Imaging walking into your office in the morning … a calm start to your “9-5″ with a simple list of calls to return from the day before … marked with notes from your dedicated and detailed assistant regarding how urgent a call was, if it was someone important (to you), or if it was a call you can ignore/delete.  “What would I do without you!?!  You’re the best assistant … you help me monitor and organize my phone calls allowing me to be more productive … I am so lucky!”

REALITY CHECK!  The economy is slow and most organizations budgets won’t allow you to hire your own administrative assistant. How can one get the benefit of a personal assistant without the additional cost?  You already have one.  Meet …. your alter ego.

Option #1:  don’t answer your calls (land line OR cell phone) unless you recognize the number and you need or want to accept the call.  For example, take calls from your boss, your significant other, and your parents/children.  Do NOT take calls from numbers you don’t recognize (i.e., are not important enough to you to store in your “contacts” list!)  This will save you loads of time from being distracted from the task at hand by answering random phone calls that should have been directed else where, were not urgent, or were generic telemarketing.  Choose one time each day to check your voicemail and create a “call back list” for the following day (you can ignore calls you don’t need to return … or, to give you a sense of accomplishment, write the person’s name/number and cross it off immediately.  “CHECK!”)  Note the sense of urgency/importance related to the calls you plan to return.

Option #2:  if you happen to answer a call from someone unknown, BE GENERIC!  Don’t answer by saying:  “Hello, this is (name)”!  Rather, answer by saying “Good morning/afternoon, how may I help you?”  When the person on the other end asks for you, ask them who’s calling (to determine if this message needs to be added to your “call back list” or not) and let them know that while s/he (you) are not in right now, a return call will be placed at (your) earliest convenience.

Please respond with your comments to let us know how YOU are working out as YOUR OWN personal assistant.  Good luck!

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