Links Roundup – July 16, 2007

Here we go again.  All of the links and tips I’ve shared recently on Twitter (or at least those I thought you might find interesting). What I’m Reading: 25 Things a Professional Woman Should Never Wear – Admin Secret adminsecret.monst… What I’m Reading: Add a Linear Regression Trendline to an Excel Scatter Plot online-tech-tips…. RT @TarotByArwen: PEOPLE! It’s "bated breath" not "baited breath"…unless you have minnows/worms/crickets on your tongue? RT @VTVA: If a job is huge, break it up into sections & schedule 2 or 3 [...] Continue Reading…

Maintaining Your Office Supply Cabinet Part 3

In my last post on this topic, I talked about various folder options, tapes and clips.  In this post, we’ll talk about desk set items that you should keep in the supply closet, media to have on hand, and other miscellaneous items needed. Desk Set Items Let’s face it, desk set items like staplers, hole punchers, and tape dispensers tend to grow legs and walk away.  Someone borrows yours and forgets to put it back.  They especially tend to walk away from public areas like copy areas and workrooms.  Also, while most of these items are fairly [...] Continue Reading…

Becoming a Project Manager

While being an Administrative or Executive Assistant is, for many of us, a career goal in itself, many assistants desire to grow into other careers.  One job I’ve personally seen a number of assistants grow into is Project Management.
What Is Project Management
Project Management, in a nutshell, is about planning, organizing and managing the resources of a specific project.  The Project Manager must successfully handle the resources, time, money and scope of a project to meet the outlined goals.
Projects are generally time delimited.  They can run from just a few months to several years.  Project Managers can work as freelancers, [...] Continue Reading…

Weekly Links Roundup

Here’s the latest roundup of links I’ve shared on Twitter.  You can follow me on Twitter as AdmnArts for my business related tweets, and as Jodith for my personal, political, and spiritual tweets. What I’m Reading: Avoiding Common Workplace Hazards and Injuries: Eyestrain | Human Resources Management | OfficeArrow officearrow.com/h… What I’m Reading: Hey Intern – Your Momma Called, Said Put on Some Clothes…applies to job interviews too..check … firedoglake.com/2… What I’m Reading: View Two Parts of the Same Word Document at the Same Time online-tech-tips….What I’m Reading: Word [...] Continue Reading…

Maintaining Your Office Supply Cabinet Part 2

In my last post on maintaining office supplies, I talked about writing instruments and paper.  Let’s continue on with other supplies you need in your office supply cabinet.
Folders
The types of folders you need to keep in your stock will depend on your particular office.  At the very least, you need a supply of letter size manila file folders and hanging file folders.  These come in a variety of colors and with a variety of accessories.  If cost is a consideration, then the plain manila folders and standard green hanging files are all you really need.  If you want to [...] Continue Reading…

Links Roundup June 23, 2009

Time for another roundup of links I’ve posted through Twitter.  If you want to follow me through twitter, I have two accounts: Admnarts is for my business/administrative support type tweets, and Jodith is for my personal/spiritual/political tweets.

What I’m Reading: Break it Up: How to Deal With Employee Conflicts | Business Management Strategies & Workplace Co… officearrow.com/m…
RT @OfficeArrow: For those looking to break into the field! RT @RunningTheShow: 5 Steps to Becoming an Assistant http://cot.ag/9kZ3k6
RT @mkebiz: Social media is more than just Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn: http://ht.ly/1YOUQ (via @BraniganComm) ** GOOD ARTICLE
RT @mmangen: RT @ProjectCenter: Using Charts and Graphs for [...] Continue Reading…

Should You Text Your Boss?

photo credit: ydhsu

While perusing the many blogs that I follow, I saw this blog post on LifeHacker about the etiquette of texting your boss.  It started me thinking about how much technology has changed during my career and how we respond to it as Administrative and Executive Assistants.  Using text messages is a good example of technology that we can embrace.

Like all technology, though, texting can be good and bad.  You need to have guidelines to follow when using texting to contact your boss.  Some of the questions/guidelines I can think of would be:

Always ask the boss if [...] Continue Reading…

Maintaining Your Office Supply Cabinet

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 [...] Continue Reading…

Ask the Admin: Managing E-mail for the Boss

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:

Managing my boss’ inbox on my computer
Managing someone else’s inbox – tips?

Patricia on Laughing All The [...] Continue Reading…

How To Find Your Electronic Files Faster

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 [...] Continue Reading…