Administrative Arts » Organization

Guest Post: Is Multitasking All It’s Cracked Up To Be?

Jodith — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Today’s article is a guest post from Wendy Stoneman.

You’re busy. You’ve got 12 things on your To-Do List. All of them have to get done today. In the middle of working down your list, the phone rings, emails messages come in, people stop by with requests – it’s a typical workday. That’s ok, you’re an excellent multitasker, right? You pride yourself on being able to get everything done – often at the same time. Here’s the bad news: you can’t actually multitask, and you’re less efficient for trying.

According to research, (yes, someone gets paid to study these sorts of things) what you’re really doing is serial tasking. You’re making high speed shifts in focus from one thing to another. Except in very special circumstances, the human brain just isn’t physically capable of fully focusing on more than one thing at a time. Each time you make a switch, you lose time. The more complex the task, the longer it takes to make the switch.

In some cases, the time costs of frequent switching are significant. Dr. David Meyer of the University of Michigan specializes in the study of what happens in the brain when a person tries to multitask. In a CNN interview Dr. Meyer reports that his study of the time costs of shifting can be “anywhere from 25 to 50 percent time increment to complete a task compared to what would be involved if you were to only concentrate on that task.”

In addition to the complexity of the tasks affecting your mental resources, the number of tasks you’re trying to juggle at the same time is also important. For each task you take on, you have less resources available to give it. Obviously, your results will reflect this lack of focus.

So what’s a busy admin to do? Your work isn’t going to change, and you still have those 12 things to do. Research shows that when you can dedicate 100% of your focus to one thing at a time, you’ll be done quicker and your work will be more accurate. When you’ve got a big project or a complex task, it pays to ignore other distractions. Don’t answer every email the second it comes in. Let the phone go to voice mail. Although you may not believe it, your company won’t go out of business if you’re unavailable for an hour.

Of course, you can’t isolate yourself for every project, but then some projects are more important than others. By prioritizing the truly important tasks and focusing completely on those – one at a time – you will improve your work product.

Fact check my quote at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0108/05/tonight.02.html

About the Author

Wendy Stoneman lives in Vienna, Virginia, and works at a mid-size law firm in nearby Fairfax, VA, where she is a legal secretary in the corporate law division. Wendy has worked in administrative roles for over 15 years in multiple industries all over the country. See Wendy’s previous Guest Posts here.Similar Posts:

Maintaining Your Office Supply Cabinet

Jodith — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Most of the time when we take a new administrative assistant or executive assistant position, part of our job duties is to order and maintain office supplies. Often, there is an already existing office supply cabinet, and we simply take note of what is currently used and reorder as necessary.

If you have to set up your office supply cabinet from nothing, though, what all do you need to order? Obviously, some specifics will be dictated by the type of office you work in and local preferences, but some generalities can certainly be added to your list.

Pens and Pencils

I generally stock three basic colors of pens: black, blue and red. Medium point pens tend to be the favorite, but you may get requests occasionally for fine point. I find gel ink pens to be a nice mid-priced pen, but if expenses are an issue, good, old-fashioned ballpoints work just fine, and you can get great deals by buying store brands. My personal favorite pen is the Pilot G2 Retractable Gel Ink Roller Ball Pen (associate link). It’s a nice mid-price pen with a good grip, smooth writing flow, and it doesn’t leak ink like some other gels I’ve bought in the past.

If anyone uses mechanical pencils, keep a supply of lead on hand, but you should probably keep a small supply of plain #2 pencils. The amount of pencils and lead to keep around will vary depending on your industry. Engineers tend to use a great deal of pencils. Social workers not so much. A few erasers are also good to have in the closet. The Clic Eraser Pen Style Erasers (associate link) are popular with folks who use pencils frequently.

Pads and Paper

Obviously you need copy paper on hand. Copy paper is a good way to save money if that is a consideration. However, be aware that the cheapest copy paper can also cause jam problems in today’s high speed copiers and printers. So if buying the absolutely cheapest paper isn’t a necessity, and you don’t want to spend part of every day on your hands and knees in front of the copier, you might want to look at a mid-grade copy paper.

Keeping a ream or three of various colored copy paper is good to have on-hand. Every once in a while someone will want to color code a document or cover pages.

