Comments on: Reader Question: Why isn’t my assistant saving me time?

By: Desiree Kane

Desiree Kane — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:44:25 +0000

I am an assistant, have been for around 7 years now, and agree with the statement that generally what people think they want their assistant to handle is usually not something that they KNOW HOW to hand off. To save time, you must first put in time to train your assistant to think one step AHEAD of you, which can take a little while. If you really, truly, want an assistant that will make things easy-breasy when they’re handling things for you that you never knew you needed handled, they need to learn to think about what you MIGHT need before you think you need it. No easy feat!

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:22:21 +0000

I have used both. However as you can see from the list, many of the tasks require physical presence so more recently I’ve been using an onsite assistant.

By: Justin Levy

Justin Levy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:27:13 +0000

I think you provided some excellent tips on how to efficiently use an assistant to free up your time to do other higher priority tasks. Do you only use a US-based assistant for the tasks you mentioned or do you also use VAs?

-Justin

By: Patti

Patti — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:00:15 +0000

I’ve been an Admin to C level executives for close to 30 years. There is no way I’d arrange or run to fill the gas, do errands, or personal efforts. But then again, if you’re at home, that would be different. Please, don’t ever, ever ask me to make and bring coffee!!!!!

By: Ishani Mitra

Ishani Mitra — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:01:46 +0000

That was a great list!! Virtual Assistants are the powerhouse of any business these days. I would also like to share some tips on effectively utilising a VA.

By: Serena

Serena — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:09:58 +0000

Sounds like you have a great assistant!