How to Increase Your Productivity

Want to boost your efficiency at work? EA coach Annie Croner shares her tips on task tracking, boundaries, and much more.

Recorded at APC 2024 and produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals - ASAP. Learn more and submit a listener question at asaporg.com/podcast.

Leah Warwick: Hi, everyone. I'm Leah Warwick, and you're listening to "The Admin Edge." Efficiency is one of our training pillars here at ASAP because admins run organizations and need to stay on top of the latest tools and systems for success. At APC 2024, Annie Croner, an EA coach and trainer, sat down with Tony Crawford, an ASAP Advisory Board member and admin professional himself, to discuss some of the tips that Annie also shared with attendees at this event.

Annie Croner: I love to help executive assistants embrace their badassery and become truly strategic business partners. I do this through trainings, like we're having here at APC, and also through coaching.

00:00:53

I love the executive assistant role. I had a 20-year career as an executive assistant, and now I coach and train executive assistants full-time. So that's a bit more about me. 

Tony Crawford: Oh, that's great. And I like the word "badassery." That just makes us feel like we're doing a lot.

Annie Croner: Well, you are doing a lot. That's just it. We are. Admins are the people who run companies, really, when you think about it. They're the boots on the ground. So I'm a big fan of us actually embracing the notion that we are badasses.

Tony Crawford: Excellent. I love it so much. Let's get into our first question. As an admin professional, you juggle many responsibilities. How do you prioritize tasks and stay productive throughout the day?

Annie Croner: Yeah, so I am very based around processes and building out processes that will serve us in our careers. One process that I would encourage us all to consider is a digital centralized task-tracking system. I use Trello because you can drag and drop, and you can automate so many things. But if you can actually digitalize your task-tracking system and keep everything all in one place, that's your best bet for staying organized.

00:01:55

Honestly, before I found Trello, I would drop things. I would forget things, because I literally had sticky notes. I had my email that I was tracking things in. It just was not an efficient system. So once I was actually able to digitalize and centralize my task-tracking system, everything changed. My executive became surprised by the details I would remember when I wasn't actually remembering the details. I was more using my system, and I knew where everything was at, at all times. So I could just see at a glance where projects and tasks were at. I feel like that is the one system that I would encourage us all to implement in order to stay really organized. 

Tony Crawford: That's excellent. That's a good hack for everyone that needs to figure out a way to stay on top of their tasks. As far as time management and organizational techniques, what have you found most effective for admins to handle shifting priorities and urgent requests?

00:02:48                     

Annie Croner: I'm a big fan of creating focus for ourselves and pockets of focus for ourselves throughout our day. Honestly, that is the biggest thing I think we can do for ourselves as executive assistants. I think many of us, where multitasking is a badge of honor – when, really, what multitasking is, is switch-tasking. It's switching from task to task. Studies have shown that switch-tasking, or multitasking, can take up as much – the switch part can take up as much as 40% of our productive time throughout our day. So if we really want to maximize our productive output, if we really want to embrace efficiency, we are going to have to start creating focus for ourselves.

Tony Crawford: Okay, so when you're talking about focus, how do you get to that focus?

Annie Croner: It's an interesting question: How do you actually create focus for yourself? I'm a big fan of timers. So I like to go heads down for 20 minutes. By "heads down," I'm going to say something that's going to be very controversial for executive assistants and the administrative world in general. I like to close out of my inbox and I close out of all my messaging apps, so closing out of Slack or Teams, and going heads down on a project or going heads down on a task and actually allowing yourself that time to focus, actually giving yourself that gift of focus can go a long way in improving our productive output.

00:04:06

Now, I'm not saying that we want to do this without getting buy-in, because we absolutely need to be having the conversations with our executive. I know that most people have an anxiety attack at the thought of closing off that stream because we're so afraid we're going to miss something. But I'm not talking about closing out of things for hours on end. I'm talking about 20-minute increments, 15-20 minutes of focused time, 15-20 minutes of going heads down. And even if you're only able to accomplish that two or three times throughout your day, and the inbox is open the rest of the day, and the messaging apps are open the rest of the day, I think it will have a profound effect for all of you. So just give it a shot. And also have the conversation with your executive: "Hey, I heard this crazy podcast, and this gal was talking about closing out of my inbox. I think it's insane, but I want to try it. Just so you know, if you need to reach me, you can send me a text," which is always my executive's last – 

00:04:55

I have trained my executive that if he needed something immediately, to text me anyway, because that's how he could reach me. So I always gave my executive a through line, but actually cutting off that stream of incoming requests and allowing ourselves the time and space to focus is how we can really improve our productive output and be seen as a more strategic business partner, I feel. 

