The Professional Assistant

Dealing With Difficult Clients - Professional Advice For Professional Assistants!

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Do you get clients that are particularly rude towards you? Do you get e-mails or phone calls where they start complaining about something, yet you know that it's not your fault?

I am 99% sure that this has happened to you at some point in your life. You get a client call or e-mail you and complains about something. Somewhere down the line, they start to personally attack you and you feel as if you are in a state of shock, knowing that you personally didn't do anything wrong. The sad part is that there will always be someone that will try to make your life miserable, but that all depends on how you take it in.

Remember that you can always diffuse a situation like this. Here are some things you can do to take care of yourself and not get in hot water:

Keep a professional demeanour - Never get personal with the client. Always keep your cool and explain to them step-by-step of how you will handle the situation. The more professional you act, the more control you have over the situation.
Keep all correspondence via e-mail (if possible) - This will help you cover yourself if something happens. You can present any evidence that you and the client conversed about, so that you won't get in trouble. If you are having a phone conversation, jot down details of everything that happened, along with the date and time of the call.
The situation starts to escalate - Explain to the client that you will ask your supervisor/manager to intervene, as this issue is outside of your authority. You can also talk to your HR representative if you feel that the client has violated your rights as an employee.
If you run your own business - Consider dropping the client all together. You need to ask yourself if the client is worth keeping. I know that this can be a difficult decision, as if they bring in a lot of money, it could be your bread and butter that you are throwing away. But then at the same time, are you really happy with keeping this client? Will this client make other areas of your business suffer?
Keep a positive attitude - No matter how ugly things get, remember to keep a positive attitude. You can never control someone else, but you can always control your own emotions! Remind yourself that it's just a small blip in your regular work day and things will get better.

For further reading, check out the post entitled "7 Ways to Great Customer Service".

Do you have any more thoughts that you would like to add to this? Leave a comment and let us know.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

4 Easy Steps To Setting Your Microsoft Word Language Default

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Do you reside in a country that is outside of the US? Do you keep using the English - US spell checker in Microsoft Word, but can't figure out how to change it and make something else the default?

This happened to one of my colleagues. He was going crazy tryiing to figure out how to change the dictionary to English - Canadian and make it the default as well, so that he wouldn't have to change it each time he opened up a Microsoft Word file.

Here are the 4 simple steps on doing this:

Open Microsoft Word (ok, this was an obvious one).
Make sure that you have the "Menus" tab listed if you are using Microsoft Word 2007. If you are using the 2003 version, skip this step.
Then click Tools, Language, Set Language.
Click on the particular Language that you want your spelling/grammar checker to use, then click on Default and click Yes.

That's it! You now have your preferred language set as your default. You can also double click as many languages as you wish if you need to add any more of them.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Having Trouble Planning A "Non-Religious" Office Party?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Do you have trouble planning your holiday office party? Do you feel that there are too many people opposing to different things that you plan such as religious issues?

I am sure that this happens within many organizations and each year, everyone has something to say about what they feel would be the "best" way to celebrate the holidays. Of course, you also have people that do not celebrate the holidays as they don't follow any religious followings and prefer not to have any religiousness tied into the celebrations.

Of of my readers asks:

I’m in the process of planning a Holiday Party for my office. It’s getting messy…really messy! Some people are very religious and have issues when others refer to their Christmas trees as Holiday trees. It’s been going further than that and someone brought up that Secret Santa is a Christmas event and shouldn't occur during our non-denominational party. I’m not even sure what to plan for anymore, nor can I think of how to bring up these issues to those who aren’t aware of it.

How does one go about planning a holiday party without making people feel as though it is religious AND without making people feel as though it is doing an injustice to their religion?

My answer to this is:

What I've done in the past with these types of parties is to get everyone's input on how they feel that the party would be best run, taking into account that there shouldn't be any religious ties to it. This way, everyone will enjoy themselves and not feel that they are being ridiculed because of their religion.

