A rhythm for every day, week, month and quarter
- Every day: the assistant works from the tracker and sends a short end-of-day note: done, waiting, needs you.
- Every week: a 30-minute one-to-one at a fixed time, including a look at next week's calendar.
- Every month: fifteen minutes on how the work is going, separate from the task list.
- Every quarter: a review of priorities and of the scope of the role.
The daily note replaces most quick questions. Read it at a fixed time each day and answer the “needs you” part first.
One task tracker, set up simply
Pick one place for all delegated work, whether that is Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Notion or a shared list. Two places means things get lost between them. A simple structure is enough:
- Columns: New, This week, Waiting on someone, Done.
- Every task: an owner, a due date and a line of context or a link.
- Recurring work: set up once as repeating tasks with a checklist inside, such as chasing unpaid invoices every month.
- The waiting column: the assistant follows up on everything there twice a week, including the items that wait on you.
Do not hand out tasks by chat or voice note and expect them to be tracked. Put them in the tracker, or ask the assistant to add them while you talk.
How to ask for something
Many problems with remote assistants start with a vague request. A good request answers five questions and takes a minute to write:
Task brief
Outcome: what done looks like. “A dinner for six booked in central Paris on Thursday, quiet enough to talk.”
Deadline: when you need it, and whether the date is fixed.
Context: who it is for and why it matters.
Limits: budget, preferences, people not to involve.
Decision: whether they book it or send you options first.
After a few weeks, a good assistant asks these questions back whenever you forget them.
Write down what the assistant decides alone
Decision rights save you more time than anything else and cause the fewest surprises. Agree them per area and keep them in a shared document:
- Calendar: accept internal meetings in open slots; move internal meetings with notice; ask before moving anything external.
- Inbox: reply to scheduling and logistics in your name; draft everything else for your approval.
- Purchases: book travel and buy supplies within a limit you set; anything above it needs your yes.
- Vendors: chase invoices and deliveries; never change payment details without a call to the vendor.
Widen the rights as trust grows, one area at a time, and say so in writing.
A one-to-one agenda that stays useful
Weekly one-to-one, 30 minutes
First five minutes: anything urgent from either side.
Next ten: next week's calendar and priorities, top three in order.
Next ten: the waiting column and the decisions you owe.
Last five: one thing to improve, on either side.
Keep the notes in the same document each week. In three months it is the best record of how the role has grown, and it makes reviews easy; our guide to executive assistant KPIs shows what to measure.
Common management mistakes
- Being the bottleneck: the assistant waits on your answers. Block ten minutes a day for their questions.
- Checking everything: after the first weeks, review samples, not every email.
- Delegating only chores: good assistants leave when the work never grows. Hand over a project now and then.
- Changing priorities by chat late at night: it reshapes the assistant's day without saying why. Use the tracker.
- Skipping the one-to-one: it is the first meeting to be cancelled and the one that holds the rest together.
To decide when the two of you should be online together, see planning working-hours overlap; for the tools, see the remote assistant tool stack.
Questions
How much time does managing a remote assistant take?
More in the first weeks, then usually the weekly one-to-one plus a few minutes a day on notes and questions. If it stays higher after a few months, look at your requests and the decision rights first.
Should I track my assistant's hours?
For a full-time contractor on a monthly fee, tracking outcomes works better than tracking minutes. Agree availability windows and response times, and look at the tracker and the daily notes. Screen monitoring tends to damage trust more than it helps.
What if we share only a couple of working hours?
Use those hours for the one-to-one and for decisions, and move everything else to the tracker and the daily note.
Can one assistant support two people?
Yes, if priorities are clear. Agree who decides when two requests clash, keep one tracker with a column per person, and hold the one-to-one with both of you, or alternate.
General information for small employers, not legal or tax advice: check contracts, tax and data rules for your country with a qualified adviser. Figures carry their sources below; our own prices are on the pricing page. Spotted a mistake? Write to hello@silkstaff.com.