Writing pads are another item of which you should keep adequate supplies. The specifics, again, will depend on the folks you work with. Most of the time, I find white, 8.5×11 legal pads satisfy most people. Again, if money is an issue, look at the store brands for a good deal on legal pads. I’ve found that employees who are frequently out of the office, such as salespeople and case managers, tend to like spiral notebooks or steno pads because the pages don’t come loose easily, and they can track their notes better. Again, though, the specifics will vary from office to office.

Post-it type pads are another item to keep stocked, preferably in a number of sizes. I usually keep the smallest notepads (1.5×2) and the 3×3 notepad on hand. If you have people who use the pop-up holders, you’ll need to get the fan fold post-it pads.

Next Post: Folders, Clips, and other necessitiesSimilar Posts:

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:

How To Find Your Electronic Files Faster

Jodith — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

In Part 5 of Setting Up a Filing System, I said I’d show you how to set up Windows Explorer to help you find your files faster. Many of you may know Windows Explorer as My Computer, since that is the name Windows gives the shortcut.

Windows Explorer Default View

The default view of files in Windows Explorer is the Icon view (click on the thumbnail to see in full size).

This view has a number of disadvantages:

Each file takes up more room on the page, so you have to scroll more to see all the files.
The files are alphabetized from right to left and then down. Your eye spends more time moving back and forth looking for the file you want, especially if you aren’t completely sure of the name of the file.
The only information you get is the file name and what program the file was created in, and that only if you recognize the icon.
If you have a long file name, it gets truncated, and you can only see the entire file name by clicking on the individual file.

Windows Explorer Detail View

Some people like the icon view, but I personally loathe it. The first thing I do on a new computer is to open Windows Explorer and change to the Detail view.

The things I like about the Detailed view are:

Files are alphabetized top to bottom, so there’s no side to side scanning.
You see the file size and date modified in addition to the name and file type.
You can easily change the column widths to see the entire file name.
Most importantly, you can change the sort order. Just click on the name at the top of a column to sort by that criteria. For instance, if you know the file you want was changed yesterday, click on the Date Modified column to sort by that date. If you know the file type is pdf, click on the Type heading to sort by file type. If you have a folder with many files, this can be very handy.

Changing the View in Windows Explorer

Changing the view in Windows Explore is quite simple. On the tool bar, there is a button that looks like a generic Windows icon. Click on that button to get a drop down list of available Views. Click on your preferred view. As I said earlier, my favorite view is the Detail view. Windows 7 note: You change the view the same way except that the button is on the right side of the tool bar.

Now, this only changes the view of the particular folder you are currently looking at. In order to change the default view in Windows Explorer, you need to take one more step.

Click on “Tools” on the menu bar and choose “Folder Options”. Then, in the Folder Options dialogue box, click on the View tab, and then on the “Apply to All Folders” button. This will change your default view.

Using the detail view in Windows Explorer will help you find the files you need faster.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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Office Supplies An Administrative Assistant Needs At Her Desk

Jodith — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:00:43 +0000

Let’s face it, as executive and administrative assistants, we never seem to have enough space in our desk to keep everything we need. Space always seems to be at a minimum. It’s hard to keep everything we need handy and still keep our desks looking neat and organized.

So what exactly do we need to keep either on our desk or in a handy drawer? Here’s a list of things I consider important to have easily available:

Stapler and staples – Do yourself a favor and get a decent stapler. Also, make sure you’re using the right staples for your stapler and that you’re using good quality staples. Good staples cost marginally more than bad ones, and you will probably end up saving money by not having to restaple your papers 5 times before the staple actually punctures the paper.
Tape – While you might not need tape every day, when you need it, you usually need it immediately. So keep your tape dispenser handy.
Ruler – Rulers are handy for so many things: as a straight edge for drawing lines, as a guide for data entry, even for actually measuring things. It may not need to go on your desk, but you need to have it handy.
Tablet or Notebook – I live or die by my notebook. I always have one handy to make notes and write things down so I don’t forget.
3-Hole Punch – Again, get a decent 3-hole punch, one that can punch more than 2 or 3 sheets at a time. Remember, the punches get dull after a while, so if the punches aren’t replaceable, get a whole new unit when it stops punching cleanly.
Pens and pencils – Keep a variety of pens in different colors available. Red is great for proofreading, blue is important for signing contracts, and black is just your basic utilitarian pen. Whether you keep them in a holder on your desk or in a drawer is up to you.
Highlighters – Again, keep a variety of colors handy. It’s helpful when analyzing data to be able to color code with highlighters.

