Between the opening paragraph and the title, shouldn’t we use the term ‘executive assistant’?
Being an Executive Assistant is no easy task. From scheduling back-to-back meetings to ensuring your executive has time for both work and relaxation, your calendar management skills can make or break a productive day. In this ultimate guide, we’ll dive into tips and tricks to help you stay organized.
What Does Executive-Level Calendar Management Include?
Managing an executive’s calendar isn’t just about booking meetings and setting reminders. It’s about making sure that there’s a proper work-life balance.
Here’s what you need to know:
- You’ll need to block out time for important tasks and planning, so the executive can focus without interruptions.
- You’ll need to handle travel plans, deadlines, and important events.
- You’ll need to book hotels and arrange transport for the attendees of the meetings.
- You’ll need to organize agendas, provide necessary materials, and confirm attendees.
- You’ll need to schedule medical appointments, family events, and downtime.
- You’ll need to maintain constant communication with the executive about schedule changes and priorities.
4 Tips for Better Calendar Management
1) Prioritize Tasks and Plan Accordingly
Prioritizing tasks will make your life so much easier. Start by using the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks into four quadrants: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important. To keep things clear, use a color-coding system: high priority (red), medium priority (orange), low priority (yellow), and very low priority (green).
Once you’ve got this system in place, the next step is to understand your EA’s preferences to maximize their productivity. Learn when they are most productive during the day and eager to attend meetings. Allocate their most productive times for urgent and important tasks (red). You’ll also need to understand their working style, such as whether they need time to prepare before important meetings, if they prefer some downtime to recharge after meetings, or if they like to jump straight into the next important task.
2) Set Time Aside for Non-Business Related Tasks
Setting time aside for non-business-related tasks will help maintain a healthy work-life balance. This includes personal appointments, family events, exercise, and even downtime for relaxation. Make sure to be flexible and adjust the schedule as needed. Plans can change, and it’s important to accommodate this without causing stress.
3) Set Meeting Reminders and Confirmations
Set up automated reminders 24 hours before and another 15 minutes before each meeting to help everyone prepare and arrive on time. Tailor them based on the nature of the meeting; for instance, important client meetings might need earlier reminders for preparation.
Confirmations are also important. A day before the meeting, send out a confirmation email to all participants. This email should include the meeting agenda, any required documents, and a reminder of the time and location.
4) Organize Your Meetings
Unorganized appointments can lead to missed meetings, rushed tasks, and increased stress levels which is something you definitely want to avoid. To prevent this, we highly recommend using calendar executive assistant software like VAST.
VAST integrates easily with platforms like Google and Outlook. You can input all the meeting details such as the agenda and attendees. You won’t have to be constantly checking physical or digital calendars to ensure everything is organized. This software will help you do it for you. At a glance, you’ll also be able to see where the next meeting is located so that your executive is always on time.
Summary
Effective calendar management is key to helping your executive stay productive and stress-free. By prioritizing tasks, setting time aside for personal commitments, using reminders and confirmations, and ensuring everything is organized, you can keep everything running smoothly.
Are you tired of juggling overlapping appointments and missed meetings? VAST is here to help. With seamless integration with Google and Outlook, VAST, an executive assistant software, organizes all your meeting details and keeps everything in check. Try it today!
