Administrative Arts » Ask the Admin

Ask the Admin: Making Tasks Private

Jodith — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:00:00 +0000

I got this e-mail from Marcie:

I am trying, for the first time to set a task in Outlook 2010. I would like the task to recur hourly, starting at 8:am and ending at 5:pm, every weekday. This reminder is to remind me to drink 8 oz. of water. My calendar is viewable by my 2 Directors and 3 Academic Coordinators, and even though I’m sure none of us personally care how much water I consume, I just don’t want to place it on my calendar, one of the coordinators, is on Atkins and has her snack times 10:30a & 3:00p visible on her calendar as a recurring appointment every day. I just don’t want my water consumption to show up like that on my calendar. Can you offer an advise?

Thanks for the question, Marcie. Since tasks don’t show on your calendar, using the task function is a good way to go. It’s fairly easy to set a task to private, so only you see it. Others who have access to your tasks can see that there is a task, but won’t be able to see what it is.

Open the New Task window. On the left hand side of the tool bar, under the Tasks tab, you’ll see a button called “Private”. Click that to toggle privacy on and off for that particular task.

As for setting an hourly task, I answered that question previously. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to do it. Click here to read my post on setting hourly tasks.Similar Posts:

Ask the Admin: Meeting Minutes Retention

Jodith — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

I got the following e-mail from Dee:

I am the Secretary of our neighborhood community association, how long should we retain the minutes. I do not want to keep minutes for many years. Thanks Dee

Hi, Dee. Thanks for your question. You don’t indicate if you are talking about Board minutes or membership meeting minutes. According to every reference I can find for document retention, Board minutes should be kept permanently.

I didn’t find any specific references to membership meeting minutes in any of the research I’ve done.

Non-Profit Document Retention Recommendations

What I did find was a report from 2007 compiled by the Collaborative Electronic Records Project at the Rockefeller Archive Center on record retention for non-profits. This doesn’t only give a sample document retention schedule, it actually talks about categories of records and how long to keep them. With that knowledge, you can look at your membership meeting minutes and decide how long they need to be kept.

Another good document I found talks about setting up a document retention policy. Both of these documents have footnotes and a bibliography to source material, so anyone interested in in-depth information on document retention policies has a good place to start.

I hope this helps, Dee. If you have further questions, just leave a comment and we’ll see if we can get some input from some of the other admins reading this blog.

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Ask the Admin: Records Retention

Jodith — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

I got this e-mail from Kelly:

What is the business standard for the length of time to keep meeting minutes?

Thanks for your question, Kelly. You didn’t specify what type of minutes you need to keep. How long you retain meeting minutes will depend on the type of meetings you are referring to. Most record retention schedules I’ve seen have recommended keeping board meeting minutes permanently. Those are the only meeting minutes that are referred to in most retention schedules.

For other types of high level meeting minutes, such as executive management meetings and the like, you will probably want to get a recommendation from your legal department as to how long they should be kept. For departmental level meetings, I would suggest the current calendar year plus 2-5 years, just to have an historical background for procedural purposes.

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Ask the Admin: Managing E-mail for the Boss

Jodith — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:05:00 +0000

This question came from Jody:

Did you get any feedback on how assistants typically work with their boss’ email?

My boss has never had anyone help him with his vast quantities of email and I am wondering where to look for best practices.

I did not get any comments on the post I previously wrote about managing the boss’s e-mail, but I did go out and find some discussions I had previously seen on other sites.

There were two discussions on Office Arrow, both with some good tips:

Patricia on Laughing All The Way To Work also had a good post on this topic that you may find helpful:

Managing your Boss’s Inbox

My best advice on managing someone else’s inbox, is to design your procedures in conjunction with the owner of the inbox you are managing. Different people do better with different organizational structures. Talk to your boss about what he wants you to handle. If he doesn’t know, make suggestions based on your own experience. Start there, and review the procedure with him frequently in the early days to get feedback on what is working and what isn’t. Change your procedures over time based on that feedback. The important thing is to take the initiative of getting the conversation started and finding something that works.

Does anyone else have any suggestions to help Jody manage her boss’s e-mail? Leave a comment and help out. Note: if you are reading this in a blog reader or by e-mail, you’ll need to click through on the title to leave a comment on the blog web page.Similar Posts:

Setting Up A Filing System Part 5: More on Naming Computer Files

Jodith — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:38:00 +0000

I talked about naming computer files in Part 4 of Setting Up a Filing System, but I mostly talked about Windows file naming conventions. In comments, Layne made another suggestion:

I would like to suggest in your series on “How To” set up a filing system electronically if you would include a write up on naming files. Some suggestions that make it easy to locate, uses consistency so when you sort you would see all the memo, letters, etc. separately. That kind of thing. I know you get the gist of what I’m saying. I think it would be a great addition to your series.