Tony Crawford: I like that a lot. That's another great hack. That's the word that I'm going to keep using is "hacks" because you're tossing out nuggets over here. So as far as interruptions go, that's a great way to minimize interruptions, but what about the interruptions that happen from outside of your inbox – say, someone walking into the office? How do you maintain your focus in those instances, or create a space for yourself to have focus?

Annie Croner: Yeah, so I think it's important to really understand your role. So if you're a receptionist, obviously you're going to be interrupted a lot. Obviously, people are going to be coming up to your desk a lot. If you work in an open floor plan, depending on your company culture – because a lot of this is cultural, too – you can put on headphones, and that will show people that you're unable to talk in that moment. You can perhaps put a sign up near your desk that says, "I'm in working mode. I'm in heads-down mode right now. Please come back in ten minutes."

00:06:03

Or, if you're interrupted, the favorite phrase that I like to use, especially if someone's coming to my desk just to be Chatty Kathy, I like to use the phrase like: "What can I do for you right now? How can I help?" And then when they say how you can help, be like, "Great. Will you please send me an email?" And then if they want to continue the conversation, then we're like, "Okay, I'm in the middle of a project right now. I look forward to helping you with this when you send me the email." 

Tony Crawford: That's great.

Annie Croner: It's a good redirect and we aren't being rude, but we're being firm with our parameters that we're setting around our time and energy for that focus session.

Tony Crawford: That makes all the sense in the world. Not to everyone: the [headphone hide]. It works in the gym as well. [laughter] Are there any productivity tools or apps that you recommend for admin professionals to streamline their workflow?

00:06:52                     

Annie Croner: Yes, so I love Trello – obviously, I mentioned it – for my task-tracking system. I do feel like it's a great tool to use. But anything digital or centralized for your task-tracking system. I'm also a big fan of Office Otter, which is a tool created specifically for executive assistants. It's also a task-tracking system. It's not as visually beautiful as Trello, but what it will do is it will quantify statistics for you on how you're spending and utilizing your time, and so it'll break it down into charts. I love that it actually makes our work that we do quantifiable.

I also appreciate Cabinet for streamlining emails and for streamlining calendars, especially if you manage multiple calendars. A tool like Cabinet can go a long way. What Cabinet does is it will put holds on the times that you want to put holds on, on your executive's calendar. And then once a time is chosen, it will automatically release the holds. So you aren't worried about mistyping something into your list of available times or anything, and you also aren't worried about going back and releasing those holds. Cabinet will do that for you. 

00:07:59

And then Scribe. I just discovered Scribe. A junior EA who's just starting out in our profession emailed me about it less than a month ago, and I've been using it like crazy. So Scribe, what it does is it's a tool that will take a snippet and you can do like a slash – say, /email or /board meeting and you can put a snippet in there. So you can put into their system a snippet, and then it will auto populate when you're online. It's like a really cool tool to streamline, especially those emails that you send on a consistent basis and templates that you use. Scribe is a really cool tool that I'd also have you all look into, and it will streamline your workflows as well. 

Tony Crawford: Okay, that's great. I got a little bit of a trauma response when you talk about the meeting holds, because there was once upon a hold there would be three separate hours of meeting holds and like, "Oh, my gosh. I need to schedule these other meetings. What am I going to do? They're coming in like rainwater. They're just coming through."

00:08:55

And we touched on this before. I wanted to get your input on admins being people-pleasers. How do you recommend handling requests that could derail your productivity, without coming across as unhelpful? 

Annie Croner: Yeah, so I think it's a matter of really defining – so I define people pleasing as making other people happy to your own detriment. I know many of us where people pleasing is a badge of honor. I once did as well. I think it's a matter of really getting clear on the priorities and then learning how to navigate when someone comes to you with a request outside of those priorities, and setting up those parameters around your time and energy so that the priorities are getting done and off our plate.

00:09:42

And I will also say that burnout is a very real thing. It's a very real thing. Even guarding your time in terms of that and making sure that those key tasks, those key initiatives, the parts of your role that are most important are getting done and that you're completely aligning with your leadership as well. And I think also having open conversations with your leaders about what you have on your plate and what they think you may want to let go of. 

Until you get a good sense for that, it's a good strategy to use. And keeping good communication. I'm always a big fan of good communication. I have coached so many people who've said, "My executive told me to say no, but how do I actually say no?" So I'm going to give you all a strategy for this. It's my favorite strategy for saying no, and I called it the "affirm, deny, affirm" method. So it's like a no wrapped up in a pretty yes. 