If people are not in agreement to exchanging gifts, then so be it. I would tell them that it's a nice thought, but there's no religious ties to it. If they feel that they want to give gifts, it should be because it's something that they want to share with the entire team, not because of religious reasons. It all depends on how everyone feels about this. You don't want to leave anyone out.

If all else fails, tell everyone that due to the lack of consensus, you are forced to not hold a party at all. This way, the onus will not be on you, as everyone else could not make up their minds. I know that this sounds harsh, but you want to make sure you cover yourself. Remember that you are trying to do something nice for everyone and if people don't pitch in, you can't act Superman / Superwoman and take care of everything.

You can also do some further reading on catering for your office party on my post entitled "Let Your Staff 'Cater' To Themselves", which talks about online catering that each individual staff member takes care of themselves. This helps you cut down on the number of tasks that you have to juggle.

Is there anything else that you can think of that would help people come to some sort of agreement with this issue? Please leave a comment and let us know.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

5 Easy Steps To De-Stress At Work & Home

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Do you feel stressed at work? Who doesn't! Do you wish that you can take a magic pill or wave a magic wand and make everything negative disappear?

You wouldn't believe how many times the general population feels this way. Stress is actually considered the number one health related issue in the world. What a concept! Yet employers don't realize this and wonder why people are taking way too many sick days. This can be filed under the "Things that make you go hmmm..." category.

Let me share a story on a more personal level, but trust me, this story does relate to work and does get to a point. A few days ago, one of my colleagues came up to me and asked a business related question and a personal question. Of course, I would never mention names, so let's keep it at that.

She mentioned that she heard through the grapevine (office gossip spreads fast) that I used to have trouble with insomnia in the past. This is true, as I used to deal with large amounts of stress and took sleeping pills for about a year. She was going through the same rough patch and asked me for some things that I did to get myself into better health.

Here are some things that I was able to do to get me through the stressful times:

Yoga - It's best to do this just before sleep. You can find tons of CDs that you can pop into your stereo and watch yourself fall asleep so quickly, you won't know what hit you.
Eating Healthy - Try to eat foods that have tryptophan in them, which helps the body relax, such as bananas, nuts (be careful if you are allergic) and turkey.
Exercise - Make sure that you do this at least 3 - 4 hours prior to bed. The earlier, the better!
Positive Self-Talk - Ok, I know what you're thinking. Don't feel like you are going crazy. Just keep telling yourself "I will sleep well tonight" and see how it works. It did wonders for me!
Breathe - This is so important. Taking slow, deep breaths can always calm you down, no matter where you are. If you feel that you are getting angry or stressed, take a few minutes to just breathe deeply.

I hope that these tips will help you to get de-stressed on a regular basis.

You can also read my article on the different types of stress entitled "Are You Eu-Stressing or Dis-Stressing?" for more tips.

And if you're wondering, it took me almost a year to wean myself off of my sleep medications and have been free of them for the last few years now.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Do You Have Permission to Change Shared Files?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Do you find that too many people are accessing files on your company's network drive that they shouldn't be touching? Do you scratch your head and wonder what happened with the updates that you made a few minutes ago, just to find that they either have been changed or deleted?

This happened to me on many different occasions. One thing that always drives me nuts is when people start to mess around with files that I have been working on. Then they go into the file, start manipulating the data and save it. Of course, I ask them what changes they made and they don't have a clue. Doesn't this frustrate you?

One way to avoid this is to either password protect your files (the steps for this depends on what piece of software you use, if it has the capabilities). But then you need to remember the passwords, otherwise you can't get back into the file. Of course, this could be cumbersome.

The other option is to create permissions on certain folders within your network drive to have only certain staff members access the files within these folders. Ask your IT Department to help you out with this, as I was able to fiddle around with it a bit, but rather not give instructions here, since I might give the wrong information. I know that I write quite a few articles on computer related matters, but networking is not one of my strong points.

If anyone can provide details on how to go about doing this, please leave a comment for everyone to read.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Dealing With The Wrench Thrown Into Your Workday

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Do you feel that you have too many tasks to do? Do you feel overwhelmed most of the time, because of the tight deadlines and constant pressure to get things done?