This is a great suggestion, Layne. I’m always being asked to find files that someone else named and now can’t find. Having a naming convention for file types can be extremely helpful in organizing files, especially in network folders where multiple people are saving documents.

When I was learning MS Access years ago, a programmer taught me to name all of my elements starting with the type of element. For example, all table names began with TBL, and all query names began with QRY. That way, when you were looking at the elements of a database, it was easy to distinguish what each element was without having to open and look at it.

Planning Your Naming Conventions

This type of naming convention can work with standard document files as well. Look at, in general, the types of documents you save. Memos, letters, faxes, policies, whatever you save on a regular basis, and then make up your own naming conventions that everyone should follow. MEM for memo, LTR for letters, etc. Of course, you’ll need management buy-in for a policy like this, but it can make finding files quicker and easier. If you know the file you want is a memo, then you sort by name and look at all files beginning with MEM. For bookkeeping files, you might have INV for invoices and BIL for bills. This is especially handy if you are a paperless office and shred everything after scanning it into your computer systems. While many of us keep separate folders for AP and AR, if you have a file type naming convention, you can easily see if a document was filed in the wrong folder, which is handy.

You’ll still want to keep your hierarchy of files, but even with several folder depths, you can still get folders with hundreds of files. A file type naming convention can help you wade through those files to find the one you want more easily.

Consistency Is The Key

Whatever naming convention you choose, consistency is vital in its application. Little things like what goes between the file type and the rest of the name is very important. If the convention is space dash space (i.e. MEM – Casual Friday), everyone must be consistent in using that, or it will mess up the system. Windows doesn’t interpret file names, it lists them alphabetically exactly as they are typed. So “MEM – Casual Friday” will be listed before “MEM-Casual Friday” and everything else that skips the spaces.

Utilizing Windows To Its Fullest

In my next post, I’ll talk about setting up Windows Explorer to also help make finding files easier.

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Ask the Admin: Advice on Calendar and Travel

Jodith — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Yes, we have another Ask the Admin e-mail today. This one is from Beatriz.

I have worked as Personal Assistant/ Companion for the last seven years?

I have never worked with calendars and extensive travel arrangements.

Which books or websites do you recommend for learning how to manage

Calendars and do extensive travel arrangements?

Hi, Beatriz. Thank for your question.

Administrative Assistants have a number of places they can turn to learn new skills. This blog is one of them. I’ve written a number of times on both of these subjects. If you look at the categories on the right, you’ll find a breakdown of topics. Choose Travel for travel arrangement posts, and Microsoft Outlook for various topics on Outlook (I’m assuming you use Outlook as it’s the most prevalent calendaring software being used in offices). I wrote two post specifically about managing the boss’s calendar: Managing Calendars: More Ways to Keep the Boss Productive and Managing Calendars Part 2: Scheduling More Than Meetings.

Other places to find information and get advice include OfficeArrow and AdminSecret. For specific training on Outlook, Microsoft offers some great free tutorials.

As for books, Amazon has any number of books on Microsoft Outlook (affiliate link). I hesitate to recommend any one book because I haven’t used any of them.

If you have more specific questions, just leave a comment here and I’ll help any way I can. Thanks again for your question.

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Ask the Admin: Outlook Appointment Properties

Jodith — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

We have another question today, this one from Sheila.

Hi Jodith

Is there a way in Microsoft outlook if you right click on properties for an appointment that you can see who created the appointment and when it was last edited and by whom?

If there is a way to do that I would create a monument in your honor! Seriously!

Hi, Sheila. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to earn your monument, because I can’t give your the “who” in your question. My understanding from perusing the Microsoft Tech Boards is that if your calendar resides in the default calendar location, and whose doesn’t, then the property for created and/or modified by will always be your name, regardless of who actually sent it. So even if you were up to coding a custom calendar view, which is required to get this information, it wouldn’t do you any good unless you have a custom calendar set up.

Finding the Created and Modified Dates

I can, however, help you find the created date and last modified date. The last modified date is easiest because it is in the appointment properties. Open your appointment and click on the Windows button (in 2007) or the File menu (in 2003) and choose ”Properties”. The last modified field is located there.

