Inbox at zero by nine · Eight clients maximum · Eastern time

Administrative Virtual Assistant

One person, two jobs: your inbox triaged before you open it and your calendar defended after. Everything else is somebody else's service.

The whole idea

Two Things, Done Properly

Most assistants do a bit of everything. I do inbox and calendar, for eight people, and I am very good at exactly that.

Your inbox is triaged, not read

Every morning before seven: answered where I can, drafted where I cannot, filed where it belongs, and flagged where only you will do. You open your laptop to a handful, not a hundred.

Your calendar is defended

Meetings booked with travel and preparation time built in, double-bookings prevented, and the requests that should be declined declined — politely, in your voice, without asking.

Nothing waits on me

Four-hour reply window during working hours. If I am ever going to be slower than that, you know before it happens.

Eight clients, maximum

Anyone can promise judgement. Judgement requires knowing who matters to you, and that requires not having forty inboxes.

Plans

Hours, Monthly, No Lock-In

Mornings — 15 hrs/mo · $720

Inbox triage four mornings a week and calendar management. The smallest arrangement that actually changes your day.

Daily — 30 hrs/mo · $1,380

Inbox every weekday morning, full calendar management, travel and follow-ups. Where most clients settle.

Extended — 50 hrs/mo · $2,200

Everything, six days a week, including meeting actions and renewal watch, with a standing Monday call.

6Years On Other People's Inboxes
9amInbox At Zero By
8Clients, Maximum
7 hrsGiven Back Each Week
The first fortnight

From Handover To Quiet

1

Day 1

An hour on who matters, what you always answer yourself, and what should never reach you. Written down as a one-page rulebook you own.

2

Days 2–5

I draft, you approve. Everything that leaves comes past you, and every correction goes into the rulebook rather than into my memory.

3

Days 6–10

The drafts stop being corrected. Around here is when people notice their evenings back.

4

Day 11 onward

Inbox at zero by nine, calendar defended, one page on Friday. We speak when something needs deciding.

Thirty minutes

Show Me A Typical Tuesday

Bring your inbox and your calendar. I will tell you which of the two is actually the problem — it is usually not the one people think.

How your access works

Careful With The Keys

Your Password Manager

Access is granted by you, at the level you choose, and revoked by you in ten seconds without a conversation.

My Own Signature

I write in your voice but sign as your assistant. Nobody you deal with is ever deceived about who replied.

Confidentiality In Writing

Signed before any access, and binding after we part. Your inbox is the most sensitive thing you own.

A Named Backup

One other assistant, introduced to you at the start, working from the same rulebook when I am on holiday.

From clients

What Changed By Week Three

I open my laptop and there are four emails that need me. Four. The other sixty have been answered, filed or turned into a calendar entry before I woke up.
Jonas PettersenFounder · Software company
She defends the diary better than I ever did. Two meetings a week now get declined on my behalf and I have never once disagreed with the call.
Camille BoucherManaging director · Architecture practice
The Friday summary is the only status report I have ever actually read. One page, three decisions, done in four minutes.
Ade ObafemiPartner · Advisory firm

Fair Questions

Do you actually read all my email?

Yes. That is the job, and it is why confidentiality is signed before access. If there are threads you would rather I never see — legal, medical, personal — we label them in week one and I never open them.

How do you know what to answer?

The rulebook. It starts as an hour of conversation and grows with every correction you make in the first fortnight. By week three the drafts stop needing edits, which is the whole measure of whether this is working.

What if you get something wrong?

In the first two weeks nothing leaves without your approval, so the cost of a mistake is a corrected draft. After that, errors go into the rulebook the same day and I will tell you about them before you find them.

Can you work my time zone?

I am Eastern and start at seven. Clients on the West Coast wake to a handled inbox, which most of them consider the best part. If you genuinely need someone live at 6pm Pacific, I am the wrong fit and will say so.

Why only eight clients?

Because the value is judgement, and judgement needs context. At forty inboxes I would be sorting, not deciding, and you can buy sorting far more cheaply elsewhere.

Is there a contract?

Month to month, thirty days' notice, and you keep the rulebook. Access is removed from my side within a day of us parting.

What you get in every plan

Included, Not Extra

A rulebook you own

Who matters, what you answer yourself, what never reaches you — in your systems, yours to keep.

A four-hour reply window

During working hours, measured, and reported honestly in the Friday page when it slips.

A named backup

Introduced at the start, working from the same rulebook, so holidays are uneventful.

One page on Friday

What moved, what is waiting, what needs you. Never a dashboard you would have to log into.

An honest no

If what you need is a full-time hire, an OBM or a bookkeeper, I will tell you on the first call.

Straight talk

Three Things I Will Say On The Call

01

Your Calendar Is Probably The Real Problem

Most people book me for the inbox. In about half of cases the inbox is a symptom of a diary with no space in it, and that is the thing we fix first.

02

Fifteen Hours Is Usually Enough To Start

People overbuy in month one and then feel guilty about unused hours. Start small; move up when the evidence says so.

03

This Only Works If You Let Me Decide

An assistant who forwards everything back has taken nothing off your plate. The limits are yours to set, but there have to be some.

If there is a place

Eight Clients, Sometimes Seven

When I am full I will say so and tell you roughly when a place opens. I keep a short list and work through it honestly.

Book A Discovery Call

Tell me roughly how many emails a day and how bad the calendar is. Thirty minutes, and you will get an honest answer either way.

Book A Discovery Call