Boost Your Productivity: How Hiring a Virtual Assistant Maximizes Your Time

Entrepreneurs and executives are in a constant battle for more whitespace in their mind--and that means we're always searching for more tips to improve our productivity. One of the most effective strategies to boost your productivity is to hire an assistant.

What most first-time entrepreneurs don't realize, though, is that hiring is only the first step.

Simply making a hire is not enough to impact your efficiency. It takes great delegation, communication, and a wide array of soft skills to delegate well.

The Power of Delegation: Before You Hire an Assistant

While I'm a huge proponent of hiring a virtual assistant, I know not every entrepreneur is ready for this step in their broader delegation strategy. The good news is that you are likely already better at delegating your mental load than you think.

Most of us are already masters of outsourcing tasks to:

• Spouses
• Family members
• GPS systems
• DoorDash and Uber
• Babysitters
• Autocorrect
• Household appliances and tools

And, for each of these partners and tools, great delegation requires an upfront investment of time and training. Delegation doesn't just happen as soon as you purchase an app or turn on a switch.

Here's an example.

Delegating to Tools: The Roomba Example

My husband hates our Roomba.

It's a new purchase we made with the intention of making our lives easier, so we could attend to other tasks while the Roomba takes care of the vacuuming.

But the Roomba hasn't yet mapped out our house, and that means it isn't able to reach its peak efficiency.

My husband finds it incredibly frustrating that such an expensive purchase isn't doing its job. It's so irritating to him that he has begun sweeping the floor ahead of the Roomba, just to make sure the floor remains clean.

But this "help" is actually hindering the Roomba's ability to map out the layout of our house and reach peak efficiency. It's counterproductive

It struck me that this is what we so often do to our assistants as well.

We hire an assistant thinking it will make us more productive. But, without proper onboarding, laying a foundation of trust, and over-communicating instructions, we'll only end up doing more work than we were before.

We often say that our assistants are not robots. But the truth is, even robots need some upfront communication to do their jobs properly

The Learning Curve: Patience Leads to Productivity

When you hire a virtual assistant or implement new productivity tools (like our not-so-beloved Roomba) remember that there's always a critical learning period.

• Virtual assistants need time to understand your preferences and work style.
• Productivity apps and AI tools require setup and training for optimal performance.
• You need time to understand your delegation preferences and create systems with the people you're delegating to.

You need the patience to properly audit your time, to over-communicate your expectations, and to establish a foundation of trust.

Building a Productive Relationship with Your Virtual Assistant

To ensure a productive partnership with your remote assistant:

• Clearly communicate expectations and deadlines. Get to an agreement about what "done" looks like for each of their tasks.
• Respect working hours and boundaries--give a deadline and an expectation about how often you'll check in, but resist the urge to micromanage.
• Provide expectations about when to provide feedback to improve productivity, and stick to them.
• Use project management tools for transparent task tracking. At ChatterBoss, we provide our own task-tracking tool in-app, but some of our other favorites are Asana, Monday.com, and ClickUp!

By the way, building a great foundation of trust is a process that takes time to learn. For a more in-depth blueprint on how to set your assistant up for success, look at Chapter 3 of Delegation Nation!

Revolutionize your productivity

Hiring a virtual assistant is a game-changer for those looking to dramatically boost their productivity--but only with a proper upfront investment of time. By leveraging your remote talent well and mastering the art of delegation, you can reclaim your time and focus on what truly matters in your business and life.

Ready to revolutionize your productivity? Learn how to hire the perfect virtual assistant with our comprehensive masterclass. Check it out now and take the first step towards a more efficient, balanced work life (and a team you love).

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