This happens to everyone, including myself on a regular basis. I am responsible for running 3 events on a yearly basis and all 3 events are only a few months apart. The rest of the year, I can breathe a bit easier. But of course, I have other things to do that are usually considered "urgent" by my managers. I did mean to write managers (plural), since I do work with 5 managers currently. So you can imagine how hectic it can get at times. You can just see the hair pulling right now.

A while back, I wrote a post entitled "To-Do or Not To-Do? Taking Your To-Do List to the Next Level!" This post gives some great points about how to create a to-do list and follow it on a daily basis.

On the other hand, I recently read a book that helped me figure out how to prioritize my tasks better. It basically mentioned that you need to be aware that a wrench will always be thrown into your work to mess things up. It all depends on how you deal with the task that is given to you that is considered "urgent".

The other thing that I learned from it was that you can't prioritize "all" tasks each and every day. Things will get done when they get done. It all depends on what you feel would be most important to tackle first, especially when something gets thrown your way. Then deal with the smaller items when you pick yourself up from the floor and brush yourself off.

Trust me, this happens to be on a regular basis. But remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Old Internal Hard Drives - Portable and More Useful Than You Think!

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Do you have an extra hard drive lying around that you can't use any longer? Do you want to give it to your IT Department or would you rather use it for your own department's use?

I was thinking to myself the other day of what I could do with my extra hard drives that I have at home, since we do have an IT Department and they take care of these types of things, since I work for a large publishing firm. Some of you might work for a smaller firm or even for yourselves (which I admire - being an entrepreneur). Then I remembered reading about using old hard drives that you either can't plug into your computer any longer because you've upgraded, ran out of bays (spaces inside your computer to put your hard drive) or just don't want to use it any longer, since you bought a better one.

I checked around on eBay to see if there are any hard drive enclosures that I could use to create an external hard drive. I could use this as a back up drive or as an extra drive that I can carry around with me for other uses. I know that memory sticks are quite popular right now, but you can take any hard drive that is larger than your average memory stick and use it to your advantage. I understand that it's a little bulkier, but at times, you have so many large files, that this is a better option.

The way it works is that you follow the instructions on inserting the hard drive into the enclosure, plug the USB cable into the unit as well as the computer you want to use it on and voila! Instant back up!

So the next time you have an extra hard drive lying around, check out eBay for some hard drive enclosures and create your own back up drive that you can carry around with you!

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Keyboard Shortcuts Creating A Short Fuse?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:25:00 +0000

Do you have instances where you need to copy and paste information in a hurry or need to copy and paste information over and over again? Do you want to stop using the mouse method where you click on Edit, Copy, then Edit, Paste?

There are many different keyboard shortcuts for various pieces of software, therefore, this post would be quite long if I added all of the ones that I remember. That’s another matter though – memorizing all of them.

There is, however, two tricks that I would like to share to help you conquer your fear of keyboard shortcuts:

You can visit Microsoft’s website to find out keyboard shortcuts of various pieces of software that they offer.
You can purchase a keyboard that has some common shortcuts printed directly on the keys.

These tips should help you with your work flow quite a bit. It’s amazing of how quickly I am able to copy and paste items and switch between screens to do this, just by learning a few keyboard shortcuts.

By the way, here are the shortcuts for the following:

Copy: CTRL+C
Cut: CTRL+X
Paste: CTRL+V
Flipping between screens: ALT+Tab

Update:

If you are using Microsoft Office 2007 products, press the ALT key and the corresponding keys that you have to press with ALT will show up on your screen.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Hoaxes, Scams: How Can You Tell If They're Real?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Are you getting tons of junk e-mails in your inbox? Do you wish that you could figure out what is real and what is fake?

I get about 200 e-mails per day, roughly about 100 of those are spam. It's amazing of how people still try to con others into giving them a great loan, even if they have bad or no credit, virtual postcards that contain viruses and the unmentionable ones, which I am sure you can figure out.

