This video is an updated version of one of
this channel's most popular videos ever.
Why?
Because things change.
And the tips I previously had for organisational perfection
have definitely changed. Some of them.
For instance,
I completely changed the way I managed my inbox.
The folders are gone.
So today I'm going to give you a rundown of every single thing
I do and use to make sure I'm on top of the many projects I'm
responsible for and to ensure nothing
slips between the cracks.
First up,
we have the calendar.
My calendar needs to be perfect,
or else there is chaos.
And the most valuable tip I can give
you is to block realistic time frames.
I can confidently say that most execs
underestimate how long things take.
They never want to factor in buffer time,
which they always need.
They rarely want to account for transport delays,
which are inevitable.
I trust you get my drift here.
Most things take longer than you think they will,
and the better you get at estimating
how long things will take,
the better your schedule will be.
To help me with scheduling meetings,
I use Calendly.
I still find it the best scheduling tool
on the market for what I need.
The second tip I have is mastering taking live minutes,
notes and actions.
Board level minutes are a whole topic of their own.
Today I'm focusing on taking day to day notes and actions.
There are lots of benefits to taking live notes.
Of course
the main one is accuracy.
You're not going to forget if you're doing it on the go.
Even better if you're doing it on
a screen that everyone can see,
because then you know everyone is on the same page.
Side note Prasanth Nair,
founder and CEO of Double Gemini,
has an absolutely brilliant workshop
on how to do this properly.
I'll link to Double Gemini below.
And no,
that's not a sponsored mention.
Double Gemini are just really great at workplace productivity.
Taking and distributing actions while you're
in a meeting is a big time saver.
There's a Google Chrome extension
I've been using to do this.
It's called Hybryd.
And yes,
they have sponsored EA How To in the past,
which we're extremely grateful for.
But no,
this isn't a sponsored message either.
I'm going to do an entire video demonstrating how Hybryd works.
But for now,
what I'll say is that it gets me to set an objective
and an agenda for every single meeting.
Which is great,
because a meeting without an objective is a waste of time.
While I'm in the meeting,
I take notes under the appropriate agenda item
which is displayed on the screen,
and I tag specific attendees with their actions.
The notes and actions are then emailed
to everyone with the click of a button.
It's a really efficient way to take and
distribute notes and actions,
and again,
I'll link to it below.
Get it now while it's free,
because it won't be free forever.
The next productivity tool I use,
and certainly one that I can't live without,
is a social media scheduling tool.
I produce a lot of content across a lot of platforms,
and the ability to schedule it in advance
is absolutely essential at this point.
I've used several tools in the past.
I used Buffer for a long time,
and I was also on Meet Edgar a while ago.
These days I'm using Social Pilot.
If you're responsible for social media,
a scheduling tool is really important.
It saves you loads of time and energy.
In terms of creating content,
I'm all about Canva,
which we can also consider a productivity tool,
given it makes creating content incredibly easy and efficient.
Next up,
we need to talk about inbox management.
If there is one thing that would help absolutely
everyone on the planet with productivity,
I think it might well be having a great inbox management system.
What makes a great inbox management system?
Using it. Consistently.
The best system is the system you use.
I'm in the Google ecosystem and I present a detailed workshop
on exactly how I manage my inboxes and my exec's inboxes.
It's too lengthy for this video,
but it's available in the EA How To Plus members portal,
which I'll link to below.
It's about 45 minutes long.
Maintaining a clean inbox is really important.
It ensures key stakeholders are responded to,
it ensures nothing's overlooked,
and it's important for your sanity.
I don't get too fancy when it comes to inbox management,
but there is one extension I use.
I've mentioned it before.
I use Mailbutler.
Mailbutler does a lot of things,
but I use it for two main reasons.
One is templates.
I have a bunch of email response templates saved that
I can use and adapt with the click of a button.
This is really efficient.
When you're replying to a lot of emails,
loads of them have a pretty standard response
and you can just fill in the blanks.
The other thing I like is that you can store and switch
between multiple fancy email signatures.
This is great for people managing different inboxes,
perhaps multiple businesses or multiple execs.
And with Mailbutler,
I can also see if my email has been opened.
So that person claiming they didn't get your message
about that thing that they needed to do.
It's not going to fly.
A little bit of shameless self promotion.
I have put together over 80 email response
templates for assistants.
It's a guide called What To Say When... Recommended responses
to common and not so common emails
received by Executive Assistants.
You'll find it on eawhattosay.com Check below
for a special YouTube subscriber discount.
While we're talking about email responses,
it would be remiss of me to overlook ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is a hot topic right now.
If you're not familiar,
it's an AI tool and you can play with it for free
at the moment.
It does a pretty amazing job of writing replies to emails,
so go and experiment.
The next tool we need to talk about is having
a business binder that is regularly updated.
I've always done mine in an A - Z format.
Your business binder contains all of the
information necessary to do your job.
When I'm adding information to my binder,
I think of it in terms of the bus factor.
If I were hit by a bus tomorrow,
I hope I'm not.
But if somebody needed to take over
from me with absolutely no notice,
what would they need to know?
From how to operate the equipment in the conference
rooms and what password manager I use,
to a list of board members and their assistants
and instructions for office visitors.
It's all in the binder and it's all up to date.
You can do this yourself,
but if you would like a template,
you'll find it in the EA How To Plus members portal.
There's also a link below to get it if you're not a member.
But seriously,
why aren't you a member?
It's fantastic!
Moving on now to staying on top of tasks.
Where do you keep your never ending to do list?
How do you stay on top of all of the things
you need to do and to chase?
I still use Trello.
I created a mini course that goes
deep on exactly how I use Trello.
But once again,
the best system is the system you use.
I have a friend who lives on her Notion system
that she created for her and her exec.
Some people use OneNote,
some use Asana or Monday.
I'm noticing more and more people mentioning
ClickUp and Smartsheet.
Again,
the two most important considerations here are one,
what are you allowed to use with your company?
What is the accepted corporate system?
What is the IT policy?
And two,
are you using it?
Is it working for you?
Trello is free and it's still working for me,
so I'm still using it.
And finally,
please stay with me because this has been life changing.
Meetings are for decisions.
I'm going to say it again because it's
so,
so important.
Meetings are for decisions.
Meetings are not to present information.
If I need to present information,
I put together my slides and I record the presentation.
I then distribute the presentation
to everyone who needs to see it.
It's pre work to be done prior to the meeting and that way
the meeting is to discuss and to make a decision.
A presentation that has been recorded is always more concise.
It can be viewed at a time convenient
for the people who need to see it.
They have time to process their thoughts and they can
come to the meeting with a list of talking points.
You can use a tool like Loom for this.
I use Canva and I find it brilliant.
It's incredibly efficient and it's something that I'm really
pleased to see more and more forward
thinking organisations implementing.
And that concludes my latest tools and
tips for organisational perfection.
As always,
I love hearing from you,
so please drop a comment with your favourite organisation
tip or let me know if you have any questions.
You can chat with me in the EA How To
private Facebook group too.
Previously the group was only available
to EA How To Plus members.
We recently opened it up to non-members,
but you do need to be an assistant to join us.
I really hope to see you in the group and
I'll be back soon with another video.