Help! I’ve lost my focus!

This week I wanted to respond to an article I read on Yahoo Finance about an assistant at PepsiCo who cost the company $1.26 Billion! In short, the PepsiCo assistant was so busy preparing for a board meeting that she set aside a legal document relating to a mandatory court appearance for a trade secrets lawsuit brought against PepsiCo. PepsiCo missed their court date and the plaintiffs were awarded a default judgment of $1.26 billion!

Assisting, whether an individual or a company, is an important role that can have unintended and disastrous results when not executed to the best of one’s ability. Though it seems like common knowledge to ‘stay on top of priorities’ and to ‘not let the ball drop’ during the daily grind (and particularly in times of high activity) mistakes due to lack of concentration/prioritization do occur with results that can range from the benign to the costly.

Our days can get extremely hectic, especially when we have multiple meetings occurring. The art of being a great assistant is balancing deadlines, priority information, and high activity levels. My secret to success is a system called VersionOne. VersionOne, an agile project management tool that I have adapted for my own use, is a system that allows me to keep track of all the tasks I need to complete during the course of my week and includes an estimate of how many hours each task will take me.

VersionOne also helps me to prioritize my task list. I work from the top of the list down (highest priority to lowest). Another fantastic function is the ability to adjust my weekly tasks to accommodate important activities that tend to come up in the middle of the week. At the end of the week I am able to see what I have accomplished, what I have to restart the next week, and what I need to do differently to ensure my optimal productivity. Prior to using VersionOne I was not always sure, during busy times, what I had finished and/or what needed to be completed due to the hectic pace I was functioning at. Now, I am able to tell exactly what I have completed, what I will need to be working on the next morning when I get back to my desk, and what additional tasks I have time to take on.

Find a prioritizing system that works for you and diligently work with it. Not only will it help turn you into a better assistant but it very well might change your life!