Are you at your wits end? Have you lost the passion for your business because you’re overwhelmed with the myriad of admin tasks? Are there not enough hours in the day to get everything done?
First things First – Identify what your time is spent on!
I know you are super busy and this will sound counter intuitive, but this will be a real eye opener and will identify where you are spending your time! Sit down for about 30 minutes, with a cuppa if you like and make a list of all the tasks that make up your average day/week/month.
Do be honest and try to capture them all. Consider headings such as general admin, customer service, strategy, marketing, social media, sales, HR, accounting etc. Chances are if you are a solo entrepreneur it is all of those and more!
So you know what you’re doing, but how is it contributing?
When you have written out all your tasks, you can then decide if they are functional or valuable – write an F or a V next to each task when you’ve decided.
Functional = contributes only to the day-to-day running of the business i.e. answering calls or emails, newsletters, admin.
Valuable = value adding tasks i.e. strategy, networking
NOTE: Spending too much time on functional rather than valuable tasks will result in a business that looks the same in 1, 2 or 10 years time.
Now for some categorisation!
Once you have listed your tasks and decided if they are functional or valuable you need to assign the task to one of four headings;
- The tasks you ENJOY and are GOOD at – these are the tasks you look forward to doing and never linger on your to do list for long as you can complete them quickly.
- Tasks you ENJOY but are LESS SKILLED at – these tasks may be ones that you have only recently started doing and are keen to learn more about.
- The tasks that you are GOOD at but find BORING – these are the tasks you can do with your eyes closed but for that reason they don’t challenge you and can become a chore.
- Tasks you DISLIKE and are LESS SKILLED at – these tasks are often an area for procrastination and can stay on your to-do list for a while. If you do manage to action them, they probably take longer than necessary to finish.
Your eyes have been opened!
Now you know what you spend your time doing so well done for taking the time out to reflect!
If you’ve found that you have a lot of tasks that come under heading 4, the tasks you DISLIKE and are LESS SKILLED at, then now could be the perfect time to consider whether outsourcing some or all of these tasks to a Virtual Assistant could be beneficial.
What to do next
I’ve recently carried out the above process with a new client and they were really amazed at how much time they were spending on functional tasks and not valuable tasks. Together, we have started to create some new processes and procedures for their business and they have outsourced their newsletters and social media to me. What they now have is that precious commodity of time to work on growing their business – resetting the balance and focusing more on their valuable tasks!
My fellow VA, Holly Nixon from Ta-Dah!, has created a handy little form which she has kindly allowed me to reproduce. It really helps clients to discover what they should and could be outsourcing.
If you would like a copy to help you to identify what to outsource or would like to discuss how I can work with you in your business, then just call me on 07958050856 or drop me an email to jacqueline@jleake-va-services.com. I’d love to hear from you and get you back on track, spending more worthwhile time on those all-important valuable tasks.
