4 Must-Have Tools for Administrative Professionals to Maintain a Clutter-Free Digital Workspace

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In the fast-paced world of administrative roles, keeping your digital workspace organized is paramount. With a multitude of tasks, appointments, and documents to manage, having the right tools can make all the difference. Here are five essential tools that can help you maintain a clutter-free digital workspace and boost your productivity.

What you’ll find here:

Notion: The Ultimate All-in-One Solution for Assistant Organization

Notion is the ultimate digital Swiss Army knife for administrative professionals. It combines note-taking, task management, project collaboration, and database functions into one sleek platform. Create a centralized hub for your tasks, meetings, and reference materials. Collaborate seamlessly with team members and keep everything organized in one place.

Spoiler Alert: We are launching a new Notion-based solution for assistants to help keep you organized so you never miss a task and have an intuitive way to capture relevant information and SOPs.

Tags for Google Calendar™ Chrome Extension: Streamline Your Scheduling

Here at The Officials we use Google Workspace and being a small organization we don’t need the robust plans that a larger enterprise might need. If you work for an SMB in the same situation, you may be missing out on Google Calendar tags and labels available in the the bigger plans but not anymore!

Tags for Google Calendar™ is a Chrome extension that allows you to color-code and tag your events. Easily distinguish between meetings, deadlines, and personal appointments. This visual organization can help you manage any schedule with ease.

ChatGPT Chat Organizer: Tame Your Digital Conversations for Easy Reference

Assistants rely on ChatGPT for daily, sometimes hourly, support in their roles, but managing chat threads can be a real challenge. That’s where the ChatGPT Chat Organizer comes in. This extension empowers you to effortlessly create folders for various topics, projects, or clients, simplifying chat organization and retrieval. Bid farewell to the hours wasted on scrolling and searching. With just a few clicks, you can efficiently organize your chats, saving valuable time while preserving your conversations. It’s the essential tool to regain control of your digital workspace.


Courses for assistants by assistants!

Digital Declutter Course for Assistants

Find sanity in your digital workspace. Get your digital workspace organized so you can save time, mental energy, and work in a pleasant digital environment with your talented instructor, Melissa Peoples.

No more overflowing inboxes. No more FOLDERS OF DOOM sitting on your digital desktop. It’s time to take back control!

Inside the Onboarding course

Tango: Effortlessly Create Interactive How-To Guides in Minutes

We actually first heard about Tango from an Official (thank you again, Jana)! With Tango, documenting any process via a browser becomes a breeze as you simply click through the steps, eliminating the need for screenshots. You use Tango via a Chrome Extension or you can use the desktop app.

This innovative tool automatically transforms your process into a step-by-step interactive walkthrough. And that’s not all—Tango also takes care of formatting screenshots, crafting clear descriptions, and generating shareable links for your guides. Plus, it turns your guides into interactive walkthroughs, ensuring your team knows precisely where to click. No more searching for answers; Tango’s extension notifies you about relevant how-to guides in real-time, right when you need them. Say goodbye to tedious work and hello to streamlined, effective guidance with Tango.

By using our link you can get 25% off Tango Pro of 15% off Enterprise.

Wrap Up

As we conclude our journey through these fantastic tools, remember that the path to a clutter-free and productive workspace begins with a single click. These tools are your companions on the road to streamlined efficiency. So, why wait? Embrace the digital transformation, and let these tools be your guiding stars toward a more organized, stress-free, and successful future!


Building a Strong Relationship with Your Principal

Building a Strong Relationship with your Principal

Achieve true collaboration through mutual respect and vision

Ursula Kohler
Founder and Managing Director at Capital EA

You could be the most talented and committed assistant in the world but still be left feeling impotent and unfulfilled in your role due to a lack of connection with the principal (aka executive, manager).

Imagine building a solid foundation of respect, trust and affinity with them. How would it feel to know that your principal not only cares about your opinion but trusts you with key decision making? Without this, no role can truly be 100% fulfilling. So how do you build that strong relationship?

We collaborated with Ursula Kohler of Capital EA to bring you this course that will walk you through the steps of forging a healthy and respectful relationship with your principal. Ursula’s impressive experience gives her a unique vantage point of what it is like to be the assistant and the business leader, as the founder of Capital EA.

