12 Hacks To Work With Your Assistant

About this video

Dan Martell presents 12 strategies to work better with an executive assistant to buy back your time, organised as four pillars with three strategies each, under his buyback principle that we do not hire people to grow our business, we hire people to buy back our time. For the inbox: create a folder structure with a review folder for items the assistant does not know how to handle, hold a daily meeting to review that folder plus the to-respond and responded folders, and build an inbox SOP with templates as the assistant documents responses. For the calendar, where his rule is nothing goes in or out without his assistant being aware: give the assistant a perfect week template of time blocks, aim for ‘calendar complete’ when he reviews on Sunday night, and use calendar notes for full context for each meeting, including a separate notes meeting alongside bookings others schedule. For travel: use a preloaded year one-page template showing 12 months at a glance, create trip files as Google docs with accommodation, transportation and agenda linked from calendar invites, and hold a weekly sync with the assistant and his partner. For communication: hold a daily sync to build the assistant’s context map, reroute messages from SMS, WhatsApp or Facebook into email with the assistant looped in, and have the assistant close the loop daily by posting completed items in a private Slack channel.

Key takeaways

• The buyback principle: hire an assistant to buy back your time first, rather than hiring only to grow the business, and integration means the assistant manages 100% of your email, not just being CC’d on tasks
• Inbox system: a folder structure built around a review folder, a daily meeting to review it, and a documented inbox SOP with templates that grows as the assistant responds on your behalf
• Calendar system: a perfect week template, a complete calendar ready for review on Sunday night, and notes in every invite so you have the context to go from meeting to meeting
• Travel system: a preloaded year on one page, a trip file Google doc for every trip linked in calendar entries, and a weekly sync with your assistant and your partner
• Communication system: a daily sync for context, rerouting off-email requests into email with the assistant copied, and a daily ‘closing the loop’ post so open items do not keep you awake at night

Episode details: published May 15, 2023 · 16:33 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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