Author: Laurie Vrvilo

Laurie Vrvilo: Questions to Ask When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Hiring a virtual assistant can be a great way for busy professionals to outsource some of their daily tasks and free themselves up to focus on high-value activities each day. Ensuring you find a virtual assistant that you can work well and efficiently with will help make sure that you are both getting the most out of your partnership.

If this is your first time exploring the idea of bringing on a virtual assistant, here are three of the most important questions to ask a potential candidate.

How do you prefer to communicate? 

Understanding your virtual assistant’s communication preferences is really important for determining how well you’ll be able to work with them. Do they prefer emails over phone calls? Are they comfortable answering questions and providing information over text messages? What about video calls? You and your virtual assistant should be able to communicate openly and within a medium that you are both comfortable with.

What timezone do you live in?

You’ll want to have a good sense of the times your new virtual assistant is available for work. If your virtual assistant lives in a different time zone than you, it’s important to establish what hours he or she is available. Keep in mind that different time zones shouldn’t be a deal-breaker;  many professionals actually enjoy working with virtual assistants in different time zones, because tasks can be completely after business hours and delivered before the start of the next day. 

What could potentially hinder your ability to do your best work?

This is an important question because it allows your virtual assistant to articulate, in their own words, how you both can work best together. Maybe they prefer to have a sense of future tasks that are coming up so that they can better prioritize their day, week, or month. Perhaps they prefer feedback on their deliverables so that they can adjust and learn as they go. Asking this open ended question up front is one of the best ways to ensure that you and your virtual assistant are set up for success. 

Laurie Vrvilo: 3 Time Saving Hacks to Boost your Productivity

Who couldn’t use more hours in the day? The truth is, most people can add more time to their days by being more productive with the time they already have. By being more deliberate in how you spend your time you can increase your productivity and have more time for additional tasks and leisure activities. 

Here are a few time saving hacks that can help you get started!

Get your most important tasks out of the way first

It’s important to take advantage of your most productive and efficient time of the day – which, for most people, is shortly after they wake up. By working on your day’s most important (and perhaps daunting) tasks during this time, you’re not only more likely to complete that task but you’ll often complete it much more quickly than if you were to try to attempt it later on in the day once fatigue sets in. 

Spend a month logging your time

If you’re in a profession that requires billable hours, you may already be familiar with the process of logging time. However, implementing this tactic for both professional and personal activities can be really eye-opening. It shows you exactly how you’re spending your time, and allows you to identify areas where there’s waste. Most people who try this exercise are amazed at how much time lower-value tasks like checking social media, surfing the web, and watching tv can add up to throughout the day. 

Establish a Task Schedule and Use a Timer

After you’ve logged your time for a month, use that information to establish a daily schedule for things you need to get done. Since you’ve been logging time, you should have a better sense of how long your daily tasks take, and thus should be able to establish a pretty accurate schedule. Once your schedule is established, use a timer to keep yourself on track and accountable. Also, be sure to schedule in time for yourself, your relationships, and your hobbies.

3 Work From Home Time Management Tips from a Virtual Assistant

With many people having to make the transition to working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, it can be difficult for those not used to working remotely to maintain the same levels of productivity and motivation during the workday. 

While everyone’s working style and preferences are different, here are a few tips and tricks that can help make managing your time and staying motivated easier during this transition.

Lists, lists, lists!

Many office workers use lists to help them plan out their day and set priorities. The same should go for people working from home. Working out of your home can present its own set of unique distractions that might make you lose focus and allow both work and personal tasks to fall through the cracks. Set weekly and daily lists for all of the tasks you’d like to accomplish, and revisit those lists whenever you find yourself unmotivated or distracted by something at work or home. 

Have a dedicated space

Setting up a dedicated workspace in your home is very important to cutting out distractions and keeping yourself focused at work. You don’t need a dedicated room or home office – a corner with a clean and organized workspace works just as well. You’re really just looking for a place to “go to work” while at your home. This trick also sets a mental and physical distinction between work and home that many remote workers find helpful. 

Have “on” and “off” hours

Many people new to working from home can have trouble separating their work and personal lives. It’s important to distinguish between “work” hours and “home” hours. Be sure to avoid household distractions as much as possible while during work hours, and avoid work tasks during your designated “home” hours. This will help to ensure that you maintain balance in your work and personal life, while also keeping you focused and motivated on the tasks at hand. 

3 Important Qualities to Look for in a Virtual Assistant

Whether you’re looking to outsource some of your daily tasks, get support for your sales activities, or just keep yourself more accountable, hiring a virtual assistant can be a great way to take your professional and personal life to the next level. 

If you’ve never worked with a virtual assistant before, it’s important to know what qualities to look for when making this large hiring decision. While there are many qualities and skill sets that make up a great virtual assistant, here are a few that I’ve found to be some of the most important. 

Attention to Detail

Being able to produce accurate work in a timely manner is arguably one of the most important qualities to look for in your next virtual assistant. If you find yourself constantly having to correct errors or redo tasks assigned to your assistant, there’s not much value in having one in the first place. 

A great way to evaluate this before you hire is to look at the emails and written correspondence you receive from potential virtual assistants – do they email and communicate in a way that you would want yourself or your company represented?

Reliability and Responsiveness

Another crucial quality to look for in a potential virtual assistant is his or hers reliability. Afterall, you’re trusting this individual with a huge part of your business processes – you’ll want to ensure that you can rely on both the quality and timeliness of their work. 

Setting expectations for your new virtual assistant also helps a great deal here. Setting clear and reasonable deadlines, as well as dictating how and when you would like to be updated on the status of a project or task is important for building a solid working relationship with your virtual assistant. 

A Problem Solver

Your new virtual assistant’s ability to consistently take on and lead varied tasks from start to finish will determine the overall value you get out of your partnership. Keep in mind that virtual assistants aren’t always going to have all the answers, but you should try to find someone who has a track record of being a resourceful problem solver. 

Oftentimes you can get a sense if someone has this quality from their resume and past projects. Does he or she have a history of progressively receiving increased responsibilities and more complex projects over time? If so, chances are they’re a demonstrated problem solver capable of working autonomously.