Tips for Executive Assistants wanting to be black belt GTDers

June 15, 2007 10:47 PM

Are there any tips for Executive Assistants wanting to be black belt GTDers?

I swear all the GTD tips I can find are about or "Effectively utilizing an administrative assistant " or "best practices of senior managers".
What about us Assistants that want to take things into our own hands? Are there any web pages, or bulletin boards that can help us that spend our days scheduling, being constantly interrupted and asked to stay on top of it all?
Does any one know where there any tricks or software recommendations to make our world a better place? How about a lifehack to sanity?

posted by dchunks to work & money (6 comments total)

"Does any one know where there any tricks ... to make our world a better place? How about a lifehack to sanity?"

Er... well, your job is completely ephemeral. You're parameters of existence are defined on all sides by those in authority directly above you. I suspect much of your stress comes from the fact that your working life is perhaps completely arbitrarily decided from above at any given moment.

If you truly want to "get things done"... er... GTD... and find a "lifehack to sanity" perhaps you should consider a different line of work?
posted by wfrgms at 11:14 PM on June 15, 2007

Have you read the Getting Things Done book by David Allen?
posted by junesix at 12:28 AM on June 16, 2007

How about taking a look at the 43Folders Wiki? Although it is not specificially geared to Executive Assistants, it offers quite a large compendium of tips and tricks to get things done better.
posted by pu9iad at 12:35 AM on June 16, 2007

Seconding junesix. The book is not about using administrative assistants. Don't learn GTD by reading geeks' or executives' tips on the web; learn it from the book.

The training sessions and workshops are more executive-targeted, but that's because they're expensive and executives are the sort of people that go to those kinds of things.

(And yeah, I don't understand the "make the world a better place" part. GTD is about productivity and is very task-driven; if you want a more "life outlook" approach, you might enjoy Seven Habits.)
posted by mendel at 6:56 AM on June 16, 2007

This post from Matt's Idea blog has some good references and comments. I would think the "how to use an assistant effectively" posts would still be relevant to your search if you use them to establish guidelines for developing your own systems with your boss.
posted by ajr at 7:04 AM on June 16, 2007

thanks for all the good input!
posted by dchunks at 11:56 AM on June 17, 2007