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This article is written by Olivia Coughtrie, Director at Oriel Partners PA Recruitment
Whether you are back working from your office or still based remotely, we have all had to adapt to a new way of working. With so many more PAs currently working from home due to the global pandemic, finding ways to stay self-motivated is key to ensuring your success. We explore 5 different ways to help.
The importance of a healthy work life balance cannot be underestimated particularly when you might be working remotely and there is limited interaction with other people. It can become easy to fall into unhealthy habits and so interventions can be put in place to help combat this.
Whether you are working from home or from the office, taking regular breaks away from the computer throughout the day are all helpful for relieving stress. Having diarised periods when you can be offline can be important to allow time to reset, regroup, and relax and will give you the opportunity to do other things you enjoy, such as a walk in the park of meeting up with friends. This will help you stay motivated and focused when you are working, ensuring productivity remains high.
It is so easy for people to hide behind emails and loose the important communication we are historically so used to having. Even if you are unable to speak face to face to someone, get comfortable with picking up the phone and having a conversation. You will be amazed at how much more you can achieve over the phone, especially if you have a tricky request as a PA. Not only will this allow you to stay motivated, but it will also help to build important relationships and allow you to get to know other employees and business connections. People tend to be more willing to help someone they like, and it is much harder to say no when speaking face to face or other the phone, then it is over email!
You may be working for a business where not everyone is working under the same roof. With more people working from home and social distancing in place, often businesses may only have a proportion of their workforce in the office at any one time. Therefore, staying connected to your team is so important to create a positive working culture and to keep your motivation levels high. Ways to stay connected include setting up weekly catch ups with your boss, encouraging a team lunch once a quarter or when celebrating special occasions, creating a company e-newsletter and utilising messaging apps. As a PA you can use this change in working ways as an opportunity to stand out and be seen as a forward thinker and someone who can assist in putting new policies in place to help teams to stay connected.
Employees who are overworked can fall behind on their workload which subsequently has a negative impact on stress levels and your mental health. By setting realistic timelines and achievable goals for yourself will allow you to complete your workload within the core office hours and will give you something to work towards. Whether this is a daily target or a longer annual goal, having a plan should help you to stay motivated and engaged throughout the working week.
There are so many ways to up-skill as a PA and many businesses put aside a budget for personal development. Find out if this applies where you work and if not, find something you want to do and pitch it to your boss. This could be enhancing your IT skills, learning a language or doing a project management course. Usually companies will be more willing to pay for something if they can see a benefit to them as well as to you, but if not there are lots of free ways to keep learning via online courses and tutorials. Whether you are working from home or from the office, this should help you to stay motivated and allow you to focus on your personal development.
Olivia Coughtrie is Co-founder & Director at Oriel Partners a PA and administrative recruitment consultancy based in Central London. Olivia is passionate about helping PA candidates to stand out from the crowd.
