Several weeks ago I started building a semi-virtual persona for my ideal assistant—I’ve given them an email address, some space in my calendar, and even named them Matt.
For the last couple of years I’ve wondered what it would be like to hire a PA—would it actually be a novel addition to my ‘team’ (of one), or an inefficient time-sink?
To try and understand how Matt might help, I’ve started allocating them tasks via email. Whenever something comes up that it would be convenient for me to have someone else do, I write a note to Matt as if I were addressing someone who doesn’t have the knowledge of the situation that I do.
Later, I set a timer on my phone and spend some time acting as Matt.
How it works
Concretely, I work through the pile of things that have landed in the inbox, completing what I can. It’s proven quite satisfying to have a ready-made list of easy wins (e.g., ‘order earplugs’), especially during brain-foggy parts of the day.
Things get a bit more interesting when Matt comes up against something that less well-defined, especially where the action needed requires something more complex from me. A good example that I tried out early on would be a directive like ‘please sort my inbox’. Matt can go a certain distance with this (e.g., clearing out spammy things, generic newsletters, etc.), but there’s a certain amount of mail I need to deal with myself.
This becomes a useful situation (rather than a dead end) when Matt has the wherewithal to write a constructive reply to the request (which lands in my usual inbox). Usually they are seeking further information, or indicating an aspect of the task that relies on my knowledge of a situation.
I think this simulated dialogue might actually be the most useful part of the whole experiment—a lot can get clarified in an actual back and forth between two participants (especially if empathy is part of the simulation!).
It’s a bit weird for sure, but expressing things for another reader is a good strategy for breaking down those seemingly simple tasks (e.g. answer that email… you know the one) that are incurring a lot of resistance.
Key takeaway
An important understanding is that I don’t need to provide Matt with a perfectly clear prompt. Of course, I try to do that (like any good employer of an assistant would), but some requests are, invariably, a bit too fuzzy.
I suspect that trying to get things right on the first go would probably be a waste of time; better to chase the flow that comes with iterating.
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