Unfortunately, the best method that I've found to do this is to have a great anti-spam filter installed on your system. Check with your IT department to see if they have installed one. Most likely they have already, as this has been an ongoing problem for many years now. You can also purchase anti-spyware and anti-virus software here.

I wrote an article entitled "Phishing & Spam - Not Your Everyday Food Items!" that gives insight into how to deal with e-mails such as these. Another two websites that you should check out are Snopes.com and HoaxBusters.org.

These sites will tell you what is fake and real, a hoax and an urban myth or if it's legit. At times, it will even tell you where the hoax originated from.

So if you're interested in keeping your company from getting a nasty virus or are worried that you might get scammed, do some further reading into these sites. It can be quite valuable and sometimes even entertaining.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Let Your Staff "Cater" To Themselves

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Are you asked to help out with your company's catering for breakfasts and lunches? Do you find it difficult to find the time to ask everyone for what each person would like to have?

I remember the first time I had to cater my company's staff meeting. I was quite overwhelmed, since I've never done it before, but I could have used a bit of help. I did a little research in terms of what type of food people wanted, then checked restaurants for prices. It did take quite a bit of time, but in the end, everyone was very happy. They even called me "The Amazing Richard" since I walked in on a magic show that we hosted. As you can tell, I work for a great department that has some fun activities every year, but that's another story.

One of my readers suggested a great website called DiningIn. You can pick and choose the time, date, restaurant and food that each person is interested in. Each employee can either go on the website and fill out these details, so that you have one less task to do or you can send around an e-mail to everyone asking for their request.

Here are the 3 time-saving products that they offer:

Prix Fixe (MPS) allows our corporate customers with a regular need for food delivery to set delivery budgets and times, while employees can order online and enjoy great food they love, quickly and conveniently.
Group Ordering gives large and small companies an organized solution that allows individuals to place their own orders without wasting an administrator’s time.
The Corporate Concierge Team at DiningIn is always available to assist corporate customers with any ordering needs. A concierge specialist is always just a phone call away, ready to help you.

The only downfall is that these services are only offered in the US and in the following cities:

Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Philadelphia

So the next time you need to cater an office party or just a regular meeting, give this service a try. They also offer these services for home events.

If you're interested in booking restaurants for your manager online that makes things a complete breeze, check out my article entitled "Restaurant Reservations - Find An Open Table Online!"

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Dealing With Unreasonable Requests

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

You receive an e-mail, among the many others that you receive each and every day. Your colleague or boss calls or comes up to you exactly 2 minutes later and asks if you've read it. You think to yourself, "What?!? Is this person crazy?!?"

Has this ever happened to you? I am sure most of you are nodding your heads as you are reading this. It's amazing of how people don't have the common courtesy to give you your time and space to get to the request. I am sure that you are snickering under your breath at this point (I'm glad that I could put a little humour in your day).

The "Broken Record" Approach

The best way to combat this is using the "broken record" approach. Keep telling the person that you will get to it as soon as possible. If it's your boss that's asking for this information, make sure to read the e-mail right away. Remember that your direct supervisor always gets first dibs on you handling their requests. Everyone else falls into the queue afterwards.

You don't want your productivity to start falling. The more you multi-task, the less productivity you will output in your daily tasks.

Just remember to keep telling the person (in a professional way) that you will get to it as soon as you can. Even if they are starting to irritate you, keep a smile on your face (even if it's fake) and repeat yourself until they walk away.

Negotiating Time

If the person persists on bothering you, one thing that you can always negotiate is time. Ask them when it needs to get done and come to a "reasonable" compromise. This way, you will get more time and the requester will get their task completed in a reasonable amount of time.

Remember, you have the right to be human. You are not a robot and people shouldn't treat you as such.

Can you think of other ways to deal with these types of requests?

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Too Many Applications Driving You Crazy?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Do you have too many applications open on your computer? Have you passed by a co-worker's desk and noticed that they have 20 different things running all at once?