Post-it Notes – Have a variety of sizes for different uses.
Post-it flags – Especially keep the “Sign Here” ones handy, but some plain ones in 2 or 3 colors are good to have as well.
Dictionary – Granted, you can look things up on-line these days, but when you need to prove your point to the boss, having the dictionary right there is handy.
Reference Manuals – Style guides, letter writing guides, industry references, whatever you need for the job you’re in.
File folders – I like plain manila folders myself, but some people like to use colored folders. I usually use colored folders for the ones I keep for the boss, i.e. “read this”, “sign this”, and “urgent-look at this immediately” type folders.
Calendar – Yes, I know, we have Outlook on our computers, but I don’t want to switch programs every time I need to look at a date.
Scissors – We always need to cut something.
Sewing Kit – Just one of those little travel sewing kits is great to have in your desk. You never know when the boss’s hem will come unsewed or a button pop off of his shirt. Always make sure the boss looks good when he leaves the office.

These are the things I consider to be the bare minimum of equipment I keep in or on my desk. Everyone is different though. What do you consider is absolutely necessary to have at your desk? Leave a comment and let us know.Similar Posts:

Setting Up A Filing System Part 4: Naming Computer Files

Jodith — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:00:21 +0000

Naming computer files in most ways is the same as naming any other file, except for a few conventions you need to think about.

Using Special Characters

Generally, when naming computer files in Windows, you cannot use the following characters:

< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
” (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)

However, there are other characters which are allowed under Windows that you should avoid.

Period or dot (.) should only be used before the file name extension (i.e. .doc, .ppt, .mdb, .txt, etc.). While you can throw a dot in anywhere, it can be confusing to others looking at the file name. Convention holds that it is used only to separate the file name from the file type extension.
Spaces can be used between words, but I recommend against it. The reason being that if you need to post a document on-line or upload it to a SharePoint library, those spaces are going to be replaced with the html code for a space, making the link hard to remember. Either use no spaces or replace spaces with underscores (_).
Other special characters should be avoided for the same reason that you may want to upload that document to a website at some point, and internet addresses cannot contain most special characters. So, unless you want to have to rename every file containing #, @, %, & or other special characters in the name before you upload it to your SharePoint document library, just don’t use them to start with. I had to rename over 200 documents one day because they all contained a # sign in the name.

Your best bet is to just not use anything but alphanumeric characters plus the dash and underscore keys when naming files.

Name Length

Windows allows file names to have up to 255 characters, which sounds like a huge amount, until you realize that the name of each file includes the name of every directory it is buried in. So, if you have a file buried under 5 directories, each with a long name, you can easily exceed the 255 character limit. If you move a file with a really long name into a directory many levels deep, all with long names, you’ll suddenly get an error when you try to open the file, because the file name is now more than 255 characters in length. When I did help desk work for a local refinery, I got at least one call from this problem a week, because everyone used very descriptive directory and file names, and would build these extremely deep file structures. The lesson here is to think about the length of all file and directory names when you are creating your filing system and naming files.

Dates in File Names

Putting dates in file names requires some special rules if you want your files listed in date order within your directory. Here’s some basic rules to follow:

Always use a 4 digit year and put the year first in the date. Otherwise, your files will be listed by month (or day if you use European dating conventions) with all years mixed together.
Don’t spell out month names (January, February, etc.) since this will put April ahead of March and December ahead of October and November.
Always use 2 digit month and day. If you don’t, you’ll see November (10) and December (12) listed before February or March (2 and 3). The reason for this is that Windows filing system does not recognize dates. It lists files strictly in alphanumeric order. So any file starting with 1 will proceed any file starting with 2. The way around this is to list 2 as 02 and 3 as 03.
All dates should be in the form of yyyy-mm-dd i.e. 2010-02-20). I know Europeans like the day then month format, but your electronic files won’t file properly if you put the day first.

While your only consideration in naming paper files is clarifying what the file contains, when you name electronic files, you have many other conventions to consider.Similar Posts:

Setting Up a Filing System Part 3: Creating Your Files

Jodith — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:24:42 +0000

In Part 1 of Setting Up a Filing System, I talked about the types of filing systems you can choose from. In Part 2, I talked about Active vs. Historical files. Now that you have some of the theory behind you, let’s talk about actually setting up your files.

