Virtual assistants help support your company. Through their help, entrepreneurs can spend more time thinking of solutions rather than waste a lot of time searching for files and resources.
Like you, they are also human beings. They have limitations. If you push them to work beyond their limits often, it may result in decreased productivity.
Business owners need to work within the capacity of their employees. They should aim to have maximum productivity without burning them out.
- Advise your Virtual Assistant to do the important things early.
Have time early in the day to work on the things that will help you grow your company like planning meetings ahead, listing down your to-do lists and budgeting. This will make you more motivated.
- Dedicate 100% of your Virtual Assistant’s time in a focus block.
A focus block is a period of time which is dedicated purely for work. The Virtual Assistant will be asked to focus 100% of her time just on accomplishing outlined tasks.
The focus block could range from 30 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the capacity of the person. Once the focus block is finished, check if the work is done according to guidelines.
- Tell them to focus on working 1 task for 50 minutes then take a break.
Human brains can only focus for 50 minutes. After that, we need to take a break and do other things. Try working for straight 50 minutes and avoid distractions.
If the 50 minutes is over, take a 5-10 minute break to do other activities. Move around, get away from the computer for a few minutes, then sit down for another round.
- Ask them when they’re most productive and advise them to do their hardest tasks on those times.
If your Virtual Assistant is a morning person and if by the end of the day her energy is low, advise her to do the tasks that require the most energy in the morning.
Ask them to pay attention to when they feel they have more energy. Tell them to keep a journal of their energy levels.
- Tell your virtual assistant to group similar tasks together.
For example, if they’re writing blog posts for a website. Instead of writing one post, formatting it on your website, creating a graphic, and publishing it, tell them to write 5 articles at one time then format all 5 at another time, create 5 graphics at one time and then schedule the articles to be published once a week at one time.
Batching reduces task switching, which can slow us down and make us tired and unproductive. Batching keeps us focused on the same task over and over and gives our brain a little break.
- Build Systems and Document All Tasks
Virtual assistants can work best when there is a documented system that they can use as a guide. Through this, he or she can begin work immediately, need little one-on-one training, and be more productive.
- Initiate process improvements
Entrepreneurs should initiate process improvement systems as a way of keeping up with the changes in the business environment.
Process improvements are intended to improve the system by creating the necessary adjustments. This can help increase your virtual assistant’s productivity.
- Encourage and Reward Proactive Virtual Assistants
This will help them to add more value to your business than just doing the tasks you ask them to.
- Empower and Help Them Build a Sense of Ownership
Virtual assistants are someone you rely to support you and make your business run. Make them feel empowered in their role. Allow them to grow and share in business successes.
- Ask your Virtual Assistants to use a project management app and use it for their tasks.
Virtual assistants have a lot of projects going at once. There are many different project management apps like Asana and Trello that can help them manage time on each project.
We hope these tips help you entrepreneurs make your VA be more productive.
If you need help to grow your business, you may want to hire a Virtual Assistant. Contact us today to know more how we can help you.
