The Productive Assistant Mindset

Assistants must be laser-focused to work through their to-do list and help manage their Executive’s responsibilities. It takes a productive mindset to make that happen. In this chapter, The Productive Assistant Mindset, we cover all the characteristics and strengths Assistants need to create practical thinking.

Assistants face many challenges when it comes to productivity. Firstly, they work with an extremely busy Executive who demands much of their Assistant’s time. Still, they don’t necessarily have the time to dedicate to keeping their Assistants in the loop.

Assistants are often pulled in many different directions and interrupted by colleagues who don’t quite understand what they do or rely on them for information about the organisation and day-to-day aspects of the office. This leads to many Assistants feeling distracted and unable to focus.

Assistants often work for more than one Executive, which means they have multiple, conflicting priorities, which can feel overwhelming and make it hard for Assistants to know where to start.

Lastly, Assistants work on tasks that do not drive the business forward or add value because they are used to working on administrative tasks that keep them busy. The strategic tasks get delayed or pushed back because they require time and quiet space to concentrate, which is often hard for Assistants to find.

It is a challenge to create the right productive mindset that allows Assistants to focus entirely on the work that supports the business and makes a difference.

Moving past a perfectionist mindset to achieve increased productivity

Thanks to Annie Croner, Founder of Whole Assistant, for this great session.

As Assistants, managing details to ensure things run smoothly is a big part of what we do. We take pride in our detail-oriented nature as it relates to all that we produce, from professional email correspondence to travel arrangements to company-wide projects and initiatives.

We are the doers and the boots-on-the-ground, working “in the weeds” while simultaneously holding a 10,000-foot view.

BUT, what happens when our detail-oriented nature crosses the line into perfectionism?

Have you ever spent 45 minutes wordsmithing an email? How about 2 hours researching the “perfect” restaurant for a critical lunch meeting? I know I’ve been guilty on both accounts.

There are so many pitfalls that accompany perfectionism:

Loss of the big picture. When we are fixated on producing a “perfect” result all the time, we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture.

“Perfect” is a moving target. What is perfect for you may not be perfect for your Executive or colleagues.

We are more likely to operate out of a place of fear and anxiety. We tend to fixate on not making mistakes or disappointing others, never taking risks that could move us forward in our careers and provide us with greater work satisfaction.

Perfectionism robs us of so much, not the least of which is productivity.

It is this last point which I’d like to drive home.

Think of all we could have accomplished in the 45 minutes it took us to craft that “perfect” email.

Meticulous & Detail Oriented or Obsessed Perfectionist?

I have had to work very hard to define the line between being meticulous or detail-oriented and an obsessed perfectionist. With my website and blog, WholeAssistant.com, I’ve had to let go of typos and imperfect grammar to allow myself to be a more effective blogger.

My day job (also my passion) as a full-time assistant coupled with my commitment to having a happy and healthy family life leaves a limited number of hours per week to spend on Whole Assistant.

If I were to get too obsessed with everything being “perfect”, I would never write or produce anything. Ever.

Unfortunately, this has resulted in occasional typos, which well-meaning friends and colleagues will bring to my attention. I kindly thank them for their feedback, but I’ll let you in on a little secret.

I. Don’t. Care.

I’ve had to let my perfectionist tendencies fall by the wayside to get ideas and strategies out in the world that will actually, I hope, help my fellow assistants live happier, more fulfilled lives.

I didn’t make this decision flippantly.

I know some people will only listen to what I have to say if it’s packaged correctly. At some point, I had to realise these people are probably not meant to be a part of my audience or tribe, and that’s okay! I’m much more interested in catering to assistants who aren’t afraid to put themselves out there, even if that means making occasional errors. That, to me, is The Productive Assistant Mindset.

I also hope that Whole Assistant will inspire other Assistants to step up and share their ideas and strategies without fear of having to say everything correctly.

Of course, this looks a little different in my work as an Assistant.

Catching typos and errors is a part of the job. This brings me to the first significant mindset shift I would like us all to consider.

It’s Okay to Adjust Our Level of Detail to the Circumstance

No, really, it is okay!

Not every task requires or calls for the same level of weight or detail. We need to ask ourselves, “Given the big picture, does this matter?” Sometimes the answer is an absolute yes. Examples of such situations include making any reservation, data entry, or anything dealing with money.

