Hiring an assistant has always been a way to improve your productivity. Why? Well, when you get help, the amount of work getting done grows exponentially.
Just think about carrying a couch. When you get another set of hands, it’s not a difference between whether you’ll move it in five or ten minutes. It’s a difference of whether you can move it, to start with.
The same difference can be felt when you start hiring a virtual assistant (a remotely-employed assistant). With that in mind and without further ado, here’s how virtual assistants impact productivity in the workplace and why you should hire one.
Better task organization
A lot of time, your organization comes down to your schedule. Sometimes, just having tasks stacked in proper order can make you far more productive.
Prioritization of tasks is also a huge issue, and having someone who’s, technically speaking, an outsider but deeply familiar with your tasks might just be the right person to handle this.
You’re probably plagued by various biases, perhaps even prone to procrastination. This is why you’ll have a difficult task assigning task priorities based on objective metrics. For instance, you might postpone long or difficult tasks indefinitely while favoring short, simple tasks. While this might not make a difference in the short term, it’s a poor business practice that will usually backfire.
Once again, since you’re too deeply involved in the process, you might lose track of days. To you, each day is a standalone, but you need someone to make sure that you don’t have too many consecutive days where you’re overworked. This way, a virtual assistant can shield you from burnout without you even figuring this out.
Most importantly, task organization doesn’t take long, but it takes a disproportional amount of energy. Now, you’ll have one less task on your plate and one less thing to think about.
Reducing multitasking
Whenever you’re multitasking, it’s never two major, main tasks. Usually, it’s one of those tasks and a bunch of smaller, filler tasks that you’re spread across.
In other words, it’s usually the task that you were supposed to be doing from the start and a task that you should have delegated to someone else. Well, if you hire a virtual assistant, you can resolve this issue quite easily and go back to doing one task at a time.
So, why is multitasking even discussed as if it were a bad thing? After all, whenever someone says that they’re good at multitasking, this is seen as a major positive trait. In fact, there are a lot of employers who prefer employees who can multitask.
The problem is that, no, multitasking is never a good thing – it’s a necessary evil at best. Instead of doing two things simultaneously (with 50% efficiency at each), your productivity plummets drastically. In fact, you would probably be done quicker if you were to do one thing first and then the next one. Still, this is not always an option for someone on a tight schedule (as we mentioned in the first section).
Not to mention that constantly multitasking is bad for your mental health and will facilitate your burnout.
Superior work-life balance
Have you ever gone to the gym and set a personal record? It feels amazing, but you probably had to take a few days of rest afterward, probably taking a few easier days before in preparation.
Just think about prizefighters and the way they prepare. They have this big fight, and they spend months preparing. In weeks coming up to a fight they take it easy, possibly even skip sparring entirely.
The problem is that this common-sense strategy doesn’t apply to the rest of the business world. Some employers, and even some self-employed people or new business owners, feel like if you’re not giving your 100% every day, you’re not doing a very good job.
Sure, you can give your 100% a few days in a row, but sooner or later, you’ll need to catch a breath. Being constantly overworked will also affect the way you see your work and the way you’re satisfied with your current job posting.
The thing is that you need a good work-life balance if you’re to stay in any workplace or industry for too long. You need more breaks, you need some personal time, and you need to have a life outside of work.
Being a workaholic and perfectionist is great, but if you want to really excel at your job, you need to have an exhaust vent and a long-term coping plan all figured out.
Fewer distractions
Another key thing to understand is that these tasks aren’t pre-scheduled. This means that if you’re not careful and do not have a buffer like a virtual assistant, it’s quite likely that you’ll just find yourself in a scenario where you’re always distracted by something.
Just imagine a scenario where you’re in the middle of writing an important piece of content when a potential customer sends an email that needs to be promptly responded to.
It’s not just about the fact that you’re making a break. When handling creative tasks, you’re in a specific mindset, and taking a break from this means that you’ll have a hard time refocusing.
Moreover, when someone wants to speak to you, it’s more efficient if they go through your virtual assistant. This way, they can get them an appointment (at a moment in time that suits you the most) and just notify you about this affair. While you may have to attend the meeting, you don’t have to partake in its scheduling.
Generally speaking, this is what virtual assistants do best – help you focus on a single thing at a time with someone else handling the rest.
Remote assistants do everything that they conventional parts can; the only difference is that they’re not on the premises. In a lot of ways, this is simpler and more convenient for everyone. Just remember, you definitely need some help, so why not hire it remotely and enjoy.