Most of the time when we design a filing system, we already have files in place that we are recategorizing. If that is the case, you want to start by removing all of the files from the cabinets. If you are starting from scratch with many documents to file, then you don’t need that first step.

The next thing you should do is start going through your files or documents, and putting them in piles. As you categorize each file, think about what broad category that file or document should inhabit. You should have a pile for each broad category. As a broad category starts becoming unwieldy, start breaking it down into separate files for sub-categories. If you find you have one file that is too large for a file folder, you might want to think about splitting the file into multiple files, whether time based, alphabetical, or into further categories.

Labeling Your File Folders

Once you have your files and documents categorized, it is time to make up your folders. You’ll want hanging files labeled with your categories, and you’ll put the files within that category in those hanging files.

You have several options for labeling your folders. You can hand write them, which is easy, but doesn’t really look that professional. If you use labels, you have a variety of choices.

Full page file labels – You can use full pages of file labels to print your files. My experience with this is that it works great if you need to make a great deal of labels at one time, but is inefficient if you only want to label a few files. If you print labels a few at a time on the full page of labels, the remaining labels tend to get a dirty, gray look.
Specialty Printer for Labels – You can purchase a little desktop printer specifically for labels, such as the Brother QL-570 Professional Label Printer (affiliate link), which plugs into your USB drive. The bonus here is that it prints a variety of label sizes if you buy multiple label cartridges for it, so you can switch easily from file folder to address to shipping labels.
Label Maker – You can also purchase a generic label maker, such as the Brother QL-570 Professional Label Printer(affiliate link). These print single labels easily, but the tapes can be pricey.

Next up in the series: Electronic files with date in the file name.Similar Posts:

Setting Up a Filing System Part 2: Active vs. Historical Files

Jodith — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:22:00 +0000

One thing to consider when setting up your filing system is how you are going to treat active versus historical files.

Essentially, active files are ones you still need to have regular access to while historical files are those which you are unlikely need to access to, but which need to be kept for legal purposes.

Types of Active Files

When you start thinking about active files, your main consideration is how often you need to access those files.

Working Files – generally, I keep files I’m currently working with in my desk drawer or on a file holder on my desk. In other words, I keep them in a place where I don’t have to get up from my desk to retrieve them.
Reference Files – files that I access less than once a week or so are filed in a file cabinet further away from my desk. If I need to refer to them less than daily but more than once a week, they often go in a rolling file cabinet that I keep handy. It’s easy to roll over to my desk as I need it, but can be rolled out of the way if I don’t.

There are no clear cut guidelines as to which files to keep close to you and which ones can be filed further away. What you need to keep handy will depend on the job you do and the files you need to access frequently.

Purging Historical Files

Once files pass the time when they are used for reference, you have to decide if those files will be purged or archived. Certain files, like financial and legal files, need to be retained for a minimum amount of time before they are purged. Other files can be purged at any time. I found a pretty good retention schedule for the files you need to keep and how long you should keep them. Your company may have a retention schedule that they use. Always be sure and check, because you should always keep files at a minimum of what is called for by your corporate retention policy. If your company doesn’t have a file retention policy, you should look into suggesting one for adoption.

Once files pass the point of being active, you should either purge them or archive them, depending on your needs and company policy. Any records that are confidential or contain confidential information (such as payroll files and any information such as social security numbers or credit card information) should be securely shredded. Many companies are available who are bonded and can provide a certificate of destruction of this information.

Files that should be archived should be boxed and sent to wherever you archive your files. Be sure to mark the contents clearly on all sides of the box, and include a list of all files in the box for easy reference. You’ll want to keep that list for yourself, as well, so you can easily find an archived file if you need it.

Next Post: Setting Up Your Files.

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Setting Up a Filing System Part I

Jodith — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:36:18 +0000

No matter what level you work at in the administrative support field, whether you’re a receptionist or a C-Level Executive Assistant, you are going to end up doing filing. That’s just the way it is. When you work with documents, you have to know where to file those documents for later retrieval. Most of what I will discuss in this series should apply equally to paper as well as electronic files. There are a few things that will apply to one or the other, and I will point that out at the time.

Many times, we let our filing system grow up around us rather than designing an organized system from the start, so our files end up being something akin to organized chaos.