Frequently the answer to the question above is probably not. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve found myself or my fellow administrative professionals sweat the small stuff.

Nobody’s going to remember the china I picked out for that event or whether I choose white or eggshell napkins. Think about what they will remember and invest your time and energy in those things.

If you are anything like me (a recovering perfectionist), you are probably thinking, “Okay, Annie, but I care about the china and the napkins.” To this, I say, good! It’s good to care about these things, just not to the point of perfectionism. It will be hard for us to operate at optimal productivity if everything must be perfect all of the time.

Trade a Perfectionist Mindset for an Excellence Mindset

I love Webster’s definition of excellence: the quality of being very good of its kind: eminently good.

Which differs significantly from Webster’s definition of perfection: freedom from fault or defect.

I find it fascinating how the words used in the definition of perfection are in and of themselves negative — freedom from fault and defect. I don’t know about you, but using the words fault & defect invokes a tinge of anxiety in me just reading them! We could spend an excessive amount of time seeking freedom from fault or defect (perfection) only to fall short because perfection is often a moving target.

On the other hand, excellence (the quality of being very good of its kind: eminently good) has no negative connotation or association.

By definition, excellence is outstanding! To do your work with excellence means to create a fabulous result without the pressure of creating something perfect.

I know that loosening the grip on “perfect” has freed me up to be more productive and accomplish more in my days. I find I go through my days calmer and more self-assured because things no longer have to be perfect all the time. Operating from the mindset of excellence (B+ to A- work in my mind) has led to more trust from my Executive and increased levels of responsibility.

I suspect this is because, whether he’s aware of it or not, the energy I give off is increasingly calmer and more self-assured.

Letting Go of Fear of Failure

Fear of failure perpetuates perfectionism, which results in a myriad of negative things, including decreased productivity. We’ve been conditioned to believe a mistake is the worst thing that can happen because our mistakes will lead to others’ disappointment in us.

What if, instead of fearing our mistakes, we shifted our mindset to embrace them as opportunities for growth? With every mistake, we get an idea of what didn’t work. This information is invaluable!

Take Thomas Edison, for example. When asked about all the failures he had with his lightbulb, he said, “I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Can you imagine if Edison had been a perfectionist and afraid of failure? Who knows how long it would have been before the lightbulb was created. Instead of avoiding mistakes at all costs, let’s get curious about our mistakes and what we can improve for next time.

When we release the fear of missing the mark, we are allowed to go through our days focused on more positive and productive thoughts, including what we can contribute, along with new and innovative ways of approaching our work and life as a whole.

Self-discipline for Assistants

As I’ve developed as a business owner, I’ve come to realise how vital self-discipline is for success.

I work from home, and I set my hours, which, as you can imagine, can lead to procrastination and time-wasting. I also can spend too much time working when I should be with my family, exercising, reading a book or anything else that makes me happy and relaxed.

It is a balancing act; self-discipline helps me manage my time and get through everything important to me in a day.

I know the same is true of Assistants and the productive Assistant mindset.

You have so much to do, your focus is often pulled in many different directions, and you wonder how you will get out of the office door to see your friends and family.

It is relentless.

This is where self-discipline can help Assistants gain more control over their lives.

Here are my tried and tested methods that I have put into place to help you gain some self-discipline in your roles.

Know precisely what is expected of you.

You will be much more aware of what you must do in your working day when you know precisely what is expected of you.

I know this is tricky when you are an Assistant with a sketchy job title, but you should at least have a conversation with your Executive about expectations.

Once you have a clear idea of what your Executive expects, you can plan the areas requiring more self-discipline.

You don’t need to change who you are.

You are awesome!

You don’t need to wake up tomorrow at 5 am, meditate, drink a protein shake and power walk to the office. Instead, think about changing a few habits holding you back from having the day you want.

Start small!

Pick one thing that you feel keeps you back, stops you from getting through all your work, or makes you feel overwhelmed.

If you don’t have enough hours in the day, can you start to use a better to-do list that can help keep you focused? Maybe you could set that alarm half an hour earlier, so you get into the office while it is still quiet.

You will be amazed at what the little adjustments help you achieve.

Embrace your limitations.

We often stress over everything we must do and think to ourselves. There is no chance we can get through all of this work. Well, that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you tell yourself you can’t get through it all, you won’t. Instead, you have to train your brain. Tell yourself that you have a certain number of hours in the day. What are you going to achieve today?