Finding the creation date is a bit more difficult. Click on “View” and then “Current View” and then “By Category”. Then click on “View”, “Current View”, and then “Customize Current View”.

Click on the “Fields” button. Then, under “Frequently Used Fields”, you should see “Created”. This is the field that tells you when an appointment was created. Click on it and click the “Add” button. Then click “OK”, and then “OK” again. This will insert the “Created” field into this view, so you can look up the created time in this view. Unfortunately, you can’t add it to other views unless you know how to do custom coding.

Sorry I couldn’t help more. You can always talk to your IT team and see if they can do some coding for you to create a custom form for appointments to show who created it and made revisions. And, of course, you would need a custom location for your calendars, which they could also help you with.

Talk To Microsoft

My main suggestion is give feedback to Microsoft on 2010, which is still in beta, to have these fields correctly added to the properties form in 2010. I know you aren’t the first person who has wanted this. Pretty much every assistant working in an Exchange environment has wished for this at one time or another. If enough of us ask for it, they might add it in. The best place I could find to do that is in the Beta Forums. You’ll need to register, but it’s worth it. The Microsoft forums is a great place to find answers to your Office questions.

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Ask the Admin: Measurable Goals for Assistants

Jodith — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:50:00 +0000

This question comes from Keira:

My boss has recently asked me to write a set of measurable goals for her based on my responsibilities but I’m not sure how to go about it – how can I measure what I do on a daily basis (answer phones, field emails/calls, event management/planning) etc?

It’s often difficult to come up with measurable goals when many of our duties are routine. There are some things you can use, though.

Training

This is an easily measurable goal. You either receive training or you don’t. You could, for instance, set a goal of attending two trainings in the coming year. Another possibility is joining a professional organization like the IAAP. You could also look at pursuing a degree, perhaps taking a class a semester. Another option is joining OfficeArrow (affiliate link), which includes free on-line training with a paid membership. Usually your department will have funds set aside for training which could be used to pay for any of these possibilities. Talk to your boss about it.

Deadlines

Although much of our duties are routine, we certainly have deadlines that we must meet. Set a goal of meeting deadlines 75% of the time. Then each year as you achieve your goal, you can set it a bit higher the next year. You might want to create a form for tasks with deadlines that the person requesting the task can fill out. This gives you the tracking data you need to calculate your success.

Job Tracking

I’ve often found when looking at performance evaluations and setting goals that neither my boss nor I realize just how much time is spent on various duties. Often a good first goal is to do a time study for your positions. Spend at least several months tracking the time you spend on various tasks. From there you and your boss can look at where your time is actually spent, and together you can decide where your position is heading and what your goals should be for the coming year. You may find you are spending way too much time on one task. Perhaps you need more training to do that task better. Perhaps that is a task that can be delegated. You don’t really know until you can pinpoint exactly what it is you do every day.

Look At Past Evaluations

Past evaluations can be a good clue as to where you need improvement. Look at items you were marked lowest and think of measurable goals that might go with those items. You may need to use some creativity to find ways to measure some performances. Think about the end result you need to achieve and then what needs to happen to achieve that result. Who needs to answer about your improvement or lack thereof. For instance, if you were taken to task about being a team player, perhaps you need a quarterly form filled out by your team members asking about your performance in that area?

Desk Reference Manual

If you don’t already have one, create a desk reference manual that details all of the procedures you use for your regular tasks. Having a reference manual is invaluable if you have to be out of the office and have a temp covering. Include things like filing procedures, travel arrangements, daily schedule, little details about how your boss likes things done. Whatever you do on a daily basis, document how you do it and include it in your manual.

Money Saving

Look at where your department spends money and see if you can find ways to reduce the amount you spend on certain items. Of course, if you are in a big company, you often don’t have a choice of venders, but you can look at procedures to see what they cost the company and if procedural changes can make a cost difference. Remember, time savings are money savings as well.

Whatever you set for your goals, remember not to set them extremely high the first time. Goals need to be achievable. Set them lower the first time, and then in coming evaluation periods, you can set them higher in each following period.

What Are Your Goals

What goals do you set for your performance evaluation? How do you make them measurable? Leave a comment and let’s learn from each other.

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Ask the Admin: Recurring Hourly Tasks in Outlook

Jodith — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:00:07 +0000

I had a request from a reader about setting up recurring tasks in Outlook on an hourly basis. I know of only two options, both of which are workarounds. After doing some Google searches, I haven’t found anything else better, though.

