your laptop and mobile devices to provide insights into your unproductive habits and how to eliminate them.

MyLifeOrganized is a great diary-type software that encourages organised goal setting in your personal and professional life, almost like having a second brain.

Or perhaps you need support in maintaining focus to make the most of the hours in your day. Parkinson’s Law suggests giving yourself less time to complete tasks. The Pomodoro technique (25 minutes of work interspersed with short breaks, and a longer break as a reward after several rotations) is another common productivity method. Apps like Focus Keeper adapt these processes into a user-friendly interface.

Making the Most of Your Time

Indeed, time management is an important soft skill to develop to cover the multitude of responsibilities of an executive assistant on any given day. Navigate this challenge by managing your inbox, improving your workplace environment and habits, or using apps and software to streamline your workflow.

However, if you’re struggling to multitask and learn time management skills with your workload, Priority Management offers short training courses for individuals and teams on strategies to optimise time and productivity. Our courses challenge understandings of the Microsoft Suite and Google apps capacities and explore the strategies of smarter meeting management.

With 40 years of experience teaching smart methods to businesses and teams, Priority Management are the experts in finding the best solution for enhancing your executive assistant skills in the modern, time-poor workplace. No matter how old your habits are, our courses have been demonstrated to save employees up to 54 minutes a day. Each course also comes with lifetime support and complimentary refreshers.

Call or email Priority Management now to commence your growth journey today.