I was talking to a friend earlier this week and sharing how I manage to get along without an assistant.  I’ve had them in the past and learned a lot from it.  I’m one of those people that like for everyone to “have it in writing.”  Whatever our agreement is, whatever I expect from you, that way there are no misunderstandings.  So I created a list of duties for the assistant to do.  It tells what gets filed where.  It tells the step by step process for logging in a new client or getting someone on the subscription list.  That way, anyone can sit at that desk in that back office – the assistant’s office – and they can pick up the list of duties and go to the in-box and know just what to do and how to do it.   It’s been helpful when a friend volunteers to help, or when I can talk my cousin into giving a hand.  And it even helps me, when I have a free hour and think, let me go do the assistant’s filing real quick, since it’s all in one place for me.  It helps me a lot.

It’s really just about focus.  When I sit down at the computer, I may have an idea of what I’d like to do, and a list of things I will do that day, but my habit of checking email first usually derails me for several hours. I get a lot of it and I like to respond to people right away, so it takes awhile.  And, of course, 90% of the work comes in by email.

I should learn to make separate time to check email and make separate time for magazine layout and separate time for administrative work – where that is all I do. Like I do when I prepare the assistant’s inbox: this is for her, I’ll leave this for her, too… And then I set that box on the assistant’s desk.

That way I don’t feel pressured, because it’s out of “my” hands, and when I have that extra hour, I can do the assistant’s work since it’s already there waiting for me, with no distraction.  I just separate myself into “I’m the assistant now” and do her work.

That’s what works for me.