A quick Google search of ‘things to outsource to a virtual or personal assistant’ yields some very impressive – albeit overwhelmingly lengthy – lists.
‘137 Tasks You Can Outsource To A Virtual Assistant’ and ‘98 Tasks You can Affordably Outsource to Virtual Assistant Services’ and ‘100 Tasks You Can Outsource to a Virtual Assistant’ and the lists go on … and on … and on.
Because when you actually stop and think about all the things you do on a daily basis, all the things begin to add up – and quickly. So it’s no small wonder that any lists rattling off all the things a VA can do are seemingly endless.
We’re all probably acutely aware of all of the administrative tasks we handle every day that can be outsourced to a virtual assistant – answering phones, replying to email, managing your calendar et al – but there are also so many other ways a BELAY VA can make your life easier. More organized. Better.
Do I need a Personal Assistant?
If you’re dubious, we (probably) know what you’re thinking: ‘I don’t have eight hours of work for someone.’
And it’s true – most tasks may only take only a few minutes. But when you add several dozen of them up, they consume hours. Maybe even days. So you resign yourself to drowning in an endless avalanche of adulting.
But you know the intense, full-body rush you feel when you cross something off your to-do list? A VA can give you the ability to start crossing more of these items off your lists, one giddy pen stroke after another.
So if you’re feeling a little frisky, check out some of the less conventional ways you can use your BELAY VA to get your giddy groove back.
Use your VA for these personal assistant services:
- Send your spouse flowers or a gift on their birthday or on your anniversary.
- Research travel packages and book your next vacation.
- Schedule swoon-worthy social media posts with photos of aforementioned vacation.
- Buy basic necessities – or anything, really – online and have them shipped to your door.
- Find a dog walker to take Fido out.
- Locate your phone left in the third stall of a Denny’s restroom in Albuquerque.
- Navigate all the necessary documentation requests to establish a Flexible Savings Account.
- Hire a designer to get a website up and running.
- Start a Google calendar to manage speaking engagements.
- Send thank-you cards and notes.
- Locate an exact replacement for a child’s favorite – but obscure and discontinued – stuffed animal. Totoro anyone?
- Track down the sheet music for a very specific piece of music you want to learn to play.
- Update frequent flyer accounts.
- Start a database that tracks favorite restaurants by neighborhood.
- Figure out how to get Showtime Anytime and HBO Go to work on your iPad.
- Order your groceries for you.
- Record and transcribe your meetings.
- Make reservations for a spontaneously romantic dinner for two at a fancy restaurant.
- Send you twenty email and text reminders so you don’t forget aforementioned fancy dinner for two.
- Record themselves reading NY Times Best Sellers so that you can listen to them – and then tell people the book was so much better than the movie.
Really? All this?
Is this list replete with highly specific and exceptionally granular items that seem very individualized and personal? OF COURSE. But that’s what our day-to-day lives actually look like: a stream – more of a raging whitewater river if we’re being completely honest with ourselves – of total, unabashed randomness. And though it may be jarring to actually have to itemize our day-to-day eccentricities and then – GASP! – speak them into existence to another human being, such is life. It is random, messy, eclectic and normal.
So short of adding more hours to the day – Aside: WHY ISN’T THIS A THING YET?! – hiring a virtual assistant is the next best thing. Outsourcing to your VA will not only free your time and boost productivity, but it will also help you reduce staff costs.
So make your lists, check them twice … and then hand them over to your BELAY VA.