I have just started to give myself three tasks a day that I have to complete (generally, I do a lot more, but I have to get these three tasks done).

Only three things, it isn’t a lot, but I feel so much better now that I have that structure in place because I know I am getting stuff done every day.

Do it, even when you don’t want to.

I know this one sucks!

There are so many things I don’t want to do, but I make myself because I am a grown-up, and that is what we have to do! It is true in the Assistant role. Make sure you get all those tasks done that you don’t want to do, speak to the people you don’t want to, and go to the meetings and events you would prefer to miss.

Self-discipline is about getting stuff done even when you don’t want to. The same is true of the productive Assistant mindset.

Keep a focused to-do list and log your time. Having clear expectations will help you here.

If you know what is expected of you and have clear objectives and goals, you can move from one task to the next without doubting yourself or your actions.

At the start of every day, review your to-do list to have a plan in place and know what you want to achieve.

It helps if you make your plans while considering the day ahead. So, for example, on your to-do list, ‘check emails’ will be every day. Make sure you give yourself a time limit, say 20 minutes and stick to that time.

This makes it easier to be disciplined when you set yourself a deadline.

Setting boundaries as a Personal and Executive Assistant

As the saying goes, you can’t be all things to everyone.

As a people pleaser, this is something that I have had to come to terms with in my career.

While working as an Assistant, I wanted to help people as much as possible and got pulled in all directions. It soon became apparent that I couldn’t do everything if I wanted to leave the office at a decent time or concentrate on a big project without getting interrupted.

I would imagine that a lot of you are nodding while reading this. Assistants tend to want to please everyone and forego their boundaries to help their Executive’s and colleagues (sometimes limitations are stretched by overbearing executives and colleagues).

If setting boundaries scares you, let us look at how you can start the process, and then I will show you what can happen if you put boundaries in place. This is the foundation of the productive Assistant mindset.

Where to start when setting boundaries

Can you say no?

I’m going to throw this one out there straight away.

You might not be able to say no to your Executive, but can you say no to colleagues who can do the work themselves? This is worth considering if you work incredibly long hours and find it challenging to achieve a work-life balance.

What are your priorities? If you are not spending much time with friends and family because you are doing work others should be doing, you probably need to say no more often.

Work smarter, not harder

This is a phrase that always comes up when you talk about work-life balance.

All of the self-help books in this area offer tips for smarter working. Some are more useful than others. In our profession, it is a good idea to have procedures that make it easier to get things done.

My favourite tip is putting an administrative manual together to give to colleagues to do a lot of admin work (for example, getting their stationery, printing their documents, getting their coffee, finding the toilet on their own…)

Leave your work in the office

So you might have to work long hours, but when you eventually leave the office, try hard to ensure your work is left at the office.

In other words, do not bring your work home with you – either physically or in your mind. This is much easier said than done, but if you can master this, it makes for a much better work-life balance.

Drop your standards?

As we have already discussed, nearly every Assistant I have ever met is a perfectionist and those that do not have seriously high standards. This is such a barrier to the productive Assistant mindset.

When you are working ridiculously long hours, it is worth asking whether this needs to be perfect, or can it be good enough so that I can get home at a reasonable hour tonight? Only you can answer that question, depending on the work and who you are doing it for. Maybe a more important question to ask yourself and the person you are doing the work for is – ‘is this urgent?’ Can it wait until the following day so that you can get home and sleep?

Look at what happens when you set boundaries.

What are the consequences, and what can you hope to achieve when you stick with your limits and say no more often?

Every Assistant I have talked to on this subject says the same thing.

When you set boundaries and have clear communication on your expectations, you become a better Assistant. This is because everyone knows where they stand. The boundaries could be around the type of work you do or the hours you work. Whatever they are, you can start communicating your expectations once you have set the boundaries. If you are strong and stick to your boundaries, people will understand what they can and can’t ask you what to do. This makes expectation setting much more straightforward and communication much more transparent.

Unless you set your boundaries, other people will set them for you.

Once you have your boundaries, you can prioritise your workload and personal life. If you have your well-being in mind and prioritise that over everything, again, you will be a better assistant. Prioritising your well-being isn’t the wrong career choice, even if you work in a fast-paced environment.

