Are you an organised business owner?
As a self-confessed control freak, I just love planning & organisation, so chose a career which uses this strength & these skills. Firstly, as an employed Executive Assistant & then, since 2010, as a freelance Virtual Assistant.
I enjoy bringing order to my clients’ lives & seeing them achieve so much more as a result. Many entrepreneurs are so focused on the big picture, their goals or new enterprise that they don’t find time to keep organised, can even lack key organisational skills. The more savvy business owners realise the benefits of outsourcing the detail in order to better focus on the important work they have to do. Don’t we all know of successful people who seem to live and work in a permanent state of chaos?
Disorganisation & chaos are not sustainable long-term. Something will give. Perhaps mistakes will be made & sales may suffer, or stress & overwhelm will affect the personal life or even the health of a busy entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs can achieve more with the support of a Virtual Assistant
Big companies have teams of people to complete the myriad of necessary tasks. There’s a good reason top CEOs have their own PA or secretary! However, new business owners, entrepreneurs, sole traders & solopreneurs often don’t have this luxury & try to do everything themselves.
But they can…
Hiring a Virtual PA for a few hours each week helps business owners to be more productive.
Contact me for further information or download my free guide to the
‘150 Tasks You can Delegate to a Virtual Support Professional’
Treat Yourself as an Important Client
If you want to stay organised in your business, then you need to allocate time to work on your admin. I understand that when you’re busy, paperwork can be the first thing to slip, but admin is essential to the effective operation of any business. Therefore, treat yourself like an important client. Book time in your schedule for admin & keep to the commitment, just like you would if meeting one of your best clients. Try it & let me know if this tip works…
I have 10 tips to help us be more organised in our work:
1.) FILING
Let’s start with paperwork as you’ve likely not achieved a paperless office yet? If you have, please let me know how you did this!
Even I don’t like filing, but there’s nothing worse than a large pile of messy paperwork, or anything so satisfying as clearing it all away! You need to create a filing system that works for you & your business and use it daily. You may need 2 – 3 filing trays (e.g. In, Out, Action), but whenever possible, do try to put things away immediately by using the OHIO principle – Only Handle it Once.
Or, when your concentration lapses, or you need a stretch, get-up & spend a few minutes to file a few bits. We all now know that regular breaks, or a change in task or focus helps us maintain optimum concentration & productivity 
If you do have an ‘Action’ filing tray on your desk, try to empty it daily, but not necessarily at the end of the day when you’ve had enough & desperately want to leave the office. I find clearing the tray first thing whilst waiting for my computer to warm up is a great positive start to the day. Some VAs undertake work onsite and will even go to a clients’ home office to assist with filing etc – you’d just need to find someone local.
2.) EMAILS
Get into the habit of checking your emails just two or three times per day. Reply to messages, close down the inbox & turn off the alerts. Quite often a response will immediately ping back, but if it’s not urgent, don’t be tempted to answer straight away or you’ll never escape the inbox rabbit hole.
Use the Archive feature or create folders, then use rules & filters to file emails & prevent certain messges from ever landing in your inbox. Check emails on your smart phone whilst out & about or sat waiting for a meeting. Respond to those which require a quick reply, delete the junk & leave unread those messages which require more time to be worked on later, or move into an appropriate ‘Action’ folder.
Check out my blog for further information on email management.
Alternatively outsource & speak to a VA about regularly managing your emails for a few hours per week.
3.) CONTACTS
Keep your contacts up-to-date. Use the short-cut that most email applications have, to quickly add an email address or phone number from a received message or call, straight into your contact list. It’s also useful to include a note or two of essential information about the contact which may help when you need to recall who they are. Ensure your contact list is synced across all your devices & backed-up to never be without these essential details.
Use an appropriate CRM to record contact information & log details from any communication with your clients & suppliers etc. Some apps link to your email account to save email conversations & attachments with a click. Even record contacts on a simple spreadsheet if that works for you, as this can likely be imported into a CRM at a later date.
Do you have a pile of business cards?
A VA will be able to quickly input the info from these & keep your contact list up-to-date.
4.) TASK LIST
There are many task list applications so find the one that works for you but stick to one method & if you use multiple devices, sync between them. Use the task facility connected to your email account & set a reminder alarm or pop-up alert or delegate to your assistant.
For urgent tasks, pop an appointment into your diary as you would for an important meeting to ensure you have the time blocked-out to complete the work. Take a look at my blog on using your calendar for time-blocking.
