I struggle each day with time management. (here I am blogging when I should be writing proposals).
I have a lot of tools to help whip me back on schedule. I use everything from iCal to schedule my appointments, I have online project systems to tell me when I might have a client task deadline coming up, I have address books, task applications, virtual sticky notes on my computer to remind me to dump the garbage today or pay my cell phone bill. It’s gotten to the point where even managing my management tools are taking a good amount of time.
I’ve asked myself if it’s now the time I should be hiring at least a part time assistant? But do I really want to be paying someone’s salery & all the extra management hassles that entails? I want to tackle this eventually but I just don’t feel ready just yet.
And then recently I’ve heard and read about a website service called “Ask Sunday” where you can hire a virtual personal assistant to do up to 15 requests per month for you (so long as they can be done by phone or over the internet within 20 minutes each).
Should I try it? I don’t know yet. The verdict is still out whether I could make full use of this personal assistant (a call center in India). I can see how sometimes I could use a service like this to schedule my personal doctor visits, maybe help me research for some new programmers, help me craiglist an Ad to sell my old Dreamcast system, etc.
But I’d imagine there’s no way they could help me do my accounting, or send out my invoices, or even schedule meetings with my clients? My clients pay me because I’m available for them…would they reject the notion of hearing a personal assistant with an East Indian accent invite them to meet with me for coffee? eeeeeeeeeeh…. dunno. I have a gut feeling they might not like that.
And then there’s my wife though. She’s been spending a great deal of time researching items for our baby coming next month. Finding the best prices on cribs, strollers, diapers, pumps, bottles, etc. How much time could she have saved if we used this service to do all that research for us instead? Would her time have been freed to spend more time watching Heroes with me in the evening?
I don’t know yet. I’m teetering on the edge to try that service. Now if only they could go get the groceries for us….
LoweStudio Inc was founded by me, Raphael Lowe, a Honolulu based illustrator and web designer. I presently design and manage a few dozen commercial websites, but my main focus these days is acting as the head developer for Kapiolani Community College and teaching
sounds like the kind of thing Tim Ferriss discusses in The Four-Hour Work Week.
I think the #1 thing if you decide to outsource is to get a reliable, reputable company. They’re not all equal. 🙂
Yeah it is actually. I’ve seen a lot of buzz about the time management material in some of my mag subscriptions. I’ve seen a lot of positive comments about Ask Sunday although I’ve been doing enough marketing in my career not to believe everything I read 100%