Use the Snooze Button

The first option is to set a daily recurring task starting first thing in the morning. When your reminder pops up, set the snooze time for 1 hour. Then, throughout the day, whenever the reminder pops up, just keep snoozing it for an hour at a time. At the end of the day, remember to mark the task complete so you get the next task popping up the next morning. This isn’t the most precise option, since you may not see it immediately when it pops up, but it is the easiest to set up. If you need to set your reminder for an hour after the last one, it works well. If, however, you need to have your reminders at precise times, then try the next option.

Multiple Recurring Tasks

If you need your reminders to occur at precise times, then the other option is to set up a recurring task for each time of the day that you need a reminder. It takes longer to set up, because you have to set up multiple tasks, but you’ll get your reminders precisely on time. For example, if you need to be reminded of a task on the hour between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., then you’ll set up 10 separate recurring tasks, each with a reminder for one of the hours (8 a.m, 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., etc., etc., etc.). The set up is annoying, but you’ll get your reminders at the precise times you need them. Again, remember to mark each task complete so you get the task to reoccur the next day.

Software Workarounds

Remember, no software will ever have all of the options you’d like. Sometimes you have to use your ingenuity to make software do what you need. When you need a piece of software to do something it isn’t designed to do, stop and think about what the software does do, and how the software works. Often you can come up with what the tech folks call “workarounds”. Essentially, you use the software to do the job the software isn’t designed to do, as we did above with the recurring tasks in Outlook. Being able to come up with workarounds when you need them can make using your software a much less frustrating task.Similar Posts:

Ask the Admin: Becoming a Virtual Assistant

Jodith — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:00:53 +0000

I received this e-mail from Andrea:

On my personal day off, I’ve been thinking about leaving my cubicle assistant job–where I’m basically working as assistant for a bank via a real-estate holding company–and making it a start-up business for myself. I want to become a virtual admin assistant with an added value of research assistant (so I can use my librarianship degree).

Any advice, such as your read of the market for such a business in this economic climate? Any insight is welcome!

Thanks for a very timely question, Andrea.

With the current economic crisis, many assistants are looking at becoming a Virtual Assistant as a hedge against unemployment. I’ll be honest and tell you that the field is very competitive at the moment with so many starting new businesses in this area. However, it is still a relatively untapped field, with many small businesses and entrepreneurs not yet understanding what a Virtual Assistant is and does, so there is definitely room for expansion in this field.

If you want to learn more about becoming a Virtual Assistant, here’s a couple of links that I’ve found very helpful:

I’ve found both of these communities to be extremely open, friendly, and helpful. You’ll learn a great deal from the veterans there about what it takes to start and maintain a VA business.

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Ask the Admin – What More Do I Need?

Jodith — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:00:14 +0000

I received this e-mail from Kathy:

I have a AA in Business Administration with a concentration in management, a bookkeeping diploma and a administrative assistant diploma and I still have a hard time getting an administrative assistant job. As for experience I would say i have the bear minimum because of where I live. What do I need to do in order to get an administrative assistant position?

It sounds to me that with your education you should be able to qualify for an entry level assistant position. You’d qualify for more with more experience, probably. The main problem at the moment is the economy. I know people with years of quality experience that have been looking for jobs for over a year with no luck.

You didn’t mention if you are getting interviews or not. My recommendations are based on whether or not you are. If you aren’t getting many interviews, the problem may be with your resume. If you don’t have much assistant experience, then you’ll need to tweak your resume to make your administrative knowledge and education stand out. I always recommend the same book to everyone for building a resume, and that is Regina Pontow’s book, Proven Resumes: Strategies That Have Increased Salaries and Changed Lives (affiliate link). I used this book myself a number of years ago to revamp my resume, and saw the number of interviews I was offered increase dramatically. It’s written with strategies for everyone, whether you have no experience or way too much.

If you are getting interviews with no job offers, then I recommend the book Job Interviews For Dummies (affiliate link), another book that I’ve used myself. It has a lot of great information about how to conduct yourself at an interview and strategies for every phase of the interview process.

Both of these books helped me tremendously in getting interviews and converting interviews to job offers. I highly recommend both of them.

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Ask the Admin: Staying in Touch While Traveling

Jodith — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:00:21 +0000

Lisa sent me the following e-mail:

Do you have any tips or advice for communicating daily, weekly or priority items when traveling for weeks at a time.

