Get a System to Handle Your Goals

Administrative assistants regularly rely on goal setting to succeed personally and professionally while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. However, without the necessary systems in place, you can fall short of meeting and exceeding your goals on the job. Create a clear-cut workflow system to boost your productivity and better serve your clients and staff.

Prepare Templates to Simplify Your Daily Workload

Administrative assistants are often responsible for creating documents, memos and client correspondence that is similar yet requires subtle changes to personalize the information. Simplify your daily tasks by taking the time to create templates. This time-saving strategy allows you to easily create new documents without slowing down your progress. Keep a standard memo, report, meeting agenda and client letter template on file, and transform them into new documents within minutes by changing specific details. Templates save time, as they eliminate the need to create brand new documents, change fonts, or create headers and footers.

Use Checklists

Streamline your workload with daily, weekly and monthly checklists. Administrative assistants are expected to juggle multiple projects at once, and they are interrupted frequently with more pressing client or employee requests. Keep yourself on track by logging tasks into a software program or application that keeps a running log of deadlines and tasks that must be completed each day or week. Projects that are consistent require planning as well. Even if you are familiar with the tasks, avoid relying on your brain to remember every step of the process, especially since you may be interrupted and lose your train of thought. A checklist can refocus attention for administrative assistants when they need it the most.

Rely on Forms to Boost Productivity

Collect data from employees, clients and potential customers with ease by keeping forms on hand. Type a document with blank spaces, or create an electronic document that allows people to fill in vital information to simplify data collection. Administrative assistants are responsible for collecting and gathering the information used to determine sales goals and production schedules. Make the process easier and the information easily accessible by using forms. Incorporate the task of creating forms into your monthly or weekly goal setting sessions, and update the forms as needed to reflect new business practices. If there is room in the company budget, hire a professional to create or update your forms.

Putting viable systems in place does not mean you have to abandon goal setting all together. Periodically, review your professional goals and identify strategies administrative assistants employ that speed up the workflow and make your office much more efficient. Attend workshops and seminars to improve your knowledge about a specific software or process that can help you enhance your job performance and better serve your clients and employees.

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