This course is for you if you…

  • Have struggled to capture high trust, regard and connection with your principal
  • Are ready to make the step up to a senior assistant position and need to know which skills to hone
  • Want to know the unique pressures, needs and requirements of today’s business leaders
  • Are looking for ways to improve your emotional intelligence to be the support your principal truly needs through a mutually beneficial partnership

The Results

  • Gain clarity with your principal to avoid ambiguity
  • Align your responsibilities to the goals and targets of the principal and company in order to articulate your value to the growth of the company
  • Recognize and cultivate your own Intellectual Property
  • Interview and research the principal to build a better understanding of their footprint
  • Future planning for success through time management, focus and support
  • Understand how to create and value your personal goals and how they contribute to your success as a senior level assistant

Your Instructor

Testimonials

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I have new found confidence in what I do and how to really connect with my principal – it’s so much more about the past in order to understand the future!

Magnificent Official
Magnificent Official

I found this course incredibly insightful. I have worked with my current exec for just under a year but am constantly looking for new ways to improve our relationship, especially whilst we work from home. I have so many new ideas now!

Fabulous Official
Fabulous Official

For me, this was a great course of reminders of how to continue to build a relationship with my Executive, with several “lightbulb” moments. I loved those. One was I am a “consultant” or an “advisor”. I need to really think of myself this was. I need to think more like an entrepreneur – a word I would never use to describe myself, until now (yet still with a bit of Imposter Syndrome). Another was simply asking myself “what does a successful year look like?” That’s excellent, big picture, strategic thinking. I get so consumed with details and tasks, that I do not take the time to think strategically. This course certainly emphasizes that. Ursula is so warm and inviting as a facilitator. I loved the webinar that was included. Great job Ursula! And, thank you for the quote of “Rule your mind, or it will rule you.” This is so very true!

Rebecca S
Rebecca S
Ursula Kohler

Ursula Kohler

Founder and Director
Capital EA

With over 25 years’ experience as an EA/PA, Ursula has worked with and supported some of Australia’s most recognised and rewarded individuals. She founded Capital EA in 2014, a company that flies the banner for all EAs and is one of its kind in Australia. Ursula has a Diploma of Business Management, was one of five finalists in the 2019 Canberra Women in Business – Business Woman of the Year category. She has lived on the Sunshine Coast and prefers Canberra, is married with one daughter, two mini dachshunds and a British short-haired cat!

She is an incredible advocate for admins and assistants around the world and we are proud to call her an Official as well.

Event Planning and Management for Assistants

Event Planning and Management 101 Course

An event can be a powerful tool to bring people together. Being tasked with planning, implementing and managing a company event is a big responsibility.

Officials know this all too well. Admins and assistants are often tasked with planning various types of events. It could be a large annual general meeting, an internal conference, a social event, holiday party or a client event… and now we have to figure out how to do it all virtually!

On top of all of our other responsibilities, event planning and management can be daunting.

That’s why we have roped in the magnificent Lisa Boissel of Miss Jones PA to give us a crash course in event planning basics. Lisa is a pro under pressure and thrives on running the show. She walks you through planning and managing a successful event step by step and has gifted you with the same templates she uses for friction-free events.

Continue reading Event Planning and Management 101 Course

Event Planning and Management 101

Event Planning and Management 101

Friction free event planning from start to finish

Lisa Boissel
Managing Director at Miss Jones PA

An event can be a powerful tool to bring people together. Being tasked with planning, implementing and managing a company event is a big responsibility.

Officials know this all too well. Admins and assistants are often tasked with planning various types of events. It could be a large annual general meeting, an internal conference, a social event, holiday party or a client event… and now we have to figure out how to do it all virtually!

On top of all of our other responsibilities, event planning and management can be daunting.

That’s why we have roped in the magnificent Lisa Boissel of Miss Jones PA to give us a crash course in event planning basics. Lisa is a pro under pressure and thrives on running the show. She walks you through planning and managing a successful event step by step and has gifted you with the same templates she uses for friction-free events.

This course is for you if you…

  • Have been tasked with hosting an event and
  • Want to know what it takes to design and manage a successful event
  • Love event planning and want access to expert tips
  • Need to transition live events to virtual events
  • Are looking to expand your skillset to be a more desirable candidate

What you will learn

  • Powerful scoping questions that will kill ambiguity so your events run smoothly from Day 1
  • Mastery of planning and implementation templates from events experts
  • Determining what success looks like for your event
  • Tools to transition events from in-person to virtual
  • Design tips and tricks for marketing your events
  • Budgeting with a buffer and what to do when budget has not yet been clarified
  • Seamless event planning through task management and timeline creation
  • Properly analyzing your success post-event and documenting lessons learned correctly

Your Instructor

Guest Instructor Lisa Boissel Miss Jones PA

Lisa Boissel

Managing Director + Events Queen
Miss Jones PA

Lisa Boissel is the Managing Director of Miss Jones PA, a global leading assistant and event planner network. She has been an event planner for over 14 years and is an expert at crafting luxury experiences.

