As a personal assistant, your job is all about someone else. Whether it's managing a schedule, keeping track of daily tasks, or organizing files, you're the expert on what your employer needs, and—more importantly—the expert on how they work. It's that understanding coupled with your organizational superpowers that makes you so good at what you do. But small tasks can pile up in even the most fastidious inbox, which is where Zapier comes in.
Automation helps make sure that once you've found exactly what your employer needs for a particular task, it's done the same way every time. With these Zaps, you can help them (and yourself!) stay on track every day, so that you can stay focused on the most important tasks.
See how an executive assistant at Zapier uses automation to be more effective.
Save files to the cloud
Whether it's invoices, contracts, press releases, or pictures of their dog, there's a good chance that you're receiving files from your client by email. Using a Zap, you can get those files uploaded automatically to the cloud, so that you can keep them safe and organized no matter where you are.
Keep your calendars aligned
Keeping up with your own calendar is difficult enough some days—keeping track of yours plus your employer's can be a nightmare. With automation, you can take back the hours spent consolidating events, and make sure everyone's calendars are on the same page.
Copy new Google Calendar events to a different Google Calendar
Create Microsoft Outlook events for new or updated events in Google Calendar
Never miss a call
Now that you've got your calendars aligned, you'll want to make sure those meetings have video calls scheduled, but keeping calls and events lined up can add headache—and lots of menial tasks—to your day. With this Zap, there's no more copy/pasting that Zoom invite into your calendar event: let us take care of that for you.
Create detailed Google Calendar events from new Zoom meetings
Stay on top of your tasks
We've all been there: you get the email that says, "Hey, can you do X for me this Tuesday?" and you mean to put it in your calendar (you might even think you did already), but somehow it just gets lost in the shuffle? Turning requests into tasks doesn't have to be a pain, and this Zap can help turn new emails into a fresh card in Trello, letting you stay on top of what needs to happen next.
Add new starred emails to Todoist as tasks [Business Gmail Accounts Only]
Save everything and anything to a spreadsheet
It's no secret that we love spreadsheets here at Zapier, and why wouldn't we? They help keep track of anything you like, and can be infinitely rearranged to meet your needs. If you're like us, you probably think, "This is good, I should save this," a hundred times a day. With Zapier's Chrome extension, you can send any webpage to a spreadsheet right away, and even include notes on why you might want it later.
Add row in Microsoft Excel for new Outlook emails with specific term in the subject line
Save new Gmail emails matching certain traits to a Google Spreadsheet
Let automation be your assistant
Sometimes, the key to being a great personal assistant is having a personal assistant of your own. We'll let you in on a little secret: Zapier can be your personal assistant.
Are you thinking about hiring an executive assistant, but unsure about the investment? Zapier executive assistant Cortney has some recommended automated workflows you can try out first.
