Ten tasks that you can outsource and save your hair!

Do you love the idea of having a Virtual Assistant but aren’t sure which tasks you could outsource?  Remember, one of the main purposes of a Virtual Assistant is to save you time and hassle, to allow you to work on your business rather than in it.  Which jobs have you pulling your hair out?

When I meet a new client we sit down and go through their daily work tasks, identifying the biggest time drains that they simply don’t have to complete themselves.  We also look at whether any processes can be implemented to enable tasks to be carried out more efficiently.

If you’re thinking about hiring a Virtual Assistant but don’t know where to start here are the top ten things that I get asked to do for my clients.  I hope this helps.

1.  Microsoft Word Formatting

If you prepare reports or documents you will no doubt occasionally have an issue, especially if copying paragraphs from existing documents.  The numbering won’t carry on as you wanted it to, paragraphs will randomly decide they should be bold, a paragraph is determined to be on a separate page.  It can be time consuming to figure out why the document is misbehaving and to get it to look how you envisaged it.  Save yourself the frustration and ask an expert to sort it.

2.  Contact Databases

Do you attend networking events and collect business cards?  What happens to them after the event?  These contacts could prove useful, either as potential customers or professionals you may need in the future.  By turning the business card pile into a fully searchable database you can find the contact details you need in a hurry and save yourself a shed load of time searching.

3.  Social Media Scheduling

Is it a valuable use of your time sitting and scheduling a month’s worth of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook posts?  Not really.  By outsourcing your social media scheduling you can relax in the knowledge that your message is getting out there without you having to worry about it.

4.  Data Cleansing

Do you know that the data held in your contacts list is up to date?  Are some entries duplicated or no longer valid?  It can be a time consuming and daunting task to tackle your database, especially when you’re already busy with more urgent tasks.  Save yourself the stress, outsource it.  A Virtual Assistant can sift through the data, check for duplication, update and remove entries as necessary.

5.  Researching Venues/Accommodation

You’re planning an event but don’t know where to hold it.  You don’t want to be sold to, just to get the facts about what a venue offers.  Save yourself the time and hassle, let someone else make the enquiries.  A Virtual Assistant can call venues within your chosen location, ask them all the questions, listen to the sales pitches, and then send you a list with the features and prices of each venue.  All you have to do is make the decision.

6.  Inbox Decluttering

How often do you go through your inbox?  Is it full of old emails, queries that you’ve already dealt with, mailing lists that you don’t really want to deal with? Let a Virtual Assistant declutter your inbox by filing away the important emails and unsubscribing you from mailing lists that you no longer wish to receive.

7.  Contacting Past Customers

Do you have customers that you haven’t heard from in a long time? Ask a Virtual Assistant to contact them for you.  It could be to let them know about a new product you’ve got, to update them on your services, to make sure your data is up to date, even to make sure they’re ok.

8.  Onsite Support

Sometimes you may just need an extra pair of hands at work.  Whether it’s tackling the filing pile, decluttering your workspace, organising your paperwork, standing at the photocopier, laminating or binding documents, these are all tasks that you don’t need to do yourself.  Just remember, not all Virtual Assistants offer onsite support.

9.  PowerPoint Presentations

You know what you want to say, you know how you want it to look, you also know that you want the information to fly in from the left on each click… So why isn’t it working?  Don’t pull your hair out, outsource it to a Virtual Assistant who can spend the time going through each slide to make sure it behaves and looks the way you want it to.

10.  Envelope Stuffing

Whether you’re sending out new product information, letters or paper newsletters, stuffing the envelopes can be so time consuming.  Save yourself the hassle and the paper cuts by outsourcing this to a Virtual Assistant.

By no means is this is an exhaustive list of tasks that you can outsource, but it might give you food for thought for your own business and how you can save yourself a whole lot of stress by allowing a Virtual Assistant to shoulder some of the load.

My Top 5 Tips for Battling Procrastination

Someone asked me recently what my advice would be when setting up a business.  The first thing that came into my head was ‘do not procrastinate.’  Now, I can see people rolling their eyes at this, of course procrastination isn’t good for your business.  Following this conversation I started thinking about how much I have procrastinated in my business life.

Often we find other things to do instead, whether it be a less daunting work related task, housework (if you work from home), or worse of all – we do nothing.  For example, I have been meaning to start writing a blog for ages, but as someone who does not find creative writing easy, I have put it off (until now). 

Another thing that I have been guilty of is putting off a daunting task, but instead filling my day with other easier, but just as important, tasks.  Yes, at the end of the day I can look back and say I’ve achieved this, this this and this.  However, that daunting task is still there, waiting to be done, now looking even more daunting than before.

My top tips for battling your procrastination demons

 1.       Set deadlines

 Schedule time during your week to get ‘stuff’ done.  Whether it be blogging, SEO, social media, whatever the tasks you know you are likely to put off, make sure that you set aside time to tackle it.  The only problem with setting your own deadlines is that it is all too easy to change them.  Especially with online or electronic calendars, it’s very easy to move that time block to another day, week, month… when does it end?  If you find yourself doing this I would suggest my next tip.

2.       Get an accountability partner

If you know you are guilty of procrastination it can be extremely helpful to find someone to be your accountability partner.  Now, this could be your partner, a friend, a colleague, but make sure that this person will stick to their side of it.  Send them details of what you want to achieve and a deadline for it to be complete.  Whilst you are completing the task for yourself, there is a part of us that doesn’t want to disappoint someone else by not fulfilling our end of the bargain. 

3.       Lists are your friend

Over the years I have listened to many different business people, coaches and mentors.  A lot have recommended lists, but the length of these lists has varied, some have been weekly lists, some daily.  My advice for a ‘to do’ list with a deadline would be to make it challenging but achievable.  Each one of us works in a different way, we have different daily responsibilities and time constraints.  Think about what needs to be done within your business, write each task down, rate its importance, schedule it in, get it done.  There is a lot of satisfaction in seeing a great big tick next to something that you’ve completed.

4.       Ask yourself why?

Why are you putting the task off?  Is it because it’s difficult?  Is it outside of our comfort zone?  Is it fear stopping you?  Or, is it because it’s mind-numbingly boring?  We have different reasons for putting ‘stuff’ off.  Once we know why we are, or aren’t, doing something we can work out what needs to change to make it happen.  If you’re not sure how to do something, is there anyone or anywhere you could go for advice?  If it’s a mundane task, do you even need to do it yourself – could you outsource it to someone who enjoys this sort of task?  I asked myself why I had put off blogging and social media for so long.  Honestly, it’s down to fear, so I spoke to experts I have met through networking.  I’ve even outsourced some of it to give me a head start.  Now, whilst I don’t feel entirely confident, I have a starting block to work with (massive thanks to Karen and Rachel – you know who you are). 

5.       Review, review, review

Schedule in some time once a month to review what you have achieved in your business.  Look at what you have done, what you have found easy and what has challenged you.  What has worked and what has not.  What still hasn’t been completed, why hasn’t it been finished? By reviewing your progress, understanding the whys and making changes you should be able to tackle those daunting tasks more effectively in the future.

Has this post resonated with you?  It would be great to hear about your procrastination problems.  Maybe I could help?