By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant | Volume 2, Issue 5 (May 2014) Whether you’re a busy executive or the assistant to a busy executive, you know the feeling of having far too many things to do in a day than hours available, right? There are a lot of different tips and ways that you can handle such a workload. One such technique of determining how to handle a heavy workload is something that Phil actually taught to us. It’s the Three “D’s”: Do It, Delegate It, DeferIt! Start by looking at your To Do List – – which we hope all of you have, because…
How You & Your Assistant Can Work Better Together
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant (UPDATED JULY 2015) Trust in the workplace is always a difficult, but necessary, part of running a successful practice. A lot of estate planners, regardless of his or her professional designation, struggle with this concept. Although just about every single one of these professionals could benefit from having some kind of assistant or other administrative support, they have difficulty in trusting others to take on important tasks. Unfortunately, estate planners are only ever making any real money if they are either meeting with clients or doing some kind of marketing or networking…
Is Your Receptionist Losing You Business?
By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant | Volume 2, Issue 2 (February 2014) In a time when a lot of people utilize e-mail communication, the telephone is still, by far, one of the most common forms of communication for businesses. In a personal service industry such as estate planning – – regardless of whether you’re an attorney, financial advisor, CPA, life insurance agent, trust officer or some other kind of advisor to clients – – telephone communication plays an even bigger role for having a successful business. So, why is that we see so many estate planning professionals have flawed systems…
7 Tips for Taking Better Notes & Being More Efficient!
By Kristina Schneider & Megan DeLaGarza, Executive Assistants Whether you’re an executive assistant or any other type of administrative staff member, note-taking is an inevitable and unavoidable task that you will have in your daily routine. There are so many different details and tasks necessary to complete your job that it is impossible to keep track of them all. If you aren’t currently in the practice of taking notes during your meetings with your boss or supervisor, we highly recommend that you start now. It’s a great way to prevent overlooking the small items and, if there’s ever any confusion…
How “Electronically” Organized Are You?
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach In last month’s newsletter, we discussed the top tips to get yourself more organized in your office space and through your daily workload, but your organization isn’t just about what’s on the outside. How about your electronic files on the computer? If you’ve ever spent more than five minutes looking for a file or trying to find an e-mail to respond to, then you might not be as electronically organized as you should be in order to be an effective and efficient assistant. As a follow-up to last month’s article, here are some tips about…
Five Simple Tips for Being a More Organized Assistant
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach Being an organized assistant is important when supporting a busy professional advisor or attorney, especially one that may be meeting with multiple clients and managing multiple projects and priorities (like most professionals are doing). Organization isn’t just about how your office looks, but it is also how you manage yourself and ultimately what can become your thoughts and actions. However, sometimes just the act of organizing your surrounding environment is enough to help organize some of the rest of your chaos. Staying organized with your paperwork, your desk or office space and your to-do…