Do it, Delegate it, Delete it!!

April 15, 2008 · Filed Under Revolutionary Thinking, Virtual Assistant Tips, Virtual Assistants · Comment 

For us, as Virtual Assistants, it is so easy to become overwhelmed by the mounds of work that comes into our office, especially via E-mail. I know that I myself have easily fallen victim to the trap of letting my in-box become overwhelming. A great deal of our time is wasted having to empty out an overwhelming inbox. Many times we might read the same email several times thinking “I don’t have time, I’ll deal with that later” and before we know it our inbox becomes so overwhelming that it takes an entire day to sort through it. As we work our way through it we soon begin to find things that should have been dealt with or that have been overlooked and undoubtably the stress begins to build.

This quarter I am taking on a new strategy with respect to my email and I am inviting each of you to join with me. I am developing the 3 D’s strategy for keeping email messages under control: Do it, Delete it or Delegate it.

Each and every email I read from here on out will be handled in one of 3 ways:

  1. DO IT - These are the emails that will require an action by me. If it isn’t something I can answer immediately or act upon immediately, I have also set up two folders and one is “To Read” and one is “To Do”. When it falls under one of these categories I will move it to those folders for later action. I have now also worked into my schedule a half hour at the end of each day and a half hour at the beginning of each day to go through the “To Do” folder and make sure that it is completed each day.
  2. DELETE IT -Let’s face it we are inundated with emails, several of which are not something we ever plan to act on. We also receive several emails where a conversation is ended by the other party that should be deleted. Also, once you have answered an email and for which you are not waiting for a reply, you should delete it. By removing it from your inbox, it will tell you that it no longer requires anything to be done.
  3. DELEGATE IT - Finally if I am unable to handle something in an email and it needs to be handled by someone else I “delegate it” to them and forward that email.

My final piece of advice is to create a folder entitled “Waiting for a reply”. This will be for all those emails that you have acted on and you are waiting for a response from someone else. These are those emails that you don’t want to delete just yet for fear of forgetting that you are waiting for something before being able to “Do It”, but that clutter your in-box nonetheless. By moving these from your in-box or your “To Do” files they will not clutter these spaces and cause you to read them several times. Always be sure, however, to make it a point of checking your “waiting for a reply” daily and deleting those that you have received a reply on.

I hope that by implementing these tips you will soon find that checking your emails is not taking up huge chunks of time in your day. With any luck, the next time you hear “you have mail” you will not want to jump under your desk and hide.

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Running a Business is no Joke!!

April 1, 2008 · Filed Under Revolutionary Thinking, Virtual Assistant Tips · Comment 

Today is April Fool’s Day and many of us are thinking up ways to pull pranks on our loved ones, and taking time from the hustle and bustle of running a thriving business can be a nice release. So this got me to thinking about ways that we can bring the “fun” back into running a business. Let’s face it, running a successful business can be hard work and if we don’t reward ourselves it can be very exhausting. Here are just a few ideas I came up with, but I would love to hear some of the ways you are bringing fun into your business:

  1.  Reward yourself with time off for good behavior!! Taking a little time to treat yourself can make it so much easier to deal with the requirements of running a thriving business. Perhaps daily, you give yourself a chance to watch your favorite TV show or maybe weekly you take time off to take your child(ren) to the movies. Whatever your reward it is important to give yourself a little you time!!
  2. Take some time to visit the forums to keep up with what is going on in your industry and with your colleagues. I love to “pop into” the REV to see what is going on with all my friends and what they (and their businesses) have been up to.
  3. Take on a “fun” project or a “fun” client that you normally wouldn’t think of working on or with. Just a couple of months ago I took on a research project for a client. This client was a bed and breakfast that was hosting a golf tournament and she wanted to make the event interesting and fun so it was my job to come up with ideas to make it a truly “golf” dinner and activity filled evening. For dinner we came up with calling the punch bowl the “Water Hazard”, the dips the “sand traps” and we placed a green tablecloth on the table and called the table the green. We prepared a game for at night that was similar to Pictionary that utilized various golf terms. Although I wouldn’t normally provide these services I can say that it was one of the projects I have had the most fun being a part of (I almost felt guilty charging for the time)!!

So what other ways are you putting fun into your business? I would love to hear some of your ideas.

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