
Virtual assistants offer back-office solutions such as data entry and bookkeeping. In addition, they can manage your calendar and email.
Virtual executive assistants can organize meetings and work sessions in batches to help improve concentration. Studies indicate that humans cannot focus for more than 8-10 hours without taking breaks.
1. Prioritize Your Tasks
No matter your goal is - be it improving work processes or presentations - having the appropriate tools and systems in place can make all the difference. Communicate clearly to your virtual assistant about any instructions, goals, or deadlines so they understand exactly what is expected from them.
A virtual productivity assistant can assist in prioritizing tasks based on urgency and impact, which is an essential step toward optimizing time and productivity. By prioritizing tasks based on importance and scheduling them during peak impact times each day, you can make steady progress toward your goals.
Working with a virtual executive assistant requires setting clear communication and response expectations to avoid miscommunication and ensure all parties involved understand how technology usage should work. Furthermore, setting aside dedicated time for tasks requiring deep focus should also be established as trying to multitask can significantly decrease productivity and lead to errors within your work product. Prioritization skills are an invaluable asset in both personal and professional success.
2. Schedule Your Time
Executive virtual assistant (VA) can take over many of the non-core tasks you spend your time on, like scheduling appointments or organizing your to-do list. Setting goals and deadlines with your VA will help keep them on track and ensure quality deliverables on time.
Communicating regularly with your VA is also crucial, in particular providing feedback on their work and giving recognition when appropriate. Doing so ensures they remain on track towards meeting productivity objectives.
Finally, it's essential that you arrange meetings with your Virtual Executive Assistant regularly to discuss upcoming projects and meetings. This will ensure they quickly get up-to-speed with you while being on the same page with you. When confirming meetings, it's advisable to glance over both agendas in advance to make sure there is sufficient time allocated for their tasks such as emailing, working out, reading or just breathing space. To prevent their Virtual Executive from accidentally recording idle hours as work, Time Doctor provides a solution; its technology automatically detects when keyboard and mouse activity ceases while only recording active work time as work - providing a reliable method of keeping an eye on everything possible so only active time gets counted as work.
3. Set Goals and Deadlines
Virtual assistants work with all sorts of clients - from C-suite executives and small business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurs to freelancers and entrepreneurs. Successful VAs excel in mutualist relationships - meaning that when given clear goals and deadlines to meet they are best equipped to do their jobs. Tracking these objectives using collaborative project management software like Asana or Trello can help prevent any misunderstandings or delays with projects.
Example: if you ask your VA to write the first draft of an article by Friday of each week, using a project management tool makes tracking their work and setting deadlines much simpler and helps your assistant deliver quality work on time.
Managed service virtual assistants offer another advantage by ensuring that if they go on vacation or leave the company for any reason, their tasks won't go unfinished. A trained backup virtual assistant will be trained each week to fill in for them if need be and prevent projects from falling behind. In-house assistants usually spend more time performing administrative duties while being part of larger teams making them less likely to leave altogether.
4. Schedule Regular Breaks
Make sure your virtual assistant gets time to rest between tasks, as this will ensure they remain energized and focused, increasing the odds that they meet deadlines successfully.
Your assistants also deserve time and space to focus on individual projects, something which can sometimes become challenging when working as part of a team. Encourage your virtual assistant to prioritize these tasks at the beginning of their day to feel accomplished early and maintain an optimistic mindset throughout their workday.
Time Doctor's calendar management tool is essential to increasing productivity levels. Your virtual assistant can avoid logging idle time with its built-in inactivity tracker that asks after three minutes of inactivity whether they're still active, helping prevent time wasting while you pay them accurately for their work - and all the data stays with them even if they move onto another position!
5. Make Your VA Feel Part of the Team
Communication is of utmost importance in any virtual workplace partnership. Make sure your Virtual Assistant understands your needs and long-term business goals to assist with reaching them - this will ensure they feel supported while knowing they have value to you, increasing morale and increasing longevity within the team.
When planning an upcoming conference or meeting, your executive virtual assistant can book flights and accommodation, saving both time and money as well as the risk of missing an event due to unexpected issues.
Your virtual ea can also assist in improving customer experience with live chat. They can set up auto-responders that welcome new customers, remind buyers about unfinished shopping carts or provide answers for questions that arise during purchasing processes.
They can write and post blog articles or create and manage social media accounts to boost visibility and engagement with your target market. Plus they can transcribe meetings or produce reports to free up time so you can focus on other aspects of your business.