Audio Morning Pages

Want your assistant to understand you better? Start by letting them hear your thoughts.

Many leaders struggle to clearly communicate their needs and preferences, especially when they're new to delegation. Instead of spending hours writing detailed procedures or correcting misaligned work, there's a simpler way: recording morning voice notes.

Introducing Audio Morning Pages

Set aside 10 minutes each morning to record your stream-of-consciousness thoughts. No editing, no structure—just raw reflections about your day, challenges, ideas, and priorities. By sharing these candid insights, your assistant gains invaluable context and can start to anticipate your needs more effectively.

Benefits

1. Enhanced Decision-Making Understanding
   When you think through problems out loud, your assistant learns your decision-making patterns and can start anticipating your approach.
2. Faster Course Correction
   Sharing your frustrations and candid reactions helps your assistant adjust quickly, reducing the need for formal feedback loops. They can course-correct in real time based on your genuine sentiments.
3. Proactive Idea Development
   As you brainstorm freely, your assistant captures the seeds of projects before they're fully formed. This allows them to contribute proactively and help develop your ideas further.

How to Implement This Practice

Step 1: Start Simple

• Focus: Begin with a basic morning download about today's priorities and tasks.
• Action: Spend 5 minutes recording what's on your mind for the day—tasks, meetings, concerns.
• Assistant's Role: Listen, extract immediate action items, and organize them by priority.
• Example Output: Your assistant creates a prioritized task list, flags urgent items, and prepares any necessary materials.
• Your Feedback: Guide them on which tasks they can handle independently versus those needing your input.

Step 2: Add Strategic Thinking

• Focus: Expand your recordings to include broader thoughts about ongoing projects and challenges.
• Action: Share 10 minutes on both immediate needs and bigger-picture ideas you're considering.
• Assistant's Role: Identify patterns in your thinking, capture project ideas, and note your preferences.
• Example Output: They create project trackers and start suggesting process improvements based on your thinking style.
• Your Feedback: Help them understand which patterns matter most and how to translate informal ideas into concrete plans.

Step 3: Fully Integrate

• Focus: Use the morning recording as a comprehensive brain dump and delegation tool.
• Action: Share everything from daily tasks to long-term vision and personal priorities.
• Assistant's Role: Proactively manage your priorities, anticipate needs, and align all work with your thinking style.
• Example Output: Your assistant independently handles routine decisions, drafts communications in your voice, and surfaces important patterns you might miss.
• Your Feedback: Focus on refining their judgment rather than correcting specific actions.

Bonus Tips:

Be Consistent: Make recording your thoughts a daily habit to provide your assistant with continuous insights.

Communicate Openly: Encourage a two-way dialogue where your assistant feels comfortable asking clarifying questions.

Feeling Vulnerable: It's natural to feel uneasy sharing raw thoughts. Remember that this openness fosters trust and leads to more effective collaboration.

Success Story

An Athena member began sharing daily audio notes with her assistant. In her first recording, she discussed preparing for an upcoming conference, expressing concerns about networking and presentation materials. Her assistant not only noted the tasks but also understood her anxiety about public speaking. By the second week, the assistant proactively arranged a prep session with a speaking coach and prepared briefing notes on key attendees, greatly easing the executive's concerns.

Conclusion

The more your assistant hears how you think, the better they can support how you work. By investing a few minutes each morning to share your thoughts, you empower your assistant to become a more effective extension of yourself.

Ready to start? Tomorrow morning, take 5 minutes to record your thoughts and share them with your assistant. Observe how this simple practice enhances your collaboration and productivity.