Thanks for your e-mail, Lisa. As it happens, I worked for 3 years for one boss who traveled almost 50% of his time, so I learned a great deal about how to keep in touch while he was traveling.

Make Sure You Have a Plan

If you have a boss who travels frequently, you need to have a plan in place to make sure the two of you stay in touch while he’s out of the office. Make sure you sit down together a day or two before he leaves to discuss things that might come up while he’s gone. Some of the topics to cover are:

Any current issues that may come to a head while he’s out, and who is in charge of those issues while he’s away.
What types of issues he expects to be notified about immediately.
What types of issues can wait until you next talk.
What issues can wait until he’s back in the office.
Who is in charge of what departments while he’s out (i.e. who’s the go-to person for different issues that may come up).
How often will he contact you while he’s out of the office. Usually, depending on the time difference, my boss would contact me once or twice a day to touch base and go over any pending problems. If anything of an emergent nature comes up, I would contact him (sometimes in the middle of the night if he was in Asia).

Having a plan in place before your boss leaves can relieve a lot of stress on the part of you both while he’s traveling.

Monitoring E-mail

Usually when people travel for business, their schedules are pretty tight, and they don’t have time to keep up with their daily e-mail. Make sure and find out if your boss wants you manage his e-mail in a more hands-on basis than normal. A boss that generally only wants you to keep an overview of his e-mail may want you to take point when he’s traveling. For my boss, I would set up a folder called “For When You Return”, and I would put all non-urgent messages there. He could glance at them if he had time, but he knew none were urgent and could wait for his return. I’d often send phone messages to him by e-mail and file them in that folder as well. Any urgent e-mail I would turn red so he’d see it immediately when he checked his e-mail. And, of course, any e-mail that was of an emergent nature I would call him about. If it’s something you normally do, you would continue to delegate any issues to others that are appropriate.

It’s a Trust Issue

The most important thing if you have a boss who travels frequently is to have built a high level of trust. The boss needs to know that you can make appropriate decisions about what needs to be delegated, what can wait, and what needs an immediate notification. This is the kind of trust that is only built over time, and it requires cooperation from your boss to build the knowledge and trust necessary. If your boss doesn’t talk to you regularly about his work and his priorities, you aren’t going to have the knowledge necessary to be able to make those types of important decisions, and he won’t feel comfortable leaving delegated responsibility with you when he travels. It’s another reason why it’s so important to push your boss about having a daily meeting. You need to be a partner with your boss if you are going to be able to do everything he needs when he’s away.

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Ask the Admin: Dealing With a Difficult Boss

Jodith — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:00:43 +0000

Today we have another question from a reader: how do you handle a difficult boss? Here’s the e-mail I received:

How do you deal with a boss who’s not only moody, but crazy?

I swear she must be bi-polar. She will fly off the handle at the smallest thing – and everything in the world is the biggest tragedy.
She has not perception of personal boundaries. If someone has food out on the desk such as granola, chips or cookies – she will walk right up reach her hand in the bag and help herself. She can curse a blue streak and is computer illiterate. It’s not like she has been here 35 years and is a part of the woodwork – she was hired in July of 2009 I believe because of her “Dynamic” personality to raise the profile of the organization in the area but I believe she will raise awareness for all the wrong reasons.

Any ideas on how to cope?

I apologize in advance for the long post, but there are several separate issue here that I’d like to address.

Defending Personal Boundaries

Let’s take the issue of personal boundaries first.

This is an issue that everyone will deal with at some point in their career, if not with a boss, then at least with a coworker. Let’s face it, not everyone has the same concept of personal boundaries. Personally, I have huge personal boundaries, and I mean really huge. If someone gets within 5 feet of me, I get tense. Of course, that’s not a boundary I can rightly defend in the office. Sometimes I just have to share that extended personal space with others. However, I do draw the line at more close contact.

That’s the situation you have here. Her definition of personal boundaries is much different than yours. The only way to deal with such an issue is to address it in a cordial and friendly manner. Ask to talk with her, sit down and explain that the situation makes you uncomfortable. Make sure to address it in a manner that is non-threatening and non-blaming. Your comments should be framed in the form of “I feel x when you do y”. Always address it as your feelings and not her actions. Because that’s what it comes down to. Your feelings. So essentially you are asking a favor of her to not cross your boundaries. “I feel very uncomfortable when you just take food off my desk without asking.” Most likely she’ll apologize and try not to do it any longer. If she does, just giver her a gentle reminder that you are very uncomfortable with that behavior.

