Time Management Tips
July 30, 2010
Have you been feeling the need to be more organized or productive lately? Have you spent your day in a frenzy of activity and wondered where your time was spent since very little has gotten accomplished?
Time management skill is essential, especially for small business people who often find themselves wondering where the hours of the day went. Here are some basic time management tips to help you stay calm, collective, and productive during your next work day.
Find out where you’re wasting your time.
The first step to effective time management is figuring out where your time is going. What are your time bandits? Chatting with coworkers at the water cooler, surfing the net, reading emails, making personal calls, or getting caught up in office drama – any of these sound familiar? Start your day off by tracking your daily activities so you can form an accurate picture of what you do on a day to day basis.
Create daily goals.
Remember, the focus of time management is changing your everyday behavior, not changing time. Every morning before your “shift” make a list of all the things you would like to accomplish for the day. Using tools like Remember The Milk, Central Desktop, or Google Tasks can increase your productivity by keeping a list on your desktop, online, or downloaded as an app to your phone. Once you’ve accomplished the goal you’ve set for the day just check it off and move to the next task. Try setting specific goals, for example if you work in a call center set a goal for how many calls you would like to make that day. Put a little pep into your day by challenge yourself to exceed your goal.
Execute a time management plan with a schedule.
Thoroughly plan out your day and if possible try planning your entire week. Try to structure your week by setting timelines. For example from 9:00 to 11:00 I will focus on ____ and from 11:05 to 12:30 I will accomplish _______. Track how long you think each goal would take for you to achieve and then mark it in your calendar. If you’re working on a project that takes more than a day’s time then it’s best to track your progress with milestones. For larger projects break them down and dissect what you have do to complete it on time while giving it your full attention to detail. Using Central Desktop and other tools can help with this as well. Get in the habit of setting time limits for tasks.
Prioritize ruthlessly.
If you take a look at my daily plan you will realize that I have dozens of little goals, and even more big goals. Learn to PRIORTIZE. If you have 10 different tasks to do for the day figure out how many of them you truly need to accomplish. Always put the most important things at the very top of your list to make sure they get done. Once you start a project, follow through till the very end (unless of course you are breaking it down into milestones)
Learn to delegate and outsource your work.
No matter how small or how large your business is there’s no reason to feel like a one man band. For effective time management try passing some of the work to someone else whether it would be a co-worker or a virtual assistant. Find someone who specializes in your field and have them take on some of the load. Ways To Utilize a Virtual Assistant gives you a variety of services to delegate to a virtual assistant. Make sure to do your due diligence and research a virtual assistant prior to hiring them. Here’s a list of Questions You Should Ask a Virtual Assistant during the interviewing process.
Be sure your surroundings are organized.
Nothing frustrates me more than a cluttered mess. Make sure your surroundings are neat, clean, organized, and everything is easy to find. This includes computer documents, folders, and filing systems. A big hunk of time can be lost chasing missing items. Try avoiding this as much as possible by organizing your office.
Don’t waste any more time. PERIOD
In the end you control your time, you are in charge of your actions, and you have the power how your day is being spent. Once you come to grips with how to effectively manage your time you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. An old friend of mine often says “You can either make money or you can make excuses – but you can’t make both”
Which do you choose?
Questions To Ask a Potential Virtual Assistant
July 23, 2010
As a savvy business owner, you know you can’t do everything yourself. Whether you’re looking to spend more time focusing on growing your business or more time at home with the family, you recognize that you need help. Question is where can you find it? Virtually of course! Virtual Assistants (VA) CAN be found just about anywhere, on Twitter, Facebook, Google, you name it – we’re there. Finding a VA is never a challenge, however finding an exceptional virtual assistant is where the mystery lies at hand.
Quality VA’s are a dime a dozen, and it’s important to distinguish which VA suites your business needs best before you make a final decision. How do you do that? Not to worry, I’ll guide you in the right direction. Here is a sample list of the right questions to ask a potential virtual assistant before you sign on the dotted line.
