SWORDS
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SWORDS
As a personal/executive assistants, you will find that a large chunk of your day is spent organising the management diary. It’s not an easy task and the organisation of the calendar is just the beginning!
You are expected to know the reasons for meetings and help the manager to prepare for it. You also have to organise the rest of the manager’s schedule around arriving at each meeting/appointment on time. This means working out travel times and arranging transport/accommodation.
Here’s our tips to ensure the diary management part of your job is done effectively and efficiently:
Make it clear to everyone (including the manager!) that everything going in the diary must go through you. This includes verbal agreed appointments and requests. This way you can ensure that the manager’s time is properly managed and there are no double bookings/overlaps.
If there are any changes or cancellations, especially to the day in question’s schedule, then it is important to keep the manager informed. This allows them to keep track of their day and know where they need to be/don’t need to be up to the minute.
Sit down with your manager and discuss how they like their meetings to be set out and any specific requirements they have, such as times needing to be blocked out.
It’s also good to be proactive with diary management; offer new ideas for better organisation whenever possible. After all, the umbrella aim of diary management is to ensure the manager maximises their productivity throughout the day.
Discuss with them when they feel their productivity is at a peak during the day/week and try to keep these times free of meetings to allow the manager to get in-house work done. It’s also good to find out when they like to take their breaks, so you can make sure you have free time blocked out in their calendar when they prefer it.
If there are important people who require regular meetings with the manager, make it a regular occurrence. Discuss with an important person’s P.A. when the best time would be to schedule in a recurring meeting.
Recurring meetings need to be monitored closely though. If the meetings are often being cancelled/rescheduled then it could mean this time slot is no longer convenient, or that the meeting is no longer worthwhile.
Often with regular meetings, it can become more worthwhile to hold a conference call to free up time on the calendar while still touching base with important individuals. Before switching to ‘phone’ meetings however, it is always best to check with your manager and the individuals involved to ensure this would work for everyone involved.
Each calendar entry needs to be as detailed as possible to ensure the details of the appointment are clear to anyone needing to view it, for example in your absence. Base details to always include are: Date, time, location, attendees, purpose of the meeting, meeting agenda (if available), any relevant documents, the type of meeting e.g. face to face, conference call, phone call, Skype, etc.
Often managers have stressful periods where deadlines are due or they have an extended workload. It’s the assistant’s job to be intuitive and think about how they can best arrange their calendar to help with this.
When deadlines are due, keep extra time free in the run up to give the manager more time to complete their work and try to avoid arranging meetings that will create added pressure. Talk to your manager about what they need from you to help. It could be extra-long breaks or more time between meetings, or one particular day a week kept entirely free for them.
Having specific colours assigned to different types of meeting/appointment or different clients can help you see at a glance what the day/week holds. You can also use categorising to help you find a particular client or appointment type easily. This way if a cancellation needs to be made, or rearrangements need to be done, you can see what you are working with!
Considering becoming a Personal Assistant? Pitman Training Swords offer one of the most sought after PA Diplomas in Ireland. For more information, visit our website or give us a call today.