Believe it or not, this can lower productivity. You actually end up thinking that you are working harder, yet you are reducing your productivity by about 30%. That's quite a bit of work that you could be catching up on throughout your day, each and every day.

It's nice to have the grouping function in Microsoft Windows, but when you start seeing large numbers in each one of them, you know there's a problem. You start scanning through all of your items within that application just to find what you are looking for. Now you've spent more time looking for something as opposed to working on the task at hand.

I usually open all of the applications that I need for the task that I am working on at that particular moment. If I need to open more applications, so be it, so that I can do whatever it is I need to do to get the task completed. Once I am finished with the task, I would look at my next task on my to-do list and figure out what applications I won't need. I close all of them by either clicking on the "X" at the top-right corner or pressing ALT-F4 (keyboard shortcut to remember - can be very useful). Then I would open up the applications associated with the next task.

One piece of advise that I give myself on a regular basis so that I don't feel overwhelmed is to break your tasks down into manageable chunks.

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Finding The Best Travel Deals - Online!

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Are you trying to book a flight, hotel or car rental for your manager? Do you feel like you are going to lots of websites to find the best deal?

I originally wrote a post on this entitled "Travel Plans" explaining that you can use Travelocity and Expedia to find the best deals. There's even a better site that helps you find the best deals on these and other airlines, hotels and car rental agencies. Visit Travel Zoo for the most up-to-date best deals you can find on the internet.

Here are some of the highlights for this site:

Free subscription to the latest deals
Flight, hotel and car rental specials
Deal locator (you can enter your ZIP code or city for deals in your area)
Submit reviews and review other users' reviews

Do you have any great deals or suggestions that you would like to share with everyone here? Write a comment and let us know.

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Snacking At Work? Healthy Or Junk? Dilemmas, Dilemmas!

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Do you snack at the office? Do you bring your own food or do you run down to the vending machine/convenience store to get something?

Studies have shown that people start to gain weight on a slow, but regular basis because of this alarming trend. You think to yourself, "It's just one bag of chips" or "It's just one chocolate bar" and no harm done. Well, keep in mind that if you keep doing this on a regular basis, it will definitely become a big deal.

I lost about 30 lbs. in about 6 months because I changed my lifestyle. I didn't go on a fad diet like some people would, since you lose the weight and then gain it back all over again. You have to make a conscious effort to think and feel healthier about yourself. Once you try to set your goals towards this, you will see how easily and quickly you can become a better you.

So next time you feel like running down to the store or vending machine to get something, think before you act! Prepare a small amount of vegetables and fruits for each day. Plan out how much you think you will need. Also, another item that you can add to your vegetables would be hummus. You would be surprised of how light it is and how much better your vegetables would taste with it.

One place that my wife showed me online is Recipezaar's lunch/snack recipes, where you can get a whole range of healthy ideas for your meals. Give it a try! Let me know how you are doing!

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Be Positive About Your Customer Service Issues

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Do you find that when you contact a vendor because of a problem with your order of some sort that you get the dreaded automated messaging system, where you get lost with dialing all of the different numbers just to be able to get to the proper department or even a live person?

Then you finally do reach a live person and you are so fed up with all of the time wasted, that you start fuming towards the person on the other end of the phone. Now put yourself in that person's shoes.

Imagine that you were on the receiving end of the conversation. How would you feel? Would you prefer the client to calmly and rationally give you information on their issue? Would it also be nice for the client to call every so often to commend your company on something that they did right and went above and beyond the call of duty?

We're all human and should treat each other that way. Imagine how much more receptive the customer service representative would be if you tried to deal with your issue in a more positive manner. Picture how much more quickly you could get your issue resolved and both of you would feel better at the end of the call.

Just remember, you could be on the receiving end of these types of calls from your clients, so treat your vendors the way you would treat your clients.

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Windows 7: Will It Be Like XP or Vista?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Are you a big fan of Windows XP? Did you feel that Windows Vista was a big flop?

