Do you think being a company CEO is tough?
Wait until you see how many tasks a chief of staff (COS) has to accomplish to make everything smooth for their boss.
If you're one of them, you probably know how hectic it can be. You need to talk with multiple departments, strategize with your team, and collaborate with many people to set your boss up for success.
Given all these responsibilities, managing your time correctly is essential to prevent tasks from hogging up.
In this blog post, we'll share some things you can do to improve your time management skills as chief of staff.
Here are some handy time management principles for chief of staff professionals:
Create an Execution Plan
Execution plans are helpful for chief of staff professionals who want to establish their priorities.
You can have monthly or annual execution plans if you like. However, we recommend you create an execution plan before every week starts to know where you're going.
Typically, there are four categories within your plan, namely:
- Job
- Career development
- Personal financial
- Financial
Of course, everyone has different priorities, so you can change these categories to whatever fits your plan best.
Make sure you align your execution plans with your boss's goals to prevent any miscommunication. You can also communicate these plans with your team, so they know which tasks to prioritize before the week, month, or year ends.
Schedule Company Events, Holidays, Vacations, and Recurring Meetings
Scheduling is one of the most, if not the most, important time management principles for any chief of staff professional.
However, you cannot schedule these events if you didn't accomplish the previous step. So, make sure to check that out.
Get all the most critical items in the calendar, such as:
- Company events
- Breaks
- Retreats
That way, there will be no overlap with the events that your boss is scheduled to attend.
After that, schedule all the meetings that your boss should attend, like:
- Team meetings
- Monthly meetings
- and any miscellaneous items that you think should populate the calendar.
Create Time Blocks
Now that everything is laid down, the next step is to allocate time blocks to prepare for these tasks.
Will you need more preparation for the company retreat six months from now? Do you need to collect data for your upcoming weekly meeting? Are there specific departments and teams that need more synthesizing?
Answer these questions and dedicate time to accomplish all of them. That way, you won't feel overwhelmed by handling all these tasks simultaneously.
Review Your Execution Plan Every Week
Execution plans are great, but sometimes there are things that you need to change to align with your executive's goals and the goals of your company.
Reviewing your execution plan allows you to fit these changes as needed. Don't forget to collaborate with your team and boss when making these changes.
Prepare for the Next Day
Another thing you want to do is dedicate time to preparing for tomorrow. We recommend a minimum of 30 minutes after your work to plan your priority tasks and prevent getting surprised about what you need to do the day after.
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