Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 4, 2008

Don’t forget to set up and turn on your “Out of Office Assistant&# on Microsoft Outlook. A simple bounce back message will be e-mailed to them letting them know that you can’t help them at the present time and for them to contact someone that you’ve delegated to help out in these types of situations.

Microsoft Outlook

Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

I found mine, but took quite a few jobs before this to get to where I was and a few thousand applications and faxing resumes later. The point of this is that a person that usually is productive won’t be in a job that doesn’t satisfy them completely. Remember, money isn’t everything. What have I done?

Environment

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 21, 2008

There are some companies that, unfortunately, don’t allow for purchases such as stationary , fax machines , toner , etc. You can even get new items, if you aren’t into used items or feel that they might not work as well. Since I work for a large corporation, this is my case as well. Whats next?

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 22, 2008

Do you find that you book a meeting date/time, but one or more people from the group let you know that they can’t make it during that date/time? They either block off time that they shouldn’t have or they block it off so that it either shows that they’re busy, but really out of the office or vice versa.

Microsoft Outlook

Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2007

By The Professional Assistant on Friday, November 30, 2007 Filed Under: A re you looking for a way to make sure that others don’t open your letters or packages? Home About Me Advertise Want Confidential Documents to Stay Confidential? Then Redi-Tag Security Seals and Tape is the product for you.

Google Docs

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 21, 2008

You search your pockets and realize that you don’t have one. By The Professional Assistant on Thursday, February 21, 2008 Filed Under: Client Service , Meetings , Productivity Y ou’re walking around the office and someone comes up to you, asking for a pen. Has this ever happened to you?

Google Docs

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 14, 2008

The staff member writes you back, but you don’t quite understand it. You never know when someone would come back to you and tell you that they didn’t ask you to do a certain task. You write them again, asking for clarification. Has this ever happened to you? At least you will have proof of it.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

AUGUST 18, 2008

I couldn’t believe it either. I personally couldn’t do this, but it’s quite interesting that people would actually think of this. I work in a back office environment, where 99% of our client interaction is via the phone, e-mail or outside of the office, so I can wear jeans and a t-shirt.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 10, 2008

In my weekly recap last Friday I pointed out a Lifehack.org article arguing that the current climate for hyper-productivity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If I didn’t have a full day’s worth of tasks to complete I wasn’t being efficient enough. Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter!

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2008

You reminisce about that Seinfeld episode where Elaine gets stuck on the subway and starts talking to herself about how the train isn’t moving and starts to get claustrophobic. You start to notice a particular smell, yet you know it wasn’t you, but you wonder if everyone thinks that it was. This is you now!

Etiquette

Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 20, 2007

This doesn’t mean that you have to go out for beers or go to a movie. I don’t mean take charge of the office – you might make some serious mistakes. Don’t whine and complain about every little task that is given to you. Don’t break your promises. Take some risks!

2007

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 3, 2008

Hopefully, you weren’t also affected by the FPL power outages. It’s a reminder to all of us that depending on one system alone works fine, right up until the time that it doesn’t. I have two Gmail accounts, a Yahoo account and even a Hotmail account I haven’t visited in years.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

T here is a great site called OpenTable.com , which allows you to book reservations online with particular restaurants all over the world. By The Professional Assistant on Monday, September 22, 2008 Filed Under: Organize , Productivity A re you asked to make reservations for your manager(s) at particular restaurants?

Restaurants

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 27, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! Save the new e-mail distribution list by giving it a name that this corresponds to whatever it is being used for. All e-mail distribution lists are bolded. Just create a second e-mail distribution list and include the first one in it.