What Is The Purpose of a Filing System

Obviously, we use files to hold documents, but why are we keeping those papers anyway? The purpose of a filing system is to be able to retrieve those papers when we need them. If our system isn’t organized in an easily understood system, then we’re going to spend way too much time looking for papers we need later.

A filing system should be set up in such a way that any one can easily find documents they need even if she’s never been inside that filing cabinet before. Remember, if you get hit by a truck, someone needs to be able to come in behind you and manage your files.

Types of Filing Systems

The first step in setting up a filing system is to decide on what type of filing system you need. Essentially, you have two choices for filing systems when you organize your files: category or index.

A Category system is based on just that, categories. When you set up a category system, you’ll start with a set of broad upper level categories, and them break each category down into smaller sub-categories, which can then be broken down further into sub-categories if you need. You will want to limit the number of levels of sub-categories you use. I’ve found that more than three levels just gets confusing, and in electronic files you can run into long-name errors in Windows as you add levels to your directories. Most people use this form of filing system for general files. The benefit of a Category system is that it allows you to find a file even if you don’t know exactly how it is named, and you can pull whole all the files in a category easily if need be.

In an Indexed system, every file is assigned a distinguishing identifier, such as a number or name, and the files are sorted by the identifier. This form of filing system is best used for keeping specific types of files such as for patients, vendors, or customers. The benefit of this type of filing system is you can use color coding for the files, and can tell at a glance if a file folder is misfiled.

In my next post, I’ll talk about Active vs. Historical files.

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How to Organize the Boss’s E-mail

Jodith — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:00:15 +0000

Often as an administrative assistant (and very frequently as an executive assistant), you’ll have the job of monitoring and organizing your boss’s e-mail. This essentially entails reading through his new mail and either replying on his behalf, delegating the e-mail to one of her direct reports, or organizing e-mail that needs a response directly from the boss.

Microsoft Outlook gives you a number of ways to organize e-mail.

Folders - You can create folders for various categories of mail. These can be based on who sent the e-mail, the project the e-mail is about, the department it deals with, or any other logical pattern based on the needs of your boss. I frequently set up folders for newsletters he receives, since those are often lower priority, and getting them out of the inbox makes it less cluttered. Your boss may want you to set up a whole filing system for e-mails so old e-mails are easier to find. I had one boss that I not only set up the folders for, but it was my responsibility once a month to file the old e-mails into the folder system.

Color Coding – You have various ways to color code e-mail in Outlook. You can have the e-mail preview be in a different color, you can apply different colored flags to the e-mail, or you can color code by category (in Microsoft Outlook 2007 only). I’ve never been particularly fond of the color coding method, but for some people it works very well. Again, you can color code based on whatever system works for your boss.
Categories - You can also organize e-mail by applying categories. You can either choose from the default list of categories in Microsoft Outlook, or you can create new categories as needed.

Using Rules in Microsoft Outlook

Regardless of the method you use to organize e-mail, the use of rules can be very handy at doing some of the work for you. For instance, I mentioned earlier that I would create a folder for each kind of newsletter my boss received. I would set up a rule that when one of these newsletters arrived, Outlook should move it to the appropriate folder. You can make rules for all kinds of situations and with all sorts of effects, whether it’s moving the e-mail to a folder, changing the color, or applying a category. You can even use it to autoreply to commonly received e-mail that always get the same response. Using rules to organize e-mail is a great time saver for both you and your boss.

Do You Mange Your Boss’s E-mail?

How do you organize your boss’s e-mail? Do you have any tips to share to help us all out? Just leave a comment and share your e-mail tips. Remember, if you are reading this in e-mail or a feed reader, you’ll need to click the title and go to the website to leave a comment.

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Have You Got Google Wave?

Jodith — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:00:01 +0000

Google Wave is the newest application of the ever popular Google company. They’ve taken a variety of IM and networking tools and made a truly unique collaboration interface.

You can, of course, communicate with others in Wave as if you were in an IM, but you can do so much more than that. You can work on a document together, each typing at the same time, making changes as you go, attach documents, look things up on Google map, all within one screen. As more developers create add-ons, it will become more and more versatile. Even in it’s current beta stage, it already has some very cool functionality.

The Google Wave team has uploaded a number of videos over on YouTube to help people get started using Wave. Check some of them out to see the functionality of Wave.