Say I'm asked – I've got two young children. Say the PTA asks me to bake something for the bake sale and say I don't have any bandwidth to bake the thing. So they come to me and they're like, "Hey, Annie, can you bake this thing?" And I'll be like, "Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I feel so honored that you thought of me. Unfortunately, I don't have any bandwidth for that right now. Things are busy at the office. But please keep me posted on how the fundraiser goes and let me know how I can help or contribute in another way." Maybe I can contribute something financially to the end goal, or whatever.

00:11:05

And I like that because there's actually a clear no in there, and yet it's couched in a couple of yesses. I think also I love the idea of being solutions-oriented for people without actually having to be the boots-on-the-ground solution for them, and being a resource for them. I'm happy to be a resource for anybody. I'm happy to help anybody with anything. I may not have the bandwidth to do the thing myself, but I'm happy to be a resource for anybody. 

Tony Crawford: That's great. And you touched on something a lot of admins do have trouble with, the boundaries, not only setting the boundaries but enforcing the boundaries as well. I know that a lot of your business and coaching is on boundary setting and wellness and helping admins be their greater self. So can you talk more about that?

00:11:55                     

Annie Croner: Yeah. So I just noticed in coaching executive assistants one-on-one that there were themes. One of the things that came up is like: I have so much work to do. A lot of it isn't related to the core work that I do. How do I actually navigate this?" Or, "I feel like I'm running myself into the ground at the office. I feel like there are not enough hours in a day. I'm putting in 60, 70-hour weeks." Even medical conditions – people have told me about their medical conditions because they've been working so long and so hard.

I think actually coming up intentionally and setting those intentional parameters for yourself. And I also think "parameters" is a much more accessible word than "boundaries." But what we're really talking about here is boundaries. But I think a lot of us also have this conflated view in our head of boundaries, like we envision marching into someone's office and laying down the law. It's very dramatic and conflated in our head. When, really, we train people on how we want to be treated with every single interaction. 

00:12:56

And so if you say yes to something – Lucy Brazier says this. If you say yes to something three or more times, essentially that task is yours now, instead of really getting clear on the priorities, getting clear on the objectives.

Tony Crawford: Okay. I've never thought about it that way. I think people will do that regularly. Setting their "no" and leaving it as "no" as opposed to people crossing it and pushing that no just to say, "Okay, well, it's for me. You've done it before," and things like that. It's always a little bit more difficult to stick to that no, at least in the beginning.

Annie Croner: It is. And I think also like – we think that just verbalizing the boundary is setting the boundary, but that's not actually setting a boundary. The boundary is set when it's verbalized and then held at least once, because people are going to test it. They're going to poke at it. It's human nature, and nothing has gone wrong. That's just what humans do. We want to test the boundary to make sure it's actually there. And then once it's actually there, it's like, "Oh, okay. Now I know."

00:13:55                     

Tony Crawford: Absolutely. And this is something that applies in your work life and your personal life, and I think people look at boundary setting or parameter setting as something that is most important at work, but it will be family as well. Those are things that can be more difficult to kind of navigate, but there is space for you to be able to do it and to advocate for yourself so that you don't come across as being difficult or anything like that. It's just you're protecting yourself.

Annie Croner: Yeah, I think so. And I honestly think the number one violator of our boundary is us, because what ends up happening is I'd really like to stay – I'd really like to get off and be done with work at 6:00, and your boss is like, "Great. Thank you for letting me know. We'll try to get you out of here by 6:00." And then 6:00 rolls around and it's like, "Well, but I've got this thing to do." And then we end up violating our own boundary and then that sends mixed messages.

Tony Crawford: Well, this was great. I would love to continue the conversation. I appreciate you joining us on "The Admin Edge." Can you tell us, where can people find you online?

00:14:52                     

Annie Croner: Yeah, so I'm very active on LinkedIn, Annie Croner. I'm the only Annie Croner with a "C," C-R-O-N-E-R. You can also find me at my website Whole Assistant – like Whole Foods – wholeassistant.com.

Tony Crawford: Excellent. Thank you so much for your time, Annie. I appreciate you being here with us.

Annie Croner: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

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Leah Warwick: Thank you for listening to "The Admin Edge," produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals, original music and audio editing by Warwick Productions, with video and audio production at our events by 5Tool Productions. If you like this podcast, please leave us a nice review, five stars, and subscribe. If you'd like to submit a listener question, you may do so on our website at ASAPorg.com/podcast.