Well, look no further, since Windows 7 will be coming out very shortly. I am truly hoping that this new platform will be much smoother than Windows Vista. There were numerous problems that people experienced with it, but I never had a chance to try it out, nor do I really want to with all of the issues that it comes with.

I still remember having Windows 98 and what a nightmare that was. Most offices now run on Windows XP and have been for quite some time. If your office will be getting a copy of Windows 7, please let me know how it works out.

You can get all of the latest Windows 7 features here.

What's next?

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Until next time, Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Virus/Spyware or Just A "Normal" Update from IT?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Did you boot up your computer this morning, then loaded some software and came across a message on your screen stating that there is some sort of error?

This happened to some of my co-workers today, as our IT department decided to install a piece of software that we would need for some upgrades in the near future. The only problem was that they didn't do their homework and I got bombarded with questions and complaints of when they try to load Microsoft Word, they keep getting a registration error message.

Of course, I had to contact someone in IT and they explained that this was going to be used later on in the near future for some upgrades that everyone here will be using. The people that are having trouble with it can uninstall it for now. What bothers me is the fact that I honestly thought it was some sort of virus or spyware that got into our computers. They should have released some sort of note, e-mail or something along the lines of this to let everyone know that this was coming. They should also have worked out all of the bugs before installing this into everyone's computers.

Lesson learned: contact your IT department if you are not sure what happened with your computer. It really may be a virus or spyware that your system may have contracted, so you want to be safe, not sorry.

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

"Checking In" to a Better Flight

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

You get an urgent e-mail from your boss asking you to book a flight and hotel. You search around to find the best deal (check out Travel Links on the right side of this blog for some suggestions) and book what your boss needed.

The time finally comes when your boss is flying out to that all important business trip. They forget to do their own flight check-in and don't have time, so they call you up and ask you to do it.

You scratch your head and wonder how this can be done. Some of you might already know the answer to this, but I thought that I'd give the information here anyways, since I was stumped in the beginning as well.

Here are the details you need to get your boss checked-in:

Make sure that you have a copy of the itinerary, which needs to have the reservation code.
Log into the airline carrier's website.
Find a link to be able to "check-in" for your boss' flight.
Follow the instructions.

You can only do this 24 hours prior to the departure of the flight though, so make sure you have everything ready before hand.

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

"Going Green" With Your Documents

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Do you recycle your unwanted papers at work? Do you try to "go green" by not printing e-mails or other documents that you could be e-mailing to others that you want to share this information with?

As you may have already heard, we have been struggling through a massive garbage strike in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are in week 3 now and cannot get rid of our recycling. At home, I have been keeping all of our recycling in our garbage area in plastic bags, since our blue bin (which we use for recycling - for those readers who are not familiar with Toronto's waste programs) is completely full now.

Now picture this. You keep printing document after document, not realizing how many trees you are using and how much waste you are creating. Think ahead and see if you can e-mail or transfer your documents in an electronic format to others. This will save your company time and money.

And of course, there's the dreaded shredding of confidential documents. You really have to be careful with these, as pertinent company information could leak out into the wrong hands. You would either have to spend time shredding the papers yourself or hire a shredding company to do it for you. In either case, you are using your valuable time and money to get this job done.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Retrieve Your Files With Ease

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Do you have quite a bit of filing to do? Do you feel that you should have some sort of control over these files on how you find them, for future reference?

Creating a filing system can be tricky, as you need to know exactly how to file your files and what type of information you would need to be able to access quickly. Your boss could ask you for something at a moment's notice and you are expected to find the information within minutes.

One of my readers asks:

I am trying to organize a file room based not on traditional alphabetical filing, but on a retrieval system. It is based on real estate issues - so, for instance, the transaction files are arranged by numbers in order of closing dates. Then, all files are set up in an excel file with columns for File #, property address, closing date, owner (whatever data important) - then sorts are run and printed so files can be referenced and found by whatever criteria you need. That makes sense, but can this system be applied to other information, like monthly bills, tax returns, staff, legal issues, normal company information?

B

eing able to retrieve the data is more important than an organized alphabetized file drawer.