Setting and maintaining boundaries is something we all must do every day in all of our interactions. Some are easier to set and maintain than others, but it’s something we have to do for our own peace of mind. Remember though, that in the workplace, you need to choose your battles. Just like I can’t ask people never to come within 5 feet of me, there are times when your boundaries have to be let down a bit. However, on this subject, I’m on your side. She should ask before taking food from someone else.

You can find some excellent books on the subject at Amazon.com such as Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every Day (this is an affiliate link). I read this particular book some time ago and found it particularly helpful.

Cursing in the Workplace

This is another issue that is akin to personal boundaries. And, of course, my answer here is going to depend on whether she is just cursing in general without particular anger, or whether she is cursing at you or others and/or raging in anger. I’ll deal with the former issue here, and address the latter issue further down.

Again, this is a boundary issue. Cursing has never particularly bothered me in the workplace, mainly because I grew up in the army and heard cursing all of my life. But that’s just me. I know other people are very bothered by cursing, which is why I avoid using it in the office. Again, this is something that should be discussed with your boss just like the above personal boundary issues. Most people are aware that cursing makes people uncomfortable and are willing to restrict themselves, especially in a professional atmosphere.

Dealing with Abuse

Defending personal boundaries is one thing, but dealing with abuse is something else entirely. No one should have to deal with abuse in the workplace!

Dealing with moodiness is one thing, but if she is yelling, throwing things, or cursing at you, then her behavior needs to be addressed, and not by you. In any case where there is abuse in the workplace, the best thing you can do is talk to Human Resources. Before you go, sit down and make a list of things that have happened in chronological order. Write things out in detail. What was said by whom, what happened, what actions took place. Also detail how the words and actions made you feel. Then make an appointment with your HR representative and discuss the issue with them. It should be up to them to make a discreet investigation, and then deal with the issues with your boss.

It’s always difficult to deal with an issue that may be due to mental illness. There’s ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) considerations, among others. But even if she turns out to have a mental illness, that does not giver her leave be abusive to her staff or anyone else. You have a right to be protected from such behavior.

I wish you luck in handling this situation. It’s never easy, even when it’s a coworker, but when it’s a boss who holds your career in their hands, it can be an incredibly frightening situation. Again, there are some excellent books on the subject. This one got great reviews on Amazon: The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job (this is an affiliate link).Similar Posts:

Ask the Admin: Scheduling Tasks for Others

Jodith — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:00:52 +0000

And we have another question about Microsoft Outlook, this time about scheduling e-mails. Json asked in his e-mail:

Hi I read your article about setting up recurring tasks and wonder if there is any way to do automatic email reminders to my staff. My staff members have tasks with different due dates. For example, staff A has a yearly recurring task with due date on July 1, staff B has a yearly recurring task with due date on March 1…. Is there anyway I can set up auto email reminders to them respectively 5 days, 1 day prior to due date? Or do I have to buy a third party application for that?

My reply to Json:

You have two options here. You can schedule an e-mail to each team (I have directions here in my post about scheduling e-mails in MS Outlook), or you can create a task and assign it to the team, which will put the task on the task list of the person or persons assigned to the task. Just create a task and set the recurrence for yearly, and set the due date and start date for the task. Then click the Assign button and assign it to the person or persons who will be working on that task. Don’t forget to set the reminder before sending the task.

I prefer the second option. Microsoft Outlook has a nice setup for working on tasks as a team. You can put notes in the task to note the progress. Set up regular reminders of the task, and even attach documents the team needs to do the work. And it allows the boss to monitor the progress of the task and keep track of it. I think, probably, that most people don’t use even half of the powerful capabilities of Microsoft Outlook.

Thanks for your question, Json.

What’s Your Opinion?

Anyone have any alternate ways to solve Json’s issue?

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Ask the Admin: Set up Recurring Tasks at 8 Month Intervals

Jodith — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:10 +0000

I had a question stemming from my post on setting up recurring tasks in Microsoft Outlook. Pierre wants to know how to set up a task to recur at 8 month intervals.

This is actually quite easy. If you look at the Task Recurrence Window:

If you choose Monthly as the recurrence period, you’ll see that you can insert not only the day of the month on which the task occurs, but also how many months between occurrences. If you want it every 2 months, enter 2 in that box. If you want it every 8 months, enter 8 in that box. Very simple, very easy.

Hope this helps you, Pierre! Thanks for the question.

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