Reclaim Your Time: How Assistants Can Boost Productivity

These insights were shared by Lucy Brazier during the recent iBabs webinar, The Dynamics of Organising Meetings.

According to Harvard Business Review, executives spend approximately 23 hours per week in meetings, and unfortunately, half of that time is considered wasted. This sobering statistic highlights an urgent need for organisations to rethink meeting management. Crucially, the power to transform this costly inefficiency lies with one person—the executive assistant.

Lucy Brazier OBE, author of the award-winning Modern Day Assistant and CEO of Marcham Publishing, champions the idea that assistants are the ultimate guardians of executive productivity. This article will explore practical insights Lucy shared in a webinar organised by iBabs. Here is what she says about how assistants can strategically manage calendars, optimise meetings and ultimately boost executive productivity and well-being.

The true role of the assistant in managing executive calendars

An assistant’s role extends far beyond traditional administrative tasks. Lucy firmly positions assistants as essential gatekeepers of time rather than gatekeepers of people:

“The assistant’s role, the reason that an organisation employs an assistant, is to make sure that every hour of their executive’s time is best spent. An assistant is actually a gatekeeper of time; they’re not a gatekeeper of people.”

By focusing explicitly on protecting their executive’s time, assistants provide immense value, ensuring meetings attended are necessary, productive and aligned with organisational priorities. Time saved directly equates to financial savings, a point often overlooked when meetings are casually scheduled.

The power of sole calendar access

To manage an executive’s schedule effectively, Lucy advises that the assistant should have exclusive access to their calendar. When too many people have scheduling privileges, meetings multiply uncontrollably, reducing the assistant’s ability to strategically manage time:

“You know it's chaos if you've got all sorts of people internally who think they need meetings with the executive and who are just throwing things at the calendar. The assistant can't manage that time effectively.”

Benefits of exclusive assistant calendar access:

• Enhances executive productivity and focus
• Reduces unnecessary scheduling discussions
• Clearly prioritises incoming meeting requests
• Minimises wasted organisational resources

Implementing effective scheduling with priority systems

Lucy recommends a simple, yet powerful, priority system to streamline meeting requests. Beneath email signatures, a discreet priority number (from one to five) instantly communicates the urgency and importance of a meeting:

• 1: Immediate scheduling (today/tomorrow)
• 2-3: Schedule within the current week
• 4-5: Low priority – schedule when convenient or reconsider necessity

This method eliminates confusion, quickly communicates urgency and empowers assistants to make informed scheduling decisions without repeated conversations.

Colour coding and quarterly time audits

Colour coding meetings by type—internal virtual, internal in-person, client-related or personal, allows assistants to conduct effective time audits. These quarterly reviews visually illustrate how executives spend their time, revealing whether time allocation matches strategic business priorities.

Meeting type	Colour example
Internal Virtual	Blue
Internal In-person	Green
Client-related	Purple
Personal/Wellbeing	Yellow

Lucy highlights this method’s strategic impact:

“Most executives will tell you that they would much rather be doing far less internal meetings and getting out in front of clients. With colour coding, they're tracking whether they're on point.”

Assistants armed with this data can proactively guide their executives and ensure meetings match business goals rather than habit or obligation.

Master meetings through clear rules and expectations

Meetings become productive only when they follow clear rules. Lucy identifies three essential activities every meeting should involve:

“Meetings should be about discussing, deciding and delegating. If it's not doing those three things, it’s an email.”

Additionally, Lucy recommends assistants implement these guidelines rigorously:

• Provide clear agendas and necessary documentation in advance.
• Identify decision-makers clearly within meeting invites.
• Limit attendees strictly to those who need to contribute directly (ideally fewer than eight participants).
• Define explicit action items, responsible parties and due dates.

Adopting such disciplined practices prevents wasted hours in ineffective meetings and clarifies roles and responsibilities, ensuring attendees know precisely why they’re participating.

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Timeboxing: The ultimate tool for productivity

Lucy introduced the concept of timeboxing, which she found to be a transformative productivity tool. It involves scheduling all daily activities into defined blocks, from meetings to personal well-being. Lucy shares:

“Your work as an assistant is about managing their time. But it's also about managing the rhythm of their life and making sure they're at their most productive, that they're not burnt out, and their mental health is good.”

Time	Task/Event
08:00–08:30	Walk to work
08:30–09:00	Daily agenda & emails review
09:00–09:30	Team meeting preparation
09:30–10:30	Team meeting
10:30–10:50	Break/reflection

Time boxing ensures executives complete promised tasks promptly, maintain mental clarity and avoid stress caused by constant back-to-back commitments. Crucially, this creates a healthier, more sustainable work-life rhythm.

Assistants as strategic partners

Lucy strongly argues against limiting assistants to mere note taking. Instead, she points to examples like Helen Clarke, assistant to Sir Richard Branson, who attends meetings as a strategic partner rather than just a minute taker. Clarke proactively tracks commitments, observes body language for unspoken concerns and ensures tasks are promptly diarised and followed up.

By observing and interpreting meeting dynamics, assistants become vital partners who provide deeper business insight, anticipate problems and contribute strategically. Lucy highlights the powerful impact of assistants being fully present:

“Assistants who don't think they're powerful are so mistaken. An assistant has the power to take a mediocre manager and make them exceptional.”

Certainly, the assistant’s role goes far beyond organising the meeting or attending it. There is a lot they can do after the event. For example, using a simple scoring system (from 1 to 5) can help them assess how valuable each meeting is for the executive. Consistently low scores signal meetings that are not adding value, prompting assistants to proactively manage or eliminate them.

Organisations can further maximise assistants’ efficiency by delegating routine tasks to technology or AI. This enables them to contribute more effectively and helps organisations make the most of their talents.