Be an Asana Warrior

Be an Asana Warrior

Achieve flow through collaborative task management

Anna Read
of Empowered Assistants Empower Assistants

# Slack Channel: #course_asanawarrior

Does your to-do list look like this?

Then add to it the list of all the actions you are supposed to keep track of for every meeting you’ve ever minuted and you can kiss 😘 your sanity goodbye.

Not anymore. If your current task management method is failing you then this course is for you. Follow fellow Official, Anna Read, as she gives you an over the shoulder view of how she uses Asana in her role as an EA.

This course is for you if you…

  • Seek focus and clarity in a day of chaotic requests
  • Know your current task management system isn’t cutting the mustard – pen and notebook, Trello, Tasks, etc.
  • Need a way to track projects, meeting actions and more
  • Ready to work like a leader and delegate that sh*t
  • Want to stay on top of the latest productivity tech solutions

What you will learn

  • How to align your attention to your intention
  • Asana for task management
  • Task management through collaboration
  • To maximize your productivity and focus through superior task management
  • To manage your executive’s day through Asana
  • Remote Project management and tracking

Your Instructor

Anna Read

Anna Read

EA and Co-Founder
Empowered Assistants Empower Assistants

Anna is an Asana Certified Pro and co-founder of Empowered Assistants Empowering Assistants (EAEA). She currently serves as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of YWCA Central Alabama.
 
Anna has been working with C-Suite executives for over 9 years. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama. On any given Sunday, you can find her in the garden or hanging out with her husband and their dog, Tuppy Tebow.

Before you begin…

You will need to get yourself a Asana account.

Please note this page has affiliate links. You can read our Affiliate Disclaimer for more information.

EA to VA: The Essentials of Building a Virtual Assistant Business

EA to VA: The Essentials of Building a Virtual Assistant Business

Employee to entrepreneur, learn the essentials to building a successful VA business

Lauren Bradley
of The Officials

# Slack Channel: #course_vaessentials

Do you have what it takes to create your own VA startup?
Ready to go from EA to CEO?

Well now is the time, so consider building a Virtual Assistant business. In this course, we will give you a roadmap to take your experience of working with business leaders and use it to become one yourself.

Learn the ups and downs of starting your own business and how you can set yourself up for success.

This course is for you if you…

  • Want to determine if now is the time to start your own VA business
  • Think it’s time to stop working so hard for someone else and start working hard for yourself
  • Feel uncertain about your future and want to take matters into your own hands
  • Are a new VA who started their business by stumbling upon clients but now want to grow your business

What you will learn

  • What it truly means to be a business owner
  • Thinking like a business leader
  • Setting goals and milestones to success
  • Calculating your worth with competitive pricing
  • Determining your services and articulating your value
  • The pages you MUST have on your website
  • Defining the customer journey and sales funnel
  • Building your support team
  • Bonus: Utilizing Instagram for business promotion

Testimonials

Gave me the essentials and framework to start a VA business.

Umm Lauren you are AMAZINNNNGGGGGGGG!!! This course rocks!
❤️
You’re setting realistic expectations to your members and I appreciate it!

Your Instructor

Lauren Bradley

Lauren Bradley

Founder
The Officials

Lauren has held every admin and assistant title under the sun including Office Manager, Virtual Assistant, EA to the CEO and private PA to HNWIs. She is a former OfficeNinjas All-Star winner and founder of The Officials. She is passionate about empowering admins and assistants.

Organizational Culture, Community + Inclusion

Organizational Culture, Community + Inclusion

Be a culture leader in a corporate world

with Christie Arias of Elite Assisting
+ Lauren Bradley of The Officials
+

# Slack Channel: #course_culture

About the course

We’ve all seen it.
The effects of toxic culture.

You feel demotivated and disconnected from the purpose of your work. You want to be anywhere else and working on anything else.


About half of job seekers cite company culture as very important when choosing to apply to a company. This is because we like to feel useful, to feel there is purpose to our work and that our colleagues and leaders share our values.

We’ve teamed up with Christie Arias of Elite Assisting to talk all things culture and why admins and assistants are perfectly placed to shape the culture of a company.