I remember going to a walk-in clinic (doctor's office) for an ailment at the time. I gave in my health card and was asked to be seated. I looked around and noticed quite a large amount of folders, assuming that they were patient files (which they were). It was interesting to see that there were numbers on the side of them.

You can use this system for anything you like, such as monthly bills, tax returns, etc. as you mentioned in your question. You can use two different methods of creating a filing system.

You can use Microsoft Excel to add all of this information and then add the numbers from the files to your Excel spreadsheet.

You can use Microsoft Access to create a database of all of your files' criteria and the software assigns a "key" or number that corresponds with your files.

This way, you can keep track of all files in any way, shape or form.

You can find more filing tips by reading my article entitled "7 Steps to Improve Your Filing System".

Can you think of any other ways to improve this filing system? Let me know your suggestions and thoughts on this.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

My answer to this is:

Organize With Social Bookmarking!

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Do you find articles on this site intriguing? Do you wish that you could save them to your Favorites so that you can look at them again and again? Do you wish that you could take your Favorites with you where ever you go, even if you don't own a laptop and have access to a computer with internet access?

You may have noticed the small icon at the top and bottom of each post which states "Bookmark" and a few symbols after it. If you hover over this icon, you will notice a small drop down box. You can click on any of the particular social bookmarks to be able to save and share your Favorites with anyone you choose.

There's also the "more..." button. Click this and you will get an even larger list of free services that are offered. You can sign up and use any or as many services as you wish.

You have option to share these with anyone or everyone that's part of this service. You can even find other people that have similar interests as you and add them to your "Friends" list. This is a networking tool that I've been using for quite some time now.

You can also use these services to organize yourself by adding "tags" or keywords to the articles that you've saved. So, next time you need to look for something within your tags, click on one of them and you will find all of the articles that you've saved with that particular tag.

Here are my top picks of services that I find most useful:

So, next time you find an article on here that you are interested in saving and want to glance back quickly from anywhere in the world, click on the "Bookmark" icon and save it to one of these services.

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Tips for Office Costumes at Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Happy Halloween everyone!

You walk into the office and notice all of the Halloween decorations. A spider here, a goblin there. Then a bunch of co-workers show up in costumes. What a sight!

Do you like to dress up in fancy or scary costumes for this occasion? Do you want to dress up at the office, but not sure what to wear or if you even can?

This has been a tradition in our office for quite some time now, where people would decorate the office, dress up in funky costumes and bring baked treats for everyone. Luckily, in my office, we dress in casual clothes all of the time and we do have a corporate policy of being able to dress up in a costume for this event. We even hold a "Best Costume Contest" and even get a small prize, although I've never seen what the prize was.

Here are some tips you should follow before you get into the spirit:

Check to see if others will be doing the same. You don't want to end up at work and be the only one wearing a costume. Looking like a rabbit might be fun, but you don't want to be gnawing your carrot around others as they're working away.
Check with your Human Resources Department or manager to see if this falls into your corporate policy.
If you are going to wear a costume, make sure to wear something tasteful, not too scary or revealing. Remember that you are in a professional environment and have to upkeep this attitude.
Try not to wear masks as the can block your vision and cut down on productivity. Try reading what you are typing or writing through really small holes. It's nearly impossible, especially if you wear glasses.

And last of all, have fun with it! Feel proud to be a part of a great office culture!

So, any of you celebrating Halloween? Do you have any more tips to add here? What are you dressing up as? Let us know!

What's next?

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Is Your Boss Not Giving You Enough Work?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Do you find yourself being bored out of your mind at times with nothing to do? Do you feel that your boss could offer you more tasks, but keeps telling you that they're putting things together for you, but never do?

This, of course, is heaven to some, but like me, can't stand being bored. I always need to keep myself occupied with some sort of task, whether it be filing, updating our company's database with client information, etc. It really does make the time go by faster, especially during the slow periods, which doesn't happen too often for me. I do enjoy taking it easy at times, but still need to keep myself busy, so I don't feel like I'm going insane.

