5 Ways Your Executive Assistant Can Get You Strategically Planned and Prepped for 2021

January is a hectic time for founders and executives. If you’re reading this, you likely have a lengthy to-do list and big plans for the year. The year’s first board meetings are in full swing, calendars are out, and Q1 is bursting with opportunity.

Perhaps you’ve already mapped out your goals but haven’t shared them with your executive assistant yet.  

Or maybe you have your goals but haven't broken them down into actionable steps. 

We've got five ways you and your executive assistant can get all your big goals down and ready to be accomplished this year. 

#1: Get it out of your head and onto paper. 

There are likely loose ends to tie up in the transition from Q4 to Q1, combined with the start of a new calendar year. Thanking vendors, updating contact information, getting a strategy in place for the new year — just to name a few!

The best way to make sure your EA can help you accomplish all the goals you set for the new year is by making sure your assistant has all the information they need. That means getting everything out of your head and onto paper. Every goal you have for the business this year, places you want to improve, projects you think deserve more or less time, everything.

Get everything out and try not to judge or prioritize anything until your brain is empty. Think about how many and how often you’ll have board meetings, send investor updates, hold annual retreats, holiday parties, and other events. 

Once you’ve got the information out of your head and onto paper, bring in your executive assistant to prioritize what needs to happen and determine where you want to focus. 

For instance, if you want to be better about updating your investors, let your EA know so they can schedule that as a priority.

#2: Break the top 3-5 goals into action plans. 

Make a list of your three to five biggest goals for the year and share them with your EA. When your assistant knows what you want to prioritize, they can help you break it down into actionable items to meet your goals. 

Let’s keep with the investor updates idea. If that is a priority for you in the new year, you can ask your EA to make sure they schedule a certain number of hours each week leading up to an investor update, so you have plenty of time to prepare. If there is research to be done or reports to be gathered, your EA can assist with those as well, so you have plenty of time to prepare for updates.

Your EA can also make sure you keep on top of all the small but essential tasks that help your business run smoothly. From pulling specific files every Thursday to checking over numbers on ongoing projects and everything in between. 

By building time for essential projects into your schedule, you can ensure that your priorities already have the time and energy waiting for them to get done. 

You could even ask your EA to prepare a monthly or quarterly update on your most pressing goals so you can stay up to speed and make changes in real-time. No more end of year reviews to let you know things fell short.

#3: Use last year’s calendar to set the cadence for 2021.

One time-consuming but valuable service your EA can do for you is reviewing your 2020 calendar and laying out what you did last year. That way, you can sit down together and decide what worked well, what didn’t, and what you need to do more or less of in 2021. 

At Lisa & Co., we call this checking and setting the cadence of your calendar. Was there enough time dedicated to each of the critical projects and tasks you wanted to accomplish? Were meetings spaced out enough to give people time to complete work and check results? What needs to happen more? What can be less of a priority?

By checking through your calendar, you’ll be able to plan for 2021 and put priorities in the calendar now, so you’re not scrambling later. This is also a great time to see where you’ll be freeing up time in your calendar. 

Let’s say you were doing a Friday meeting with a group of coworkers but realized it could be done better as a weekly email. You now have one extra hour every week (and up to 52 hours a year) that can be assigned to a project that genuinely serves your goals. 

Use your EA to help you have a more strategic and collaborative year. 

#4: Use this game plan for your personal life, too.

If you have an EA that provides personal concierge services, this is also a great time to let them know your personal and family wishes for the year. 

If you want to make it to most of your son’s football games, have your EA blocks those dates in your schedule with some travel time so you can get there on time. And if your child has particular dates they might be doing something — big dance recital or state playoffs in a sport — have your EA block off those dates and times just in case. You can always go back and use them for something else if you need to. 

Something a lot of the Lisa & Co. clients ask for is more time to spend with their significant others or spouses. If your goal is to spend more time with family or working on your romantic relationships this year, you can partner with your EA to make that happen.

You can also have your assistant book monthly massages, block off time for bi-weekly dates and quarterly getaways (your EA can help plan them, too!).

If you and your EA can collaborate and plan for those things ahead of time, you’ll never be scrambling to book an anniversary trip or forget which night you were supposed to go to the new Mexican place in town. 

One of the goals our executive assistants have for their clients is to make sure they can show up when, where, and how they want to. 

#5: Check-in regularly.

The last (but arguably the most important) step is to build in time to check up on your calendar, projects, and goals. If you haven’t already, schedule a standing time (weekly or monthly) to check in with your EA, specifically on the three to five goals you set at the beginning of the year.

The check-in will keep you both accountable and allow you to make decisions as you go to stay on track. 

And from all of us at Lisa & Co. — Happy New Year! We wish you success in all areas of your life and business!

If you don’t yet have an executive assistant, but you want to make the most of your time in 2021, book a call with us to learn how an EA can give you back time every month!