1. How long have you been a virtual assistant?
2. What kind of experience do you have with __list a task you are looking to delegate__?
3. What projects do you enjoy working on the most? What are your specialties?
4. How will we communicate together on projects?
5. What is your level of competences with _list services your might be inquiring about_?
6. What are your working hours? Do you work weekends or holidays?
7. What is your average time to complete projects? Do you have any rush service charges if I need something done within a 24 / 48 period time frame?
8. How many clients do you currently support? How many hours per week / month do you have available to take on my potential projects?
9. May I have some referrals of other clients you are currently or have previously served?
10. Will you sign a confidentiality agreement?
Ways To Better Utilize Your Virtual Assistant
July 21, 2010
Stumped on ways to better utilize your VA or don’t quite know what tasks you might be able to delegate to a virtual assistant? VAsolutionsNOW offers a variety of services to reduce stress and help simplify your life . Our time saving service solutions are guaranteed to give you the piece of mind you deserve. Our certified Virtual Assistant organization has been built on bringing you the highest standards and quality to enhance your business and life to be worry free. Below are just a few ways out of the thousands of ways you can utilize our services:
Personal Concierge Services
* Appointment scheduling and confirmation
* Travel arrangements and accommodations
* Reminder services
* Gift shopping and purchasing
* Making sure all bills get paid on time
* Email management and filtering
* Write and send personalized thank you, birthday, and holiday cards
* Voicemail and messaging screening
* Bulk emailing
Online Business Services
* Internet Research
* Scheduling meetings and events
* PowerPoint Presentations
* Proof reading and editing
* Online reputation management
* Social media strategy and implementation
* Web site content and development
* Ghost writing and blogging
* Submitting articles to online sites
* Social media marketing
* Video marketing
* Updating websites
* Transcription services
* Word processing
* Database management and processing
* Desktop Publishing
* Contact management and organization
* Formats and creates newsletters
* Sets up user accounts on social networks
* Monitor website traffic
* Promote your website
* Radio and Television bookings
* Write advertisements
* Real Estate assistance
* Marketing support
* Auto responders
* Set up telesummits / teleseminars / webinars
**All legal and ethical requests will be taken into consideration. Contact us for a consultation if you do not see your required service listed**
Romantic or Practicable? What Kind Of Gift Would You Prefer?
July 6, 2010
On July 4th my better half and I celebrated our one year anniversary. As many of you already know shopping for anniversary presents isn’t exactly an easy task. Trying to find something that is fitting, romantic, and something they would enjoy can be tough, but let me ask you this. Why does it have to be romantic? I understand it’s the anniversary, and it’s built around love and celebration, however lets say you and your husband go out on a romantic night on the town — how much would you estimate the cost for that? A hundred dollars maybe? Depending on the festivities of the evening you can wind up spending an easy $500?
This year we decided to try something new. Rather then spending hundreds of dollars on something that only lasts a 
night we exchanged romantic for practicability. Last week my printer took a leap off the deep end and decided that it was no longer going to fulfill its duties in my office. So with that said, my darling gifted me a new printer / fax / scanner / copier that was obviously very much needed since I print about a million and one things. BRILLIANT!
Of course I wasn’t thinking of being as genus as him and decided to go the romantic way and create a masterpiece using my Mac and wrapped a few other surprises here and there. Now here’s the funny part, I wrapped 4 different items and hid them around the house and now can only remember where I placed two out of the four presents. So somewhere around here lies two nifty gifts waiting for his hands to tear open. I wonder if I can convince my daughter to do an early Easter egg hunt for Daddy, only search for wrapped gifts rather then plastic candy filled eggs?
Note to self: When hiding something, make sure to write down where you placed everything to avoid confusion.
So let me ask you this.. romantic or practicable? What kind of gift would you prefer?
**VA TIP: If you are having your virtual assistant shop for your next anniversary gift make sure to give them ideas not only what your significant other may want, but ask for ideas on things they might just need too **