Make sure you check in with yourself regularly, note if anything is slipping that is important to you, and then give yourself a nudge back in the right direction.

Communication is the fundamental skill that makes Assistants great, and setting boundaries will help you communicate clearly and concisely.

You have defined your limits and expectations, and you can communicate what you want and how you expect to be treated. Ultimately you will appear more transparent and gain more respect because you are projecting how you want people to talk to and work with you. It is compelling stuff.

So you’ve set some boundaries.

What happens now?

You’ve got to own them! You have to live your life by them. The more you believe in your boundaries, the more people will respect and trust you (and if they don’t, it makes you see what kind of individuals you want to work with).

Saying no more often leads to so much more.

Think about it if you say no to all of those requests that people should be doing themselves. What can you do with that time? Make your Executive more successful, take on a new project, go home on time, get to the gym, and chill out in front of Netflix. Whatever it happens to be. You deserve to live your life, making choices for yourself and your career rather than have them made for you.

What struck me as really interesting was the extent that so many challenges could be resolved by setting boundaries and respecting yourself.

Take, for example, the fact we are now connected with our Executive 24/7 through technology. How do we make sure that we are not working crazy hours or are expected to answer every phone call? We set boundaries. That is easier said than done, though, right?

We all get told that setting boundaries between personal and professional life is essential. We need a balance and shouldn’t be taken advantage of when our wages certainly don’t reflect our work hours. And, of course, those boundaries can easily slip when your Executive travels extensively or works long hours and needs your support. It is beyond challenging.

Over the years, particularly since I’ve become self-employed, I’ve found that getting the balance between work and life is never quite going to work out. Instead, I’ve decided combining the two over the day is good.

So work long hours, sure, but during those hours, take some time out, have a long lunch break, meet up with friends for a coffee, say at 3 pm, do the school run, get your kids to bed and then open up the laptop once you’ve caught up on your favourite TV over dinner.

A blend, I’ve found, is much better than a balance. But saying that, sometimes, you have to start with the boundaries so that you don’t get taken advantage of, so here are a few ideas to blend your work/life into some shape!

How to set boundaries between your personal and professional life

My first point is this.

You can’t be all things to all people. You can’t be a super amazing Assistant who lives and breathes your job and offers 100% support as and when required without affecting your personal life – be that your family at home or seeing your friends. Something has to give, and decisions have to be made around what you want your life to look like. But know this, life is pretty challenging to juggle, and you won’t always have the right balance, which is okay. We are not after 100% perfection here!

I’ve done it myself, tried to be a fantastic career woman while raising a young family, still having a social life, keeping in touch with friends and seeing the inside of a gym on occasion.

The routine didn’t last long, and I was failing at all of it. So I had to set boundaries. It was the only way to get any sanity and not always feel guilty that I was letting everyone down. It started by not being so hard on myself and allocating time to each part of my life. Sometimes, I check my emails while my kids are having dinner, but that is part of the blend because I know I spent two solid hours with him at some point during the day. That was just our time with no distractions.

What are your priorities?

This has to be personal to you. Your priorities will change over time, and you should adapt your boundaries accordingly. It is okay if you have been a 24/7 Assistant that wants to be at home more because you have other responsibilities. That’s okay. Make sure you check in with yourself regularly and note if anything is slipping that is important to you, and then give yourself a nudge back in the right direction and build the productive Assistant mindset.

Work week by week and make adjustments

I’ve found over the years that the best balance comes when I plan my week and know what I have coming up and where my time and focus will be needed.

Visualise how you want your week to look and write that down! Schedule your day. If you’re going to finish at 6, that is in the diary. Have to pick up your kid from school? Make that spin class? Put it in your diary and share your schedule with those who need to know where you are and what to do. Let people see what you have to do. Then they will know you have a life outside work and a busy schedule at work.

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Communication is key.

You must communicate your boundaries with your boss, friends, and family. Tell colleagues you are leaving at 6 pm for whatever you need to do so that you don’t get that death stare when you up and go before they do! Let your Executive know you won’t be online this evening, but you’ll check in early tomorrow. Communicate your boundaries and then try hard to stick to them. Communication is so essential for the productive Assistant mindset.

Yes, there are times when emergencies will occur, and you must be flexible and adapt, but this should be the exception, not the norm.