UPS

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 7, 2008

But of course, you don’t want to disturb others around you with the bell going off or some even have chickens clucking as the alarm. Having a timer at your desk can be a great tool. This way, you will only have to focus on your project for that particular amount of time and not have to worry about other projects falling behind.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

DECEMBER 5, 2007

We hold meetings every so often (since everyone’s busy and can’t really figure out when these meetings work for everyone), but we do try to meet at least once every quarter. This is definitely good for sharing ideas and skills among teammates and other departments.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 15, 2008

You don’t have to do much to lend a helping hand, just go out there and join an association, volunteer or whatever would make you feel “balanced&#. I never thought that I’d want to be a Professional Assistant, but somehow it just jumped out at me. But that’s another story.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 20, 2009

My weight gain happened as a result of being so busy in my new job that I started eating out because it was easier than having to make my own breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner at home and I stopped going to the gym because I just couldn't seem to find the time. It really does help, doesn't it? Healthy Or Junk?

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

DECEMBER 17, 2007

I can understand that certain items need to be handled via e-mail, so you have a record of the matter, but if it’s something that doesn’t need to be recorded, such as asking the person where they would like to have lunch or how their weekend went. This actually happens quite a bit at my workplace as well.

Cubicle

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 11, 2008

One of my readers asked me for some tips on handling annoying co-workers that don’t throw out their tea bags, leave used paper towels around the sink area or just leave their dirty dishes in the dish rack. Do you start wondering if they treat their own house the same way? You’re not alone. right away.

UPS

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 19, 2008

I worked as an Investment Advisor’s Assistant, completed my CSC (Canadian Securities Course), but soon after, I realized that this wasn’t really for me. One thing that always bothered me in my last job was when I had my door closed, people would still knock and ask me questions that weren’t urgent.

Policies

Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 3, 2008

Then he mentioned that he didn’t want all of the details of each product listed. I recently ran into this problem as well. One of my managers wanted me to use our sales tracking software to create the sales report for a particular product. He only wanted the total amounts shown as a bundled figure.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

APRIL 1, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today. Post from: Assistant Tips 4comments for this post Jodith One thing I find helpful when having multiple people performing file updates is to keep track changes turned on.

Filing

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 16, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! She is the largest share holder of the company, obviously. But she is very high strung and doesnt know how to relax even when among friends or on vacation. She can be very trying at times, just a very difficult person. I consider myself and have been in the past, to be an over achiever.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

AUGUST 14, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! By The Professional Assistant on Thursday, August 14, 2008 Filed Under: Productivity , System Security F orgetting your Windows password happens to everyone from time to time. Yes, even I forget it at times. Then you have to try to remember all of these passwords! When does it ever end?

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

Thanks Manish Posted on 23 October, 2009 1:20 AM The Professional Assistant Hi Manish, Unfortunately, I don't have any other answer to this except to resize each one individually. Posted on 4 July, 2010 9:05 PM The Professional Assistant Hi, Unfortunately, you can't change the size of the file, but you can with Paint or Photoshop.

Microsoft Word

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 28, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! I am very interested in working for you and look forward to hearing from you once the final decisions are made regarding this position. Please feel free to contact me at anytime if further information is needed. My phone number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Thank you again for your time and consideration.

Postal Code

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 20, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! What better candidate to take on that role as a career, than the assistant who regularly plans events from small meetings to large conferences. Marketing: An assistant who has a marketing flare with a creative mind can branch out into editing or writing.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 20, 2008

If I didn’t know the person, and it was my first communication to him/her, I would use both names: John McDonald. Your company may have a strict policy on what they want you to include in the signature line and what it should look like, but generally you would include your name, title, company name and address, telephone and fax number.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 22, 2008

Some e-mails are useful, but I don’t always have time to deal with them right away. Don’t worry, these e-mails do not get lost or are completely out of sight. This has been a great way to clear up a lot of unnecessary e-mails at work. I also subscribe to feeds to my home e-mail account.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 5, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! If you have any suggestions on how to make things run more smoothly in Microsoft Office, please let the rest of us know. Otherwise, you would be working somewhere else. If you like this post, please subscribe to my feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you.

2008