🌎 Overview
Time is the most valuable and scarce resource that a client has. The EA is a partner focused on helping the client best utilize this resource.
It is the Executive Assistant’s role to help the client manage their time in ways that set them up to achieve to professional and personal goals. The EA can help them build and manage an effective calendar that revolves around their true priorities.
For this to happen, EA must determine their top priorities upfront so that their daily routine can be built around these. Once this is done, write down and program specific goals into a calendar, so the client can start practicing their ideal schedule (this is flexible and always subject to change, as needed).
đź”–Â Goals
Executive Assistant:
- The EA should develop a system that will save the client from having to go through or look for emails with regards to their schedules. Almost every task, event, and meeting discussed in the emails or other channels should be in the calendar.
- A client’s calendar should become his single source of truth where he can easily find his schedules and any information related to those. This helps them avoid context switching and wasting time jumping around different tools like emails, CRMs, etc.
Client:
- Identify the fixed parts/items of their life.
- Assign specific times for their non-negotiables such as sleep, exercise, date nights, weekly plannings, etc.
- Review and evaluate progress toward their ideal schedule.
📋 Process for getting client’s preferences
For both the client & EA
1. Clarify the client’s priorities
Path A). If your client already has a system or priorities, you can proceed to this:
- Confirm main priorities as these will be deciding factors in prioritizing schedules. This is helpful whenever there are conflicts. As the primary protector of their time, you should be able to determine which events, tasks, or meetings should be plotted and which ones can be rescheduled.
- If there are new events or meetings that haven’t been discussed yet, EA should have a 5-minute call to inform client and confirm if it’s a new key priority or not.
- Any emails requesting for a meeting or other plans should be taken care of by the EA. By default, EA should step in and communicate with the sender for availability.
Path B). If your client has a hard time expressing their priorities and their calendar is all over the place, you can start from scratch and work on the core pillars and priorities.
- Determine the pillars or central values on which their life is built. This can be work and/or personal-related. Include meeting priorities (e.g. Senior execs, Investors/clients, Company/team, Applicants, Family/friends).
- This can be extracted from the User Manual too.
- Recommended categories: Relationships | Business | Health | Lifestyle
- Client can choose to have different categories or focus on one or two.
- List down general goals based on the pillars.
Examples:
- I want to travel to Asia.
- I want to spend more time with my kid.
- I want to build a more comprehensive network of professional connections.
- List down specific goals based on the pillars.
Examples:
- By the end of this month, I will have my EA create a draft of travel itinerary to Thailand, Cambodia, and Japan.
- I will play badminton with Jane every Saturday at 2:30pm.
- Every week, I will have my EA choose and send 3 professional connection requests to individuals in related fields.
2. Analyze the current calendar pain points especially with meetings.
- Client: Think of any pain points in your calendar
- Is there anything that seems to be chaotic or anything that you feel frustrated about in your calendar?
- Is there anything you want to change or be done this time around?
- In a perfect world, what would your most impactful and fulfilling days looked like?
- Executive Assistant: Study the client’s calendar and see which dates or events look messed up.
- Are there any meetings that seem to be scheduled at the same time?
- Are there meetings that look like they’ve been plotted twice?
- Does your client want to have buffer times or gaps in between meetings or major tasks?
- Are there are any meetings or tasks that serve no real purpose?
- Are there tasks that you can take on or can be delegated to someone else?
- Are there any activities that the client wants to start implementing?
- Any inconsistent activity that needs to be reviewed?
- How is the inbox currently being handled?
- Is there an apparent system of organization?
- Compared to the priorities and ideal week to week schedule, how different is the current reality of the calendar?
- Program the client’s calendar
- Input the client’s main or most-valued activities first.
- Since you already know your client’s pillars (those that they want their calendar to be based on), they can now program them into the calendar first and everything else will be set up around them.
- Example: Schedule a weekly meeting with the Sales team. Schedule a recurring activity of playing badminton with Jane every Saturday at 2:30pm until June.
- Input the client’s other activities.
- Determine which items from the client’s previous calendar should be carried over (EA can also ask which ones they do NOT want to be carried over).