If you’re already using Wave, you can connect with me at the e-mail address on the sidebar.

Do You Need a Google Wave Invitation?

If you’re not using Google Wave yet, I have some invitations left still. Send me your e-mail address (at the e-mail on the sidebar) and I’ll send you an invite. Note: You will need a Google account to use this (don’t worry, it’s free). If you (like me) have multiple Google accounts, be sure to be logged in to the Google account you want to use with Wave before you click on the invitation.

How Do You Like Wave?

Leave a comment and tell us how you like Wave! Is it useful? How do you think it might be able to help you in the office?

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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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10 Things To Do When You Have Nothing To Do

Jodith — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:32:56 +0000

photo credit: sunshinecity

One piece of advice that I give to every up-and-coming administrative assistant is this: NEVER SIT IDLE! If you have nothing to do, then go out and find something to do. Occasionally, though, you do find yourself temporarily at loose ends, so here’s a list of 10 things to do when you have nothing to do.

1. Clean up/Reorganize your desk

Go through your whole desk. Clean out the inevitable junk drawer, move things around to make them more accessible, toss out old pens that don’t write, clean your keyboard, monitor and phone (in my experience these always need cleaning), move your deskpad and clean under it, clean the crumbs and dust from your keyboard tray. In other words, just give everything a good sprucing up and make everything nice and organized.

2. Review Your Files

Go through and review all of your files. Start with your working files. Make sure everything is current and appropriately labeled. Make sure no labels are falling off and need to be replaced. Move any no longer current files to your reference/history files. When you’re done, do the same thing for your main files, moving older items to archives. If you haven’t already done so, type up a file structure for handy reference for when you’re looking for a file but can’t remember where you filed it (that’s saved my buns a time or two).

3. Read Through Your Contacts

Whether you keep them hard copy in a Rolodex or electronically in a program like MS Outlook, you should periodically review your contacts and update the information. I’m not just talking about phone number and address, but also little details you learn over time like the assistant’s name and number (vital information), spouse and childrens’ names, likes and dislikes. Also any negatives that you might need to know about next time they visit or call, like we had a major glitch on their account last year and really, really want to keep them happy. These are the kinds of details that help cement relationships and make clients feel appreciated.

4. Review Your Desk Reference/Procedures Manual

Go through your Desk Reference/ Procedures Manual and look for items that need updating or adding. Have you taken on a new duty that you don’t have documented? Have some of your duties changed? Take time to update your desk manual so anyone coming in behind you knows how things are done.

What do you mean you don’t have a Desk Reference Manual? Well, this is the perfect time to make one, isn’t it?

5. Organize Office Supplies

It’s been my experience that it doesn’t matter how often you organize your office supplies, they always need straightening again. I don’t know what it is, but when people get into the office supply cabinet, they are like little kids, just scattering things too and fro. Straightening up the office supply cabinet is always good for a few minutes work when you’re at loose ends, and people actually do notice and appreciate when the supply cabinet is user friendly.

6. Set up Recurring Tasks

Go into MS Outlook and set up recurring tasks for all of your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly duties. That way, when days are crazy, it’s easy to remember tasks that might otherwise slip your mind. I have reminders set up for little things like remembering to lock my file cabinets when I leave, as well as big things like running year end reports. While I don’t need the reminders every day for some tasks, it’s nice to have them there on those infrequent days that I do forget them.

7. Review Your Office Equipment

Is some of your office equipment aging? Spend some time looking at and pricing alternatives so when you do need to replace some of your equipment, you can do so quickly and easily.

8. Redesign Reports

Are there some regular reports that you look at and think could be done better, but you just never had the time? Well, now you do. Go in and redesign some of those reports that have good information but are ugly to look at or the ones that have good information but could have better. I always like to keep a list of little projects like this to have around for when times are slower.

9. Enter Business Cards into Contacts

Enter that huge stack of business cards your boss is hoarding into his Contacts list in Outlook. If you have a business card scanner, that makes it even easier.

10. Brush Up On Your Software Skills

These days the amount of software skill a good administrative assistant is expected to know is mind boggling. Use your down time to increase your skill with existing software, or even expand your skills with new software.

Remember, nothing looks worse for an Administrative Assistant or other office professional than to be seen sitting idle. Regardless of how much work you do, trust me, what they’ll remember at review time was the one time they saw you sitting with nothing to do.Similar Posts: