Solutions running dry? A 10 minute meditation break could help

Problem solving can be tough. When an Executive Assistant is given a task by their boss, sometimes, they can be left to find an adequate solution on their own. In high-pressure situations like these, generating creative ideas to solve the problem can be difficult. What can you do when the ideas aren't coming, and it feels as though you're banging your head against a wall? 10 minutes of meditation could be the answer.

Researchers at Erasmus University's Rotterdam School of Management split participants into three groups. Each group was given the same task - come up with business ideas that use drones. The difference came with what the groups did beforehand. The first got into their brainstorming straight away, the second did a fake 10 minute meditation exercise and the third undertook a 10 minute, audio-guided mindfulness meditation.

While each of the groups produced a similar numbers of ideas, the meditation group had ideas that covered a 22 per cent broader range. When you've been tasked with a problem to solve, having a lot of ideas on the table to choose from can be a great way to find the best solution.

If you're familiar with meditation, taking advantage of this potential creativity boost will be simple enough. For those that aren't, a good place to start is to download a guided meditation app like Headspace or Calm. They can teach you all you'll need to know.

How to make a new employee feel welcome

Can you remember what it feels like to come onboard with a new team, in a new job? If you don't, the answer is that it can be fairly daunting. As an Executive Assistant, you'll know that bringing new team members up to speed is sometimes on you. Here are a few ways you can make them feel at home and, hopefully, make their onboarding experience a smooth one.

1. Give an office tour

A simple but easy thing to do, the office tour is a basic necessity for making sure your new recruits feel comfortable in their new environment. Things that you take for granted, like where the break room or the toilets can be found, will be unknown to someone new.

2. Give them small, manageable tasks to begin with

The last thing a new recruit wants is to be thrown straight into the deep end without any instruction on what they should be doing. It'll take them time to learn what their responsibilities and duties are; give them a chance to settle into the groove of their new surroundings before leaving them to fend for themselves.

3. Provide a mentor

Having a buddy or mentor system can make the life of your new team member so much easier. You can be sure they'll have millions of questions in their first few weeks, and often, they might not feel comfortable approaching just anyone to have their queries answered. A mentor can be the person that shows them ropes, not necessarily of their specific job, but of how the office in general runs.

Make your meetings count

Don't let your days be eaten up by meetings, meetings, meetings. Time is valuable, as every busy Executive Assistant knows. Follow these tips to make your sure meetings hit the mark and are an efficient use of your time.

1. What is the meeting for?

Don't use meetings as free-wheeling opportunities to discuss each and every possible thing. Whittling down the discussion points to their key elements will help you determine if a meeting's even necessary. If it's just a chance to give information, perhaps an email would suffice.

2. Who needs to be there?

Don't invite the whole office to a meeting when they don't need to be there. In a time-pressured world, nobody likes having to sit in on a meeting that's irrelevant to them. Knowing the points of discussion will help determine who needs to be a part of it.

3. Define the objectives

Ensure you know the answer to this question: What outcome or decision would mean that the meeting could end? The worst kinds of meetings are the ones that drag on and no one's quite sure what they're there for. Having a clearly defined objective for the meeting means you can get right down to business, and you'll know when you've achieved your goal.

Emojis in workplace correspondence: Yay or Nay?

With a 7 per cent rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Emoji Movie is a dud in the eyes of movie critics. The fact that an entire movie - however bad - was produced around the ideograms shows they've become a recognisable and acceptable part of our communication culture. But should they be used in professional contexts?

In many ways, it depends on how your Executive feels about them. While being their own person, an EA should reflect the characteristics of their boss. If they have a strict, professional style of communication, you should emulate this too. If they are a little more laid back, then you can adopt this style as well.

That said, emojis are something of an enigma when it comes to understanding their acceptability by correspondents. Some see them as a sign of friendliness and warmth, whereas others will take them as a sign that you're childish and unprofessional. The best advice is, then, to echo the usage habits of both your boss and the specific person you are writing to. The latter, more than anything, will tell you how your own use of emojis will be taken (by that person, at least).

How to switch off from work while you're on holiday

Holidays are a time to unplug. At work, an Executive Assistant needs to be on all the time, ready to help their Executive at a moment's notice. Your time off is a chance for you to relax, unwind and forget the stresses for a while. But with today's technology, it's easy to get caught in the trap of continuing to work. Here are a couple of ways to keep your holidays as holidays.

1. Remove email from your phone

If you keep your emails connected on your phone, you may well find the temptation to check them impossible to resist. The best bet is to simply remove the app or account while you're on holiday. If there happens to be an urgent message for you, then somebody from the office will be able to give you a call. It's likely, however, that this won't be necessary.

For extra peace of mind, you can set up an email autoreply before you leave that informs people you're on holiday.

2. Finish everything you need to before you leave

Preparation is everything. The best way to stop yourself thinking and worrying about work is to make sure that everything is done before you leave. If this isn't possible, you can create a document to inform those that are filling your shoes while you're gone what they need to do.

Coffee getting you too buzzed? Try green tea instead

Coffee is great. On those mornings where you get to work, and it feels like you left your brain in bed when you woke up, coffee is the magic elixir that brings you back to life. But as with anything in life, too much can be a bad thing. Being over-caffeinated can make you jittery and anxious - not feelings conducive to getting much work done. If you find a coffee pushes you over the edge, but you still want a caffeine hit, why not try green tea instead?

Green tea contains caffeine, but in a smaller quantity than that found in coffee. But it also - unlike coffee - has the amino acid L-Theanine, a compound that has anti-anxiety effects, according to Healthline. Together, these compounds provide green tea drinkers with a different, more mellow kind of buzz.

Not only can green tea perk you up without any negative side effects, it can also contribute to your overall health. It helps improve blood flow, lower cholesterol and even helps your heart avoid issues like high blood pressure and heart failure, according to WebMd. Your brain will thank you too - green tea has been shown to help stave off plaque formation in the brain, a process that's linked to Alzheimer's disease.