Unfortunately, one of my readers is in the same predicament as this. They write:

He doesn't have anything for me to do.

I know some might say that's a blessing, but I AM SO BORED and I feel very unproductive. I frequently tell him in different ways, "I don't have any tasks to do for you right now...." or "I don't want to be wasting your time or money, so if you have ANYTHING for me to do, I'll gladly do it."

His reply is usually, "I'm working on some things that I'll get to you soon...." and he never does. What do you think this means?

I've tried to exhaust all the possible things I could do that he doesn't ask me to do - organize emails, files, clutter, contacts, create procedures. I'm out of ideas! I know that he doesn't like the company we're working for. I think it could be a lot of things, but I would think that he would drop me if he didn't have anything for me to do!

My response to this is:

You have to look at the bright side. Quite a lot of people, especially in today's world, don't have a job, so you should feel lucky that you do have one. But on the other hand, I know exactly what you mean. Having nothing to do is such a time waster.

My suggestion to this is to be persistent. That's how I ended up getting my current job. That's how I get things done around my office, since I work for about 30 staff, which includes 5 managers. You should see my follow-up list. It's quite large. I usually follow up ever 3 business days on outstanding items.

Another thing that I can suggest is to have a meeting with your boss. Explain to him that you're in a situation where you feel unproductive and give some examples. Mention him that you are here to help in any way you can. Remind him that this is why he hired you.

I hope that this has shed some insight on getting your boss to help out by asking you to help him out.

If there are any other points you can mention, please leave a comment. Share your thoughts and suggestions on this topic!

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Free ACT! (CRM) Video Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Are you using ACT! as your client relationship manager (CRM)? Did your boss just decide to install it on his/her system and yours then told you, "Read the manual, we're going to be using this from now on"?

If you’re looking to purchase ACT! for your company, click here.

This same thing happened to me as well as one of my readers. In one of my previous jobs, when I was working for an Investment Advisor, he gave me the installation CD-ROM and asked me to read up on how to use it. Believe it or not, this was quite an easy system to learn. I've never used it before, but took a few hours each day to familiarize myself with it and it was really simple to operate.

One of my readers asks:

Can you help me with ACT? My employer needs someone who is educated in this program. I've never used it. HELP!

My answer to this is:

First off, cut down on the caffeine. Just had to say that, since you seem to be in a panic. Take a deep breath and follow the instructions below.

I've found a great resource on the ACT! website, which has the following online video tutorials for some of the most frequently used functions in this software. The only thing is that you need to have earphones or speakers at your computer. It's quite comprehensive and takes you step-by-step through all of the items. Just click on any of the links below to take a look at the particular task you would like to learn about.

ACT! Workspace

Activities

Customization

Dashboard

Dashboard Designer

Finding Information

Groups & Companies

Handheld Link Installation

Importing Contacts

Mail Merge

Opportunities

Outlook Integration

Printing

Setting up E-mail

Setup Assistant

Sharing Databases

Synchronizing

Writing a Letter

So check out these tutorials and let us know how you've managed with them. I am sure that this will beef up your productivity with the system.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Do You Have A Question For Me?

noreply@blogger.com (The Professional Assistant) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Do you have a question? Do you feel that you need help one something related to your career? Do you want to ask something, but feel shy to do so?

I have been running this blog for just over a year now and it has grown quite a bit, as you can tell. People have been asking me questions from time to time and I try to respond as quickly as I can to all of them.

There are over 200 articles of information so far and growing. I am sure that you will find what you are looking for on here or even just something to read at your leisure. If there's something you can't find, don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail here or click on the Submit A Question link at the top of this page.

If you feel that you want to remain anonymous, please note that I never disclose any personal information such as your name, company, etc., unless you specify that you would like me to.

So send me your questions, comments, suggestions, beefs - whatever it is, send them to me and I will try to answer them as best as I can.

If you're interested in reading what other questions were submitted by readers, check out the sidebar for the last 5 questions submitted.

And as the bottom of most letters state, "I look forward to your reply".

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips