A remote executive assistant either becomes indispensable in the first week or never quite lands. The difference is a deliberate onboarding, not "I'll explain things as they come up." Here's the week-one plan I use.
Day 1: access and a 90-minute kickoff
Set up tooling and access (calendar, email delegation, password manager, shared drives, Slack). Then a 90-minute kickoff: walk through your week, your priorities this quarter, your communication style, and your biggest time-leaks. Record it. Your EA will rewatch it.
Day 2: the decision-rights document
Agree in writing what your EA decides, drafts for approval, and escalates. This is the single most important artifact of the whole engagement: it's what lets you actually let go. (More on that in how to delegate to an EA.)
Day 3: install the operating cadence
Set up the weekly check-in, a shared task tracker, and inbox triage rules. Agree how you'll communicate (async-first, with a daily digest) so neither of you lives in notifications.
Days 4–5: first real deliverables
Hand over something visible and finite: clean up next week's calendar, prep your three biggest meetings, draft a recurring report. Early, concrete wins build the trust that makes bigger delegation possible.
What makes remote onboarding different
Remote forces good habits in-office hides: everything must be documented, decisions logged, status written down. A strong remote EA treats that as the default, which is why remote support is often better organised than in-office. (See remote EA, Africa and virtual EA.)
By the end of week one
You should already feel hours coming back and your inbox under control. If you don't, the onboarding, not the hire, is usually the problem. Want it done right from day one? Book a free call.