The Next Big Search Engine?
Your weekly round up of what's going on in the Admin world
Hello and welcome to this week’s Admin Wrap!
It’s been hot here in the UK this week (although not in the office, which has the air con set to about minus 8) and so none of us have had a good night’s sleep. If you have colleagues in the UK, please try and give their sleepy mistakes the benefit of the doubt!
As well as dealing with the heat here, I’ve been reading up on what words I should be avoiding on my LinkedIn profile; what we are all using to do our internet searches these days; and I’ve got the results from last week’s poll (“Have you taken on a side job?”).
I hope you’ve had a lovely week, and I wish you a great weekend.
Yvette
The EA Salary Survey is still open for your responses! If you’re in the UK, US, Canada or Australia, you can have your say!! The survey will be closing in a couple of weeks, with the reports coming out in September.
NewsWrap
If you are looking to overhaul (or at least review) your LinkedIn profile, you might want to consider avoiding these top ten overused words. This article explains why words like “specialise” or “expert” are too subjective and fluffy, and thankfully gives us a load of alternatives we can use instead.
Have you ever struggled with phone and internet signal on the train? I know I do - there’s a complete signal gap half way between my home station and London. Well good news is that in the UK, we should be able to get internet on all trains by…2028! 🤦♀️
When you need to search how to do something, what’s your go-to platform? A few years ago it would have been Google for pretty much everyone, but it seems like ChatGPT is catching up. I’ve certainly ChatGPT’d a lot more recently - including giving it a list of the ingredients I had in my fridge and asked it to come up with a meal idea for me.
Of course, we need to be critical of the results we get, but haven’t we always?
How much joy do you find in life? To have a satisfying life, we are told that we need achievements, meaningfulness, and joy. According to studies, that third item is what alludes a lot of us, so how do we find it if we are concentrating on the other two? How people find joy, and for how long they have to spend on it varies massively from person to person. However, there are some interesting takeaways in this article
A couple of months ago, my husband’s company decided that they were going to “implement AI”. Like it was some piece of software they could just plug in. His company isn’t alone - there are loads in a similar boat. Viewing AI as some kind of project that has an end date. If your company has that view, it’s unlikely there will be much you can do about it. However, if you ride with it, you might be able to help out more than you think, and this article has a couple of snippets that could be helpful.
Fascinating results from the poll last week - “Have you taken on a side job?” A surprising 9% of you have taken on a second full time role, and the same number again do a side job in working hours. Whilst I know there are legalities around this depending on where you are employed, I say good on you! Too often we spend any spare time at work staring into space. If you can make something of that time, I say go for it. Of course, that’s not a luxury that everyone has, and I know there are people who barely have time to sneeze in their roles.
Looking for a Mentor?
I’ve teamed up with three fabulous mentors to offer mentorship across a range of specialities. You can book in for an hour, or a block of three hours, to get expert advice and guidance from one of four women who all have vastly different backgrounds and experiences. Take a look here
EAs: The Invisible Glue
We’re the invisible glue that holds it all together. And no, I’m not exaggerating.
By referring your friends and colleagues to The Admin Wrap, you can earn yourself free access to The Extra Wrap - our in depth thought leadership pieces which are sent out every Monday. Can you make it to the top of the leader board?
💻 TechWrap
Each month we’re going to be deep diving into a software platform or piece of tech that you might use, and we’ll give you a Top Tip each week for it.
For June we are looking at Microsoft Excel
Freeze Panes to Keep Headers Visible
Make scrolling easier by keeping your headers in place. Go to View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row (or selected rows/columns). You can do the same thing if you need to keep the first column too.Add Drop-Down Lists
Make data entry faster and reduce typos. Go to Data > Data Validation > choose “List” and add your options. This is ideal for when you are making graphs and charts too, as it reduces the number of different options you are analysing.Conditional Formatting for Visual Cues
Highlight deadlines, expenses over budget, or completed tasks automatically with colour-coded rules. It helps to spot key info at a glance.
Select range → Home tab → Conditional Formatting → Choose a rule or create a custom one. This is brilliant for visualising number gradients from largest to smallest.Remove Duplicates in One Click
Clean up messy lists like contacts or attendees. Go to Data > Remove Duplicates 🙌🏼
EventWrap
EPAA are running a People Management training session specifically for EAs. Their next online session is on 19th July. For all the information, including costs and alternative dates (including some face-to-face in London) here.
When was the last time you did a calendar audit? Would you even know where to start? Well, thankfully, ASAP are running a whole webinar on this topic! Join them on 10th July at 1pm ET. You can get all the details here
If you’ve ever struggled with attendee management at meetings or events, you could learn some great tips from this Office Dynamics webinar: “Beyond the RSVP - Expert Tips for Seamless Attendee Management” which takes place on 22nd July at 10am PT
For a list of Conferences, head over to the Conferences section in our Ultimate Assistant’s Toolbox.
If you are running an event aimed at administrative professionals, please send me an email and let me know all about it - hello@theadminwrap.com
The Ultimate Assistant’s Toolbox
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