Use one of the many online applications for task or project management & share with/delegate to your assistant or team. Set-up a Trello Board & move cards form one list to another as the task progresses to completion, or allocate to others. Refer to this daily to keep on top of ongoing work.
A competent VA will quickly be able to transfer your to-do list to an app, or even work through and complete some of the tasks for you!
5.) PLANNING
As well as checking back through my task list to ensure all essential work has been done, every day I look at future appointments in my (& my clients’) diary & any upcoming tasks. Being aware of deadlines enables me to plan & prepare for them, & occasionally complete the majority of the work beforehand.
We all have to handle unexpected crisis situations or sudden unavoidable demands upon our time, so where possible, never leave work to be done at the last minute.
Add online documents to the calendar icon so you can find them during meetings. If you prefer hard copies, then print & prepare essential papers well before an important meeting & then file by the date required in a numbered concertina file. Check the contents of this daily. Block adequate travel time & breaks into your diary too so you’re not back-to-back with meetings without time inbetween.
A VA can help you manage your diary & also setup an online filing system to ensure you can always find the documents you need.
6.) BACKUP
Try to have someone to help when you’re up against a hard deadline. If you work for a large company, there’s usually someone to call back in the office, but this isn’t an option if you work alone. Or is it?
Make contact with your local Virtual Assistant & have a consultation meeting which will most likely be free. Even if you don’t have regular work to delegate, the VA will learn a little about you & your business and will often be able to quickly help you out of a tight spot.
I have a consultant client who often phones for assistance with a document, funding bid or some research that he just hasn’t had the opportunity to do & a little of my time is well worth paying for. Even if you’re out & about, running late, in a traffic jam or the trains have been cancelled, you can maintain professionalism by having your VA contact your clients to apologise or reschedule etc.
7.) PHONE
Why spend time composing an email when a brief conversation will achieve a result much more quickly?
If you’ve just received an email, the chances are the other person is available at that time, so call them. If you do need to leave a voicemail message, then do follow this with a quick email confirming explaining-so.
It’s always a pleasant surprise when someone makes the effort to call me & if a diary management query, often resolved in less time then emailing backwards & forwards.
8.) NOTEBOOK & PEN
People often think I have an amazing memory, but it’s not true! I forget things like anyone so I always write everything down.
I have a notebook that goes everywhere with me & as soon as the phone rings I’m ready with pen and paper. Date at the top, details of the task jotted down. The work is quite often transferred online by one of the methods in point 3 above, but it’s useful to go back through the hand-written notes & check that everything required has been done.
This was invaluable when I worked as a receptionist as every call was jotted down and many times I needed to go back through & quickly retrieve information or a phone number.
If you’re techy, then use an online note app & sync across your devices, or try out Remarkable, a tablet that has the feel of a paper notebook. Use the stylus to handwrite notes, or add notes to documents, including PDFs, & the system will convert your scribbles to text & sync the notes across all your devices.
9.) MULTI-TASKING
Don’t!
Honestly, it’s just not productive to bounce from one thing to another. The Pomodoro Technique recommends concentrating for 20 minutes maximum, so try not to spend much more than 30 minutes focusing on one particular job before taking a brief break & moving on to another task. Check out the desktop Tomato timer to alert you when time is up!
Chunk down your day, time-block your calendar & work with your body by tackling challenging or creative tasks according to when you’re feeling most productive or artistic. My blog on time-blocking provides more detail.
It’s your choice to answer the phone, or not, especially if it’s likely to be a distraction. Leave to voicemail & return the call later when you’re ready to give the caller your attention. Be really ruthless and set the ringtone and notifications to silent & disable pop-up alerts.
10.) BREAKS
Don’t work too long without a break or you will lose focus & concentration. Even if you don’t need to change tasks & are working on one lengthy job, have a break to recharge, stretch & move your body a little. Look away from the screen & stare into the distance to relax your head & eyes. Pop outside & take some deep breaths.
When you feel tempted to access social media, it’s time to stop work & take a break. Check what’s happening on your profiles – on your mobile device is best as you can then move your body too. Walk away from your desk & around the room for a few minutes. At least go sit somewhere else away from your computer.
If you’re feeling stressed, then take time for a little meditation using one of the many apps available, or create a playlist & listen to music, either quietly, or have a dance & get that body moving!