Checklists and Priorities

So many things to do, so little time... tick-tock, tick-tock and before you know it - you're strung out.

In my first 2 months as an EA, I stayed in the office for more than 12 hours, trying to catch up with my workload. I see new EAs do the same. I realized that it's not because we were really hard workers and fanatics about our jobs... when you habitually stay back long after you should be going home, it only means that you haven't learned how to establish priorities. 

C'mon, you can't finish everything today! So, don't try. You'll burn out in no time. Some tasks can wait until tomorrow without the world ending, believe it or not. The question is... can you differentiate which task is more urgent? 

New EAs and admins can be overwhelmed with the number and variety of tasks that fall on their plate. The first thing that I encourage you to do is to establish a system to help you get organized. When I train new EAs, I insist that they create a checklist of their daily tasks and pending deliverables and submit them to me before they go home. Why? To instill the habit of being on top of everything - which is a measurement of our effectiveness. An assistant who is always late and forgets things becomes a problem instead of a solution.

Checklists are life savers. They give you a tangible picture of what you need to do, instead of them just floating around in your head, making you feel harassed. It helps unclutter your thoughts. Not to exaggerate but those big check marks can give you peace of mind. They're beautiful... aren't they? (sniff...)

In our job, there's no such thing as a small task. Just imagine if you forgot to renew your boss's visa or forgot to send flowers to his wife on her birthday. (Yes, this happened to me...) Small is a matter of perspective. We were hired so the boss can forget about the small things that he's either too busy or too impatient to bother with. Any miss on your part will affect your boss one way or another. So, act like everything is urgent - but you must be able to identify which ones are more urgent than the others.

Use Checklists. Use your mobile calendar to remind you of what you need to do. We're not machines! Sometimes we do forget. Any system that can help us maintain our awesomeness should be explored.

I have my own EA in my Android Smart Phone which is called Chaos Control. It keeps me sane. It's nothing but an electronic checklist that I can refer to at all times. Whenever i think of something I need to do, I write it in the app and assign a deadline to determine which I should get to first. It gives me a full view of what I've accomplished and what still needs my attention. I just love the word DONE.

Don't let yourself be overwhelmed until you reach a point where you start missing deadlines and some to-dos just fall between the cracks. Learn how to PRIORITIZE and organize your time by using all the tools available to you. 

Get a grip! :)

Related Article: Compartmentalizing Life: Managing Your Time