WomanWork.Net » time management tools

Virtual Small Business Assistant

Carmen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:39:20 +0000

What is a Virtual Assistant

Found this article in the business section and thought you would find it useful. The article basically discusses the economics of outsourcing your mundane chores. I have summarized the important points.

Did you think only celebrities and really wealthy people can afford personal assistants? Think again. There are many websites out there that can assist you with a wide variety of tasks ranging from writing thank you notes to following up on lost luggage.

One woman uses a site called AskSunday.com to deal with lost luggage, security issues with credit cards and reservations problems. When asked how she justifies the cost she said it costs about the same price as cable tv and eliminates so many of the headaches in her life, that it is totally worth it.

Prices and packages vary from site to site: On AskSunday.com users can pay 29.00 per month for 15 “requests” while the site GetFriday.com offers pay-as-you-go and monthly plans, in increments of 10 to 15 minutes. The monthly plans start at $120.00 a month for 10 hours.

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek, uses what he calls a “small army” of virtual assistants for everything from checking his e-mail to screening his phone calls and sending gifts to family and friends. He also uses a virtual assistant to find and schedule dates for him where he can promote his product. Ferriss says if you make more than $30,000.00 a year, you can afford to outsource some of your more routine tasks.

A marketing consultant uses Elance.com to find graphic designers for his website, find vegetarian-friendly restaurants, organize his Netflix account, plan a baby shower and bid for items on e-Bay.

Security issues are always a concern and Ferriss says that he has never had any problems. He does suggest though using trusted sites like PayPal.com when possible and using credit instead of debit cards to minimize potential damage.

Some sites, like AskSunday.com keep logins and passwords in a secured database so that its employees can use certain accounts but cannot see login or password information.

The article ends with a quote from the author of The Four-Hour Work Week which I thought summed it up well. “Ultimately, time is the most valuable, nonrenewable resource that we have.”

effective time management,importance of time management, Organization,organizing,organizing tips,organizing your life, time management advice,time management strategies,time management tools,time savers,virtual assistant,virtual small business assistant

Time Management Advice – Part 2

Carmen — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:11:50 +0000

Effective Time Management

According to Stephanie Culp author of You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day many people resisit keeping a time log, even though two weeks’ worth of it invariably highlights wasted time that could easily be turned into saved time. She advises if you really want to find more time for yourself,keep your eyes peeled for time wasters as you go along.

Stephanie says never lose sight of what your’re worth per hour. While you’re filling your time log with entries like, “Stopped at the cleaners and the drug store – 1 hour,” remember what that hour cost you. You could easily use a dry cleaning service that delivers and order prescriptions online to be delivered.

If you had used a service that delivered and ordered your medicine online, you’d have had one hour for yourself. If your tendency is to resist hiring people to help you out, ask yourself if how spending your time make sense and cents.

For example, consider if it is worth say the $20 or $30 it would cost you to have the yard work done by someone else so you could have a Saturday all to yourself or spend time with your kids?

Is it worth it to spend $10.00 a week to drop all the shirts off at the professional launderers, or would I rather spend three hours each week doing them myself? Is my time really worth only $3.33 per hour? For $40.00 per month, you can have a whole day back for yourself.

importance of time management,time management tools,why is time management important, time savers,time management advice,effective time management,time management strategies

Time Management Tools – What is your time worth?

Carmen — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:54:25 +0000

Time Management Advice

I have been reading a book called You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day by Stephanie Culp. She explains that the first thing you need to do when trying to manage your time is to find the value of your time. According to Ms. Culp, “Knowing the value of your time can be a key tool and a deciding factor in how to prioritize the use of the time available.”

She suggests taking a pencil and figuring out what your time is worth. Determine your hourly dollar value based on your gross salary and the number of hours you work. Then the next time you are tempted to fritter away an hour fussing with the batteries on the pencil sharpener or some other such nonsense, stop and think about how much that time is worth. If your not spending your time doing a task that is at least equal to the dollar value of your hourly time, it’s probably a task you shouldn’t be doing at all.

And the next time you find yourself procrastinating or wasting time in some other way, be honest with yourself. Your time is worth money – whether you are wasting that time or making good use of it.

Once you have figured out what your time is worth, you need to take a look at how you’re spending it. The most common way to do this is to keep a time log for a week or two. Essentially, this involves writing down just about everything you do, noting how much time you spent doing any one thing.

If you spend fifteen minutes on the phone with your mother, write it down. If you spend twenty minutes daydreaming, write it down. If you spend one hour in the sales meeting, note that, and if you spend thirty minutes preparing the sales figures for the boss write that down as well.

Stephanie says after keeping a time log for a couple of weeks, it becomes glaringly apparent that you are wasting time in several different ways. You may also see a pattern where other people are wasting your time (which you allow), and – if you’re honest – you;ll even see where you have been guilty of wasting others’ time.

We will posting more time management tips from You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day by Stephanie Culp so check back or subscribe to our RSS feed. In the meantime if you need more help staying organized see our related post Reduce Paperwork

importance of time management,time management tools,why is time management important, time savers,time management advice,effective time management,time management strategies