This course is for you if you…

  • Enjoy the people side of any admin and assistant role
  • Want to make your organization a safe and comfortable place for all employees
  • Want to be a leader in culture
  • Are looking for initiatives and programs to promote culture as well as support equality, diversity and inclusion
  • Looking to diversify your skills and gain the respect of your leadership team
  • Desire to increase employee retention and elevate your organization as a desirable employer

What you will learn

  • The importance of culture for successful business
  • Defining your organizational culture
  • The traits of a culture keeper
  • Curating, keeping and correcting culture
  • Equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives
  • Attracting and engaging diverse talent

Testimonials

I LOVED this course! My boss really wants me to help think of ways to improve our teams culture (We’re a fairly new department within a huge organization and it feels a bit like a start up!), and I didn’t think I knew how. My notebook is now brimming with ideas that just poured out of me as I read this course and I cannot wait to implement them!!

Awesome Official
Awesome Official


It provided a lot of background on this issue and food for thought. I think I’ll be coming back to this one!

5 stars
Sara B.

This is a course for newly appointed HR reps, office managers at start-ups and scale-ups, solopreneurs who need actionable advice on how to create culture. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Upon completion of this course, they will they know how to serve a delicious breakfast.

Five Stars
Carla VH

Your Instructors

Lauren Bradley

Lauren Bradley

Founder
The Officials

Lauren has held every admin and assistant title under the sun including Office Manager, EA to the CEO and private PA to HNWIs. She is a former OfficeNinjas All-Star winner and founder of The Officials. She is passionate about empowering admins and assistants.

Christie Arias

Christie Arias

EA + Creator
Elite Assisting

Christie is an EA with an impressive resume working at YSL, Burberry and Victoria’s Secret. She is the creator of Elite Assisting a blog and forum for admins and assistants. Christie lives and works in NYC.


Goal Setting and Performance Reviews Owning Your Career Development as an Admin Course Banner

Course: Goal Setting and Performance Reviews: Owning your Career Development as an Admin

Performance reviews can be sources of fear, frustration, and last minute scrambling for many Administrative professionals. Not after this course! We will help you plan and execute a highly impactful review cycle. Most importantly you will walk away knowing how to properly tell the story of your personal accomplishments and the value you bring to your organization. After this course, you will be ready to better advocate for your future growth as an Administrative professional.

Introducing our new course, Goal Setting and Performance Reviews: Owning your Career Development as an Admin with guest instructor the one and only Jillian Hufnagel. She is going to help you find your confidence during an appraisal through preparation.

This course is right for you if:

  • Want to plan and execute a highly impactful review cycle
  • Looking to learn how to survey your leader to create alignment and shared understanding
  • Want to learn how to set and track SMART goals that align to your leader(s), team(s) and company
  • Find yourself lost in your career journey and need help to lead yourself thru the next phase of your journey as an Admin 
  • Want to feel more confident during the 1:1s with your leader
Continue reading Course: Goal Setting and Performance Reviews: Owning your Career Development as an Admin

The Influential Assistant

The Influential Assistant

with Lauren Bradley
Founder of The Officials

Slack channel #course_influentialassistant

About the Course

If we could give one gift to every admin or assistant in our industry it would be confidence. Lack of confidence, imposter syndrome and servile tendencies plague our industry – but there is hope. 

This course addresses breaking conditioning, the role of the assistant in the leadership team, how to battle imposter syndrome, dealing with salty staff and being a strategic business partner. Take this course and know your worth!

This course is for you if you…

  • Want to motivate and inspire others to make important change
  • Desire to speak with the leadership team with confidence and ease
  • Struggle with finding your voice at work
  • Interested in using your talents as an assistant to help making a positive impact at your company

What you will learn

  • The Influence Formula
  • How to build confidence
  • Mindset Mastery
  • Combating imposter syndrome
  • Dealing with difficult people
  • Leadership qualities and characteristics
  • Flexing your influence

​​

Want this course?
Make It Official.

This course is available through our on online training and community HQ Membership platform.

Inside The Officials HQ

HQ Membership

Want this course PLUS instant access to ALL of our courses? Then it’s our affordable HQ membership you want. Inside you’ll find courses for assistants by assistants packed with video tutorials, workbooks, templates and downloadables.

Included in your affordable membership you will be granted access to our global online community of supportive and talented assistants.

Oh and don’t forget that all of our popular events that are completely free to HQ Members.

Your Instructor

Lauren Bradley

Lauren Bradley

Founder
The Officials

Lauren has held every admin and assistant title under the sun including Office Manager, EA to the CEO and private PA to HNWIs. She is a former OfficeNinjas All-Star winner and founder of The Officials. She is passionate about empowering admins and assistants.