Scheduling rules to agree with your assistant
An assistant can only protect your time if they know what you're protecting. Before handing over the calendar, write down:
- Meeting hours: the window when external meetings may be booked, and the days you keep meeting-free.
- Default lengths, for example 25 or 50 minutes, so there is always a short gap before the next call.
- Buffers before big meetings for prep, after travel, and around lunch.
- Recurring focus blocks that only you can release.
- A daily cap on meetings, after which requests move to the next open day.
- The people whose requests can override the rules, and how far.
How an assistant handles meeting requests
When a request arrives, the assistant checks it against your rules, offers two or three times in the other person's time zone, sends the invite with a video link or location, and adds an agenda or the reason for the meeting to the event description. Requests that don't fit the rules come to you with a recommendation attached.
Scheduling links help with high-volume external booking, but many executives prefer that the assistant handle investor, board and senior customer meetings personally. It reads better and avoids awkward double bookings.
Meeting agendas and prep notes
For each important meeting, the assistant can attach the last email thread, relevant documents, and a short note on who's attending and what was agreed last time, so everything you need is in the event when you open it.
Managing time zones and travel on your calendar
Calendars go wrong most often around travel. Ask the assistant to set the event time zone explicitly for each meeting, show a second time zone on your calendar when you're away, block travel time as busy, and add flights and hotel details as events with confirmation numbers in the notes. The travel planning and expense admin page covers the booking side.
Calendar permission levels for an assistant
Google Calendar and Outlook let you share a calendar at different levels, from seeing free and busy time to making changes. An assistant who schedules for you needs to be able to make changes, and rarely needs to manage sharing settings. If you keep personal events on the same calendar, mark them private so the assistant sees that you're busy without seeing details, or keep a separate personal calendar that you share only as free and busy. More on permissions in secure access for virtual assistants.
The weekly calendar preview
At the end of each week the assistant sends a short preview of the next one: key meetings, travel, deadlines, gaps that need decisions, and anything that clashes with your rules. Most clashes are easier to fix on Friday than on Monday morning.
Calendar management questions to ask
Should the assistant accept invites on my behalf?
For routine internal meetings that fit your rules, often yes. For anything external or senior, the assistant should check first or follow a specific rule you've agreed.
What about recurring meetings I've outgrown?
A quarterly review of recurring meetings is a good standing task. The assistant lists each one with attendance and purpose, and you decide what to cut or shorten.
Can one assistant manage calendars for several executives?
It can work for a small leadership team with shared rules, but agree who wins when two executives want the same slot with the same person.
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