When your programs are not responding and your computer is down, what are you supposed to do? You certainly realize how much you are dependent on it and it sometimes leaves you feeling a little disoriented as to what to do next. At least it does for me.
Here is what I came up with:
- Catch up on filing
- Do expense reports
- Order supplies
- Prepare courier slips
- Get on the phone to check voicemail and return calls, make travel arrangements, register for conferences, book boardrooms etc.
Sometimes having the computer down is a good time to do the little things we have not had time to do because we are so busy on the computer. You just need to shift your thinking and get back on track with a different to-do list.
3 comments:
Very nice post! This is so true. The only problem is that if all of this is done, which (believe it or not) I get done quickly, I tend to go back to my computer for more work.
Most of my work is through e-mails and this can be a real hassle, but great suggestions though!
Thanks,
Richard Rinyai
www.theprofessionalassistant.net
For me, it depends on why the computer is down. If it's a power outage, then I work on other things. However, if it's a problem with the network or my particular pc, I'm busy troubleshooting the problem, because I'm the tech support for my small non-profit agency as well as the Executive Assistant *laughs*.
All of your suggestions are good except the last one (at least for me) because I do almost all of those things online, including booking the conference rooms (they're set up in Outlook). I'm such a tech snob that it offends me to have to talk to an actual person to make travel arrangements *laughs*.
However, since I'm very lazy about filing, that is usually how I fill in computer outage time.
Hi Jodith, I would love you as my IT person. I always say the best IT people are the ones who have previously been assistants or in your case are the EA. If you read my article "Thinking Outside the Job Description Box" I mention someone I knew who started out as an assistant and ended up being an IT person and she was always my favourite one to help as she understand what I wanted the program to do.
I am the opposite when it comes to making travel arrangements. I prefer to speak to a person and let them do all the leg work. I notice it's about 50/50 at my office. Some do their own and others call the travel agent.
Thanks to you and Richard for commenting. I always like to get feedback.
Patricia
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