Assistant tip: batch tasks | Online Executive and Admin Assistant Training

Assistant tip: Batch your tasks

Submitted by Stephanie on September 11, 2009 at 04:03 PM

This is just a quick post about batching your tasks.

One of the less glamorous parts of being an assistant is that you have to perform certain tasks over and over. Things like making travel arrangements, completing expense reports and filling out time sheets are just a few different tasks that could benefit from batching.

Let’s say you work for more than one person—and in today’s economic climate, that’s the norm instead of the exception—and they all have expense reports that need to be done. If you batch each step of the process together, you’ll get in a groove and be able to finish all of the reports quicker than you would if you did each step for each report individually. Tape all of the receipts onto paper at one time; make a copy of each report at the copier at one time; complete all of the coding for each report at one time… you get the picture.

You do need to watch out to not mix up any of the paperwork and be sure to not put the wrong receipts on the wrong report but if can keep that straight, batching each part of the process for all reports makes sense and will save you time.

When I used to waitress, one of the best things I learned was to take a few steps as possible to complete as many tasks as possible… my customers didn’t really know the difference but I can guarantee you that that specific piece of advice put more tips in my pocket by the end of a shift and I still use that advice today working as an assistant.

Figure out where and how you can batch your tasks. You’ll save time and it will make those tasks a little more bearable.

Flickr Creative Commons image by ararejul.

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