- Assign uninterrupted blocks of time for focus time or deep work ‣ depending on the client’s priorities, you can also categorize this as one of the main priorities.
- Know the client’s focus and energy levels as this will help him maximize his productivity.
- This might not be easy and will take some maneuvering, but remember to set up a schedule that caters to what the client wants and needs to do.
- Present the changes for the next 2 weeks and beyond.
- Since the client already shared the typical calendar pain points, EA can work around this and make changes.
4. Determine meeting support & other general preferences
For both client and EA
- Visual preferences (color coding)
- Optimal meeting size
- Preferred tool for video meetings
- Preferred meeting duration based on type of meeting ‣ e.g. Daily standup: 15 minutes, Internal 1-on-1: 40 minutes, etc).
- Buffer times ‣ back-to-back meetings or have a break in between meetings? How many minutes?
- Preferred naming convention ‣ one naming convention across the board or varies by meeting type? (e.g. [Name of Guest] - [goal of meeting])
- Video meeting preferences ‣ use password for entry? EA to join & assist?
- Attachments/links ‣ include links to docs (e.g. slide deck, meeting bio, agenda checklist) within meeting invitations?
- In-person meeting preferences
- Preferred meeting types ‣ e.g. lunch for personal, coffee for business
- Preferred locations ‣ e.g. local or frequently-visited locations when traveling
Refer to Client Preferences Template for Calendar for a sample.
🎂 Bonus
Tips and best practices to help EAs manage calendars more efficiently.
- Prioritize clearly
- Shadowing / side-by-side sessions
- Know your client’s most productive time
- Do a weekly review/audit
- Minimize switching / clicks
- Text reminders for events
- Automate follow-ups
- Color code the calendar
Prioritization is key in having an effective calendar. Identify which task or event is crucial. Use the Action Priority Matrix to be able to assess properly. This helps you get rid of all the mess.
For a comprehensive understanding of your client’s schedule, you can opt to shadow them for day or even a week. This enables you to better see their daily routines, commitments, and interactions firsthand.
When is your client usually in the zone? When is his productivity cycle at its highest? Program your client’s day by matching his energy and focus levels with the tasks. If he’s more focused in the afternoon, you can schedule meetings or schedule “focus time” for deep work.
Review your client’s calendar a week ahead to make sure that everything is aligned with his priorities (i.e. 5-6 meetings each day) and to check if there are any holes or anything that needs to be changed. Reschedule if you need to.
Add all needed information or materials (i.e. bios, agendas, slides, reports, etc) inside each digital entry. This way, your client won’t have to go back and forth to other emails or files.
Your client probably gets a lot of email reminders every day and may drown him. You can use tools such as Zapier to help automate the process of text-based event reminders. Just set up a time and phone number and you’re good to go!
This will allow you to save time and you can stop worrying if follow-up emails have been sent. Streamline your follow-ups with tools that you can integrate such as Follow up Fred and ReBump.
These tips are for managing scheduled tasks, events, or meetings
- Account travel time
- Create gaps in between tasks or meetings
- Offer options and put placeholders
- Include an email confirmation
- Frequency of recurring meetings
- Recurring meetings should not be scheduled for more than a year in advance. The most you can schedule is six months at the maximum.
- Check the status of the recurring meetings of your client. Are they consistent? If attendees often postpone or cancel, then you might need to reevaluate with your client and see if it can be scheduled less frequently.
- Reminder: Deleting any recurring meeting may remove all of the meetings especially the previous ones.
- “All day” appointments
- Keep your client’s calendar open
- Block similar meetings on the same day
- Automate, automate, automate!
Don’t forget to schedule travel time when your client has an in-person meeting. This helps ensure timely arrival to meetings or appointments.
Allow time between tasks and create gaps or buffer times for meeting transitions. Schedule shouldn’t be packed too tightly. This is to have time in case there are unexpected issues or delays, unplanned commitments, or quick tasks. For meeting transitions, give your client time to take a break or to debrief so he won’t have decision fatigue.
