E14 - Allie Gerrie is The Savvy Admin - Jeff Mendelson | Automation Superhero

E14 – Allie Gerrie is The Savvy Admin

Raise your hand if you’ve ever wished for more time in the day. As entrepreneurs, we’re all probably guilty of over scheduling ourselves and building ever growing to-do lists. Luckily, people like Allie Gerrie have come up with a solution that every one of us can use to regain control of our lives: it’s called a schedule.

Allie Gerrie is the owner of The Savvy Admin, supplying administrative and marketing support for a wide range of companies, so you know she’s pretty busy. With clients, continuing education, and a social life to balance, she knew that it was vital to find a system for managing her day to schedule without sacrificing her personal time.

The Brain Dump

“Everything starts in my head...and I write down everything, every single thing, that I could possibly think of... I call it a brain dump,” explained Allie. This first step is the one that most entrepreneurs fail at right away - they’re constantly working from a mental task list.

Your brain is a lot like a computer - it can only handle so much information at once. By taking your to-do list and giving a place to live outside your brain, you’re able to free up space for more important and creative efforts.

But dumping your tasks onto paper isn’t going to magically solve your scheduling problems.

Task Manager

Once her tasks are on paper, Allie has her assistant transfer all of those tasks to Asana, a task management platform. Once they’ve reached her to-do list, Allie can take the time to fit it into her schedule for the week. “I go one by one and I say, ‘Okay, this task is going to take me X amount of time. Where do I want to put that in my week?’”

Take A Break

“I make sure to schedule in time for breaks and time for my partner, and I work around those things,” Allie said. “By scheduling those times in the day to take breaks and knowing when I have time to work, to focus on work, it kind of reduces the noise in my head.”

And when things get overwhelming, the breaks are always there to get you motivated again. “[Scheduling breaks] helps me boost my productivity just because, you know, 10 minutes is enough just to be refreshed. And then I come back, I sit down, and I say, ‘Okay, I'm ready to tackle this now.’”

If you want to catch up with Allie, you can find her on LinkedIn or by visiting her website.