How to know it’s time to delegate to a Virtual Assistant.
March 19, 2018
Your day starts with a feeling of being overwhelmed. You decide today is the day to get on top of those outstanding tasks so you write a ‘to do’ list. Some things are carried over from yesterday. As the week progresses the ‘to do’ list gets longer instead of shorter, even though you are working long into the evening every day to try and catch up. Gradually the to do list feels more like an ‘I’m never going to get this done list’!!
Stop for a moment and think…. are you working productively or just spinning plates?!!
Here are ten tell tale signs to consider to help answer that question.
Ten signs it’s time to delegate.
You have so much work that you can’t give anything your full attention. Quality is slipping and you’re not as proud of your work as you used to be.
Admin and bookkeeping are being ignored because you simply don’t have time. You have too much in your head to be able to concentrate.
You have a heap of work you are not skilled at and know you don’t do well. You put it off until the last possible minute, then rush through it and hope it will do.
You are doing too many necessary tasks that you don’t enjoy or are not part of your passion, like scheduling appointments, booking travel or research.
You are regularly working more than 40 hours a week. You just never seem to catch up no matter how many hours you work.
You have missed events in your family life because of work. You try to squeeze half an hour supporting your child’s team, but miss the whole match.
You have more work than you can manage in a day, but not enough to justify full-time help.
Every time you finish a task, two more pop up needing immediate attention.
You can’t seem to get organised because you have too much to do. You have lists within lists and even that doesn’t help.
You know you had a holiday once, but it all seems so long ago!
If you recognise any of these signs maybe you should consider delegating some tasks. Hiring a virtual assistant can help you work more efficiently, give you time to concentrate on quality and achieve a better work/life balance.
Try this exercise to help focus your thoughts.
Write down every task you do that takes longer than half an hour.
Highlight the things you don’t like doing or don’t need to do yourself.
Write down the things you want to do but don’t have time for – such as business development, giving existing clients more value, spending more time with family, writing an eBook, developing a new product or service etc.
The things you highlighted are the tasks a virtual assistant could do for you. This would free up your time for the rest of the things you wrote down. Now ask yourself “Why do I not have a virtual assistant already?!!”