It is best to give two scheduling options especially if your client usually has a high volume of appointments or activities. You can then place holds on those two specific times instead of placing a lot of holders or holding a whole morning. There’s also a higher chance of having that schedule secured quickly. Just make sure to set a reminder to confirm the meeting or delete one of the holders from the calendar.
This is to ensure that they still have all the information or details they need. This may be indicated in the calendar invite, but there are calendars that are unable to receive invitations from your platform (e.g. Google Calendar vs Outlook). It doesn’t need to be long and can be a short email indicating the date, time, and your phone number.
You can use the “all day” appointment feature to set reminders. This can be used to remind your client of important dates such as a colleague’s leave, birthday, or any general information that do not need an action. But make sure that when you use this, it doesn’t block out their entire day and to make it look clean and organized.
It is essential to keep your client’s schedule open at all times. It is best if you have two screens at work and you can open it on one screen. As his Executive Assistant, you will be continuously asked on where your client is and what he is doing.
To reduce disruptions, you can group all similar meetings together or n the same days. For example, all 1:1s can be scheduled every Tuesday and Thursday, and brainstorming or deep work every Monday. This is an effective practice that gives your client a good work-life balance, since it minimizes context-switching in a way and allows your client to be in a more focused mindset.
We’ve curated a list of calendar management tools for you!
Schedulers:
With built-in scheduling tool that tracks your calendar and availability, connects with your most-used apps (like Zoom or Google Meet), and lets guests book meetings with you on their own.
- SavvyCal ‣ offers interactive interface that allows the scheduler to overlay their calendar. Also features a prefill recipient info which helps the scheduler save time; caps meetings per day or week or month.
- Calendly ‣ helps you quickly and easily find the best times. You can share client’s availability and they can book the meetings themselves. Also features team-based scheduling.
- Doodle ‣ fast and easy way to schedule meetings. You can share availability without compromising the privacy of your client’s calendar. No more sending lots of emails since people can choose open times that work for them.
- Vyte ‣ boasts of powerful features including different booking pages for all appointment types and allows users to share their availability by connecting their online calendars and sharing their weekly availability.
- Zoho ‣ you can create events, invite users, manage group calendars, and organize your team events with our shareable calendars and more.
Project Management / Daily Planner
Scheduling and keeping track of hundreds of projects isn’t a walk in the park, so here are project management calendar tools that can also act as daily planners to help you within the context of a dynamic calendar view.
- ClickUp ‣ provides a complete project management solution as it features chats, time tracking, docs, dashboard, and calendar.
- Asana ‣ features a calendar software where you can view your team’s work in one online calendar. You can switch between calendars and lists.
- Monday.com ‣ has a calendar widget that gives you a view of how all the work, meetings, and events fit together. You can also track tasks as they relate to a project.
- Trello ‣ has different ways of tracking your projects. The Kanban board is best for your project, the lists allow you to create a custom workflow, and the cards display all the tasks you have to work on. The calendar gives a clearer view of your tasks, allowing you to zoom in on specific day-to-day details of your work as needed.
- Motion ‣ uses automation and AI to plan your day, schedule meetings, and develop a to-do list.
- Any.do ‣ serves as both a to-do list and a calendar that manages your daily tasks and schedules. It also simplifies task prioritization by providing suggestions on which tasks to focus on each day. Can be connected to Google calendar and even looks almost exactly the same as Google.
Other tools that provide unique features
- Fantastical ‣ offers intuitive natural language input, event proposals, and integration with other productivity tools like Todoist and Trello. It also has a file and photo attachment capabilities.
- Fellow ‣ works to supplement the functionality available in a calendar app. It can assist you in hosting productive team meetings and one-on-ones, provides templates for collaborative meeting agendas and extensive real-time note capabilities.
- Cabinet ‣ scheduling tool created for Executive Assistants and admins. It integrates with Outlook and G-Suite calendars. It also offers times quickly in multiple time-zones and keep track of all the time you’re giving out.
Each tool offers unique features, catering to different needs such as individual scheduling, team collaboration, natural language input, or specialized support for executive assistants. Choose the tool that best aligns with your specific requirements and preferences.
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