Optimizing Your Time – My Journey with a Virtual Assistant
(Part 3 of 3)

in , /by

The following is part 3 in a 3-part series of an article I wrote for GetFriday on how using a Virtual Assistant has changed quite a few parts on how I do business along with some of the lessons learned.

If you haven’t already read part 1 please read it first – As then this will make a whole lot more sense 😉

How to use a service like GetFriday effectively, some of my key lessons learned

Utilizing the help of a virtual assistant comes with a lot of responsibility, I believe. But, if you respect some “basic” rules you will quickly get to a point where you’ll be hands-free on a lot of tasks as your VA will catch on and tasks will become routines.

Here are my pointers on using a service like GetFriday effectively.

1. Remember the human aspect

First of all, keep in the very front and center of your mind that your VA is a person. He/she isn’t a robot and probably does not have god-like abilities (although Jaya does seem to have that sometimes, haha!). I like to think of my assistant of as much of a co-worker as if I’m sitting next to someone on my team.

2. Put your tasks and processes on paper

Begin describing your tasks and processes, make sure you break them down in to steps.Questions I like to ask myself during the creation of these is “How do I know this information” and “How can I provide the most unambiguous description possible”.

I highly recommend using a tool like Asana, Process Street or similar systems that makes the above easier and makes revising process easier as well.

And one very important thing: Test your processes. I like to put on my “I don’t know anything hat and try to do EXACTLY as I’ve described” as this have a tendency to reveal to me what I’m missing.

3. Communication is key

As with most things remember communication is key. Spend those 5 minutes being articulate about the descriptions. It will pay off in the long run I promise you.

4. Trust but verify, at least in the beginning

Don’t expect everything to go smooth and go on holidays after handing over the tasks. In the beginning verify that the tasks were completed as you wanted.

And keep a calm mind when something isn’t as it should, chances are you most likely messed up something in a description or something was ambiguous. And even if not, remember: We all make mistakes. I most certainly do – all the time. It’s the correcting of small failures and mistakes that in the end make up a greater whole.

You can choose to respond in a way to solve the issue at hand and then you will have saved time in the future. Or you could just become frustrated and write an annoyed email. I most certainly recommend the first option.

5. Remember, making processes is a process

Be willing to invest yourself and some extra time in getting it right. Yes, it will require an initial investment of time but remember that each time your assistant completes a task you just saved precious time. Time you can spend on other things important to your.

6. ”So, how do I know which tasks to send?”

A mentor of mine introduced me to a very simple question: “Does this task energize me or drain me of energy?” When I heard it that really was all there was to it. We all like to spend our time doing things we enjoy and to me this question was a key in identifying just what those things are.

Moving onwards I’d like to say a huge thanks to GetFriday, because my life and business is improved because of these guys and girls existence and the services they provide.

It enables me to do more of the things I love, like business, travelling the world, serving and helping people and businesses with code and strategies as the tool, training and blogging about WordPress and related topics (in Danish).

I am able to do this because I know I have an awesome team behind me, both in the form of GetFriday and my team from Yan&Co. Without these guys and girls, I simply wouldn’t be able to do the stuff I do, in the way I do them and enjoying it and I’m grateful I have every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to connect with me and I’d be happy to talk!

Optimizing Your Time – My Journey with a Virtual Assistant
(Part 2 of 3)

in , /by

The following is part 2 in a 3-part series of an article I wrote for GetFriday on how using a Virtual Assistant has changed quite a few parts on how I do business along with some of the lessons learned.

If you haven’t already read part 1 please read it first – As then this will make a whole lot more sense 😉

A month or two went by after my conversation with Vanessa.. (or so it felt)

I kept thinking about this wonderful magical unicorn like person called a “Virtual Assistant”, which I had read in books existed, but, since I had never really seen one, could not believe existed.As I thought about the VA, I also slowly realized why I had panicked: I was simply scared that no one could do the tasks as well as I could – even though I dreaded doing them (and at the same time I was actually blind to the fact that I could be quite terrible at them).I got back to Vanessa to have her introduce me to GetFriday, which she so fondly recommended.Some of my initial concerns was among these:

  • How about privacy of sensitive information (credit cards, logins, etc.)
  • Are they any good?
  • What happens if something goes wrong?
  • What if they don’t know how to do the tasks?
  • Will they overcharge?
  • How much will it cost?
  • And a lot of other concerns

Getting to Friday

The initial meeting was done over Skype with Mahesh who was to become my teamlead/manager at GetFriday. The Skype meeting was an absolute pleasure. The level at which Mahesh asked questions to my business was nothing short of excellent. He went the extra mile in understanding what I needed help within the business.

I had been recommended a particular VA at GetFriday, which was the one Vanessa used and I asked if it was possible to get the same assistant as her. Mahesh then, after understanding the tasks I need help with, went on to explain me that this VA actually wouldn’t be the right fit as the tasks I needed help with, didn’t match the specialties of this VA.

This alone made me trust GetFriday even more as they didn’t just comply with my wishes but made an effort in getting me the right VA. After the Skype call Mahesh got back to and I was assigned with a VA as well as instructions on how to best introduce GetFriday to my tasks.

The challenges of putting my mind to writing

You may very well be more aware of what you do on a daily basis than I was at the time, but it came as a surprise to me how many steps of the tasks I did, involved what I would call internalized knowledge and automated behavior.

Let me give a concrete example of this: One of the monthly tasks that GetFriday now handles is structuring the invoices for my accountant. I would look at an invoice and immediately know how to choose the filename for it so the accountant would know where it belonged in the accounting. Also, I’d convert it to a PDF and know in which folder to put it.

