Spring Cleaning Your Time Commitments

With Spring and, unfortunately, a Pandemic in the air, many are forced to look internally and deep clean or spring clean aspects of their life. For some, this could be their house, closets, etc. ~ for others, their businesses and schedules. Here are some thoughts for those who are tittering on the brink of making that plunge to hire a Virtual Assistant.

As a:

• New Start-Up 

• Entrepreneur or 

• Small Business Owner

In-office support can be quite a luxury. This includes considering office space and overheads, as well... which is why smart business owners have partnered with virtual assistant services. As an entrepreneur, what this means to you is that you can have a workforce at your fingertips.

What virtual assistants do, simply put, is... provide professional, administrative, technical or creative assistance to clients remotely from their home office ~ Source

Now, many "toy" with the concept of hiring a virtual assistant, but often are reluctant and have fallen into the cycle of “Do-It-Yourself” to such an extent that the stress of doing what you love as a business becomes tedious.

Well, a place to start is probably to list daily administrative tasks and select the ones that don’t particularly tickle your fancy.

However, we, at Assistants 4 Hire, recommend that you first look at breaking your working day into time blocks. You may have read our previous blog on time blocking. Carefully look at your time block and look for:

1. Tasks that always run over the allocated time block

2. Tasks that eat into your buffer time

3. Repetitive tasks that occur frequently within the day or week

4. Tasks that are time-consuming

5. Tasks that divulge your focus from your core business

Now that you have a clear indication of your “Time Killers,” it's time to think of effective delegation. Granted, delegation is not easy; and it takes a lot of trust, communication and coordination... at least at the initial stages... for it to be effective in the long-term.

Some of the peeves many face when delegating are, as follows:

1. The feeling of passing off work and feeling unproductive/incapable

2. Thinking that only “YOU” can do it better

3. Nervous about letting go

4. Setting up delegation and idea sharing will take longer than actually getting the task done

5. The hassle of handing over systems/passwords that could feel intrusive and a little scary

Actually, this is perfectly natural to feel in every instance. Yes, sometimes this is a bit of a process that needs to be overcome; but it will yield benefits that are far reaching for your business.

You have done your “Self-Audit” concerning time, and you have analyzed your feelings about delegation and are ready to overcome the initial setup phase. Now, you need to consider exactly what you want to delegate! Ideally, these should be the "T" Tasks!

"T" – Tasks for delegation are:

• Tiny Tasks ~ Taking up only little chunks of time, but turn up frequently at various junctures during your workday (scheduling meetings/booking flights/deleting spam/marketing emails from the inbox, etc.).

• Tedious Tasks ~ Tasks that take up a large time component of your day which are chunky to handle, but can be broken into components or handed over completely (CRM Maintenance).

• Time-Consuming Tasks ~ Regular tasks that require a lot of focus and eats into your productive time (email responses, Linkedin outreaches, connections, etc.).

• Terrible at Tasks ~ Let’s face it, not all of us have excellent design skills or have the flair to create compelling copy

• Time-Sensitive Tasks ~ Tasks that need to be attended to quickly and daily but often compete for time with your other commitments – you don’t have to do it all alone.

When you are considering hiring a Virtual Assistant, it’s best to find someone who vibes with you and your way of doing business. There are always the testimonials and references; but you need to really make sure that you connect with your Virtual Assistant! As time progresses, your communication will be a pivotal success factor.

Additionally, consider contingency ~ Would you be hiring a Virtual Assistant who is a one-member team or are you looking for a Virtual Assistant Service which offers a pool of experts lending their specialties and offering a stellar service?

Can we bold enough to recommend ~ Assistants 4 Hire? We promise a secret door into a fast time zone!

Want to learn more about our business and what type of services we provide?

Visit us at:

https://www.assistants4hire.net

Written by Tatum De Souza