This may sound quite simple, but when I had to describe it, I discovered a lot of small steps were involved. Steps that involved information which was in my head like:

  • How does another person know what to name the file?
  • How would anyone know the right folder to put it in?
  • Also, any exceptions to the rules where I’d add extra information

And this was just a simple task. I quickly realised I had a huge responsibility in describing the tasks and making sure the information was available – or I’d just make someone else’s workday nightmare. And that I didn’t want to happen.

It took more hours than I thought, because I had quite a few tasks and processes. But, it was huge relief getting all this information out of my head and into workflows.

My super-awesome assistant

My assistant at GetFriday is Jaya. I’m not afraid to name-drop as she’s awesome. Really super awesome.

In the back of my mind I had a voice still worried about all the “exceptions” and “processes I might not have described well enough,” and the first time I sent a task description to Jaya I received an email back.

She had found a question to the task and just wanted to know if she’d understood it correctly and how to move on with it – and was totally my fault! Here I thought I had described it thoroughly and still there was information in my head. She’d “caught” me and wasn’t afraid to ask. Amazing! So I had to redo part of the process to get it right.

And this still continues to happen – I map out a process and Jaya is on-the-spot and let’s me know if something is missing. That is such a valuable thing to have happen! This is what really amazed me about GetFriday; the level of service they provide!

Optimizing Your Time – My Journey with a Virtual Assistant
(Part 1 of 3)

in , /by

The following is part 1 in a 3-part series of an article I wrote for GetFriday on how using a Virtual Assistant has changed quite a few parts on how I do business along with some of the lessons learned.

Journey Begins

In a world that is becoming more and more interconnected, managing your time and prioritizing what you spend your time on has become a cornerstone not only in professional life but also in private life.

Time. It could be argued that time is the most precious resource you have. The argument? You can use time to increase the amount of almost any other “thing” in your life: friends, money, health, wellbeing, real estate or laughter. It may require effort, of course, but it’s possible – due to Time.

However, time will always be a decreasing resource. There only ever becomes less of it, and if we are being honest, you don’t even know how much you have left.

This is not to get all gloomy and doomy, it’s just a statement of the facts. Coming to terms with it, at least in my experience, makes it easier to prioritize.

Enter Vanessa

One day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, Vanessa, and I was explaining how it felt to have a lot of tasks that I didn’t quite enjoy and how I could tell that there wouldn’t be less of them as my business grew.

“Well, why don’t you try with a virtual assistant? I’ve been doing that for years and it really helped me.” she asked.

I looked at her, with what I imagine was a sort of dumbfounded expression, not sure what to reply exactly.“Ehm.. Eh.. what’s that? Does that even work?” I asked. Vanessa went on to explain how some of the recurring processes were handled by her VA. It sounded like a unicorn, riding a rainbow, poofing glitter. It sounded pretty amazing and too good to be true!

“Should I setup a meeting for you?” Vanessa asked.

I panicked. Totally panicked. I had no idea why, at the time.

“Ehm ehh.. I’ll give it a thought” I replied.

The seconds you spend, drastically add up over a year

One of the key aspects of my way of doing business today is that I make an effort to ask my self the question: ”Could this be done smarter or could it be automated somehow?”

I’m definitely not the first person to ask a question like this. But there’s a reason why I give it a lot of thought. Let’s say you have a recurring task, which takes you 15 seconds to complete. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?

How about performing it 30 times daily? Now we’re at 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Five times weekly? 37 minutes and 30 seconds.

A year later of 50 work weeks? 1.875 minutes or the equivalent of 31 hours and 15 minutes. Does that sound very appealing if it’s something you don’t truly enjoy?

Delegation is one of the keys to spending you time more meaningfully

You have probably heard it about a 427 times before that you should learn to delegate. However only very few of those who utter this statement, actually dive into the topic of how to do it, the pitfalls and caveats of it.

With this post, my aim is to give a bit more of a real approach to delegation by sharing some of my experiences and lessons learned.

Spending Time on What You Enjoy

Even before I started my career, I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about how this world of ours’ works. One thing that over the year became more and more important to me was the feeling of freedom and being able to choose what I spend my time on.

As Yan&Co grew, so did the related tasks, some of which I wasn’t very fond of like taxes, accounting, and other administrative tasks. I could tell that they were very important to the business but they just zapped my energy.

While they where no doubt critical and important, they also seemed like an entry barrier to doing what I truly love. And wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the entire workweek dedicated to doing something that feels meaningful?

Importance vs. meaningfulness

The feeling of meaningfulness does not necessarily imply something is or isn’t important. Importance is usually related to the severity of the consequences and how they would impact your life or others.

The same applies to the fact that just because something doesn’t feel meaningful to you, doesn’t prevent it from being very meaningful to another person.

A very real example from my everyday is bookkeeping. For the first couple of years, I did it because it was important (because well, the tax collecting agency seems to be quite set in stone on this part). However, I wasn’t particularly good at it, made lots of small errors and thus spent time trying to correct these errors – Sometimes just messing things up more. The worries I had about if the bookkeeping being done right or not, sometimes kept me awake, because it felt pretty important as the consequence of doing it wrong, could impact my life quite a lot. Also it wasn’t very meaningful to me. It zapped my energy and I often postponed it.

Then I hired a book-keeper. Susan describes her feeling of receiving a bunch of annexes and invoices from me as “It’s almost like Christmas! I get to have Christmas every day!”

I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like a very meaningful way to work. Also Susan is a heck of lot better at bookkeeping than I am, so no errors are made and if there are, they are corrected without me needing to interfere.

In short, I slept like a baby in the months after delegating my bookkeeping, knowing Susan had my back.