Personal Outsourcing – 3 Quick Tips to Make YOU More Productive!

Location: Company HQ – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins

Personal Outsourcing isn’t anything new. However, the best selling book, the 4-Hour Work-week certainly helped push it into the limelight in more recent years. Savvy entrepreneurs from all around the world now ‘know’ what outsourcing is all about and more and more are getting turned onto it with every passing month.

Whether you run a brick and mortar business, or want to get involved with online business outsourcing, there are many different things you can outsource on a day-to-day basis, but, as most of you will know, I like to keep this simple, effective and to the point.

In today’s video I give you three quick tips on how to engage in personal outsourcing to create a more streamlined approach to three major time-suckers for every business owner out there, namely:

Calendar Management
Social Media & Networking
Email

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that even just a little less time spent on these activities every day would lead to a more productive and enjoyable lifestyle.

So, jump on the personal outsourcing bandwagon and give these three tips a try. I’m pretty sure you’ll not regret it. And, when you’re done checking out the video, comment below, leaving your own tales and tips for anyone else to pick up!

Comments

Mike Stankavich says:

August 19, 2010 at 5:06 am Mike Stankavich(Quote)

Hey Chris, I’m definitely hoping that the VA I plan to hire through Virtual Staff Finders can handle those three things for me. Two other things immediately come to mind.

First, I often sell things on on eBay and Craigslist, although that may be more difficult after I move to the Philippines. I just poured a huge amount of time into selling approximately 30 items on Craigslist as a part of my moving sale. I would have loved to have a VA to figure out which picture to use, research appropriate pricing, place the ads, and handle the initial responses from potential buyers.

Second, there’s always travel arrangements. I spend a lot of time searching around on the web for good deals on flights and hotels. I’d love to say “I’d like to go to LA from the 12th through the 18th. Please find me the three best options for flights and hotels.” That would typically save me 2-4 hours. I often end up doing travel planning for other family members because I’m good at it. It would be so nice to offload that effort.

Regarding social media, does your PA also moderate your blog comments? I’ve chatted with some well known bloggers who would really love to offload comment moderation.

- Chris C. Ducker says:
  
  August 19, 2010 at 6:52 pm Chris C. Ducker(Quote)
  
  Hi Mike
  
  The CL things sounds like a real doddle for a good quality VA. Good job on selling 30 pieces, wow.
  
  Travel arrangements are part of the diet for VA’s. However, dont expect a web developer type of VA or a graphic designer VA to be excellent at this type of task. This is something that you more hardcore ‘admin’ general-type of VA can do with ease.
  
  Comment moderation is something that, at this moment in time, I am doing myself. But – as the blog continues to grow I have noticed a serge in spam, and a lot of pingbacks, which are fine – but, they do need to be sorted through. So, when the time comes, I will certainly hand them over – but, at the moment, I’m the ‘king of that castle’…!!!!
  
  Looking forward to chatting to you via the Virtual Staff Finder link-up. Thank you for using us, in advance, for finding your VA.
  
  Regards,
  Chris
  
Ben says:

August 19, 2010 at 5:26 am Ben(Quote)

Great tips Chris. I think even if you’re working full time that if you can outsource part of your daily tasks, even if that’s dealing with say your finances and bills, you can drastically improve your results.

Personally for me at the moment, I outsource the editing of all of my web content. All blog posts, articles, and ebooks are outsourced to a good friend of mine who checks every thing and schedules it for me. This allows me to spend more time playing to my strengths and also free a heck of a lot of time up.

In the future I want to look at oursourcing things like my finances and bill paying just cos that’s a real pain for me.

- Chris C. Ducker says:
  
  August 19, 2010 at 12:50 pm Chris C. Ducker(Quote)
  
  That’s the deal, Ben.
  
  Getting rid of the tasks that do pain you. That you feel you shouldnt do, or that you DONT WANT to do. If you follow these simple steps in the first place your life becomes a hell of a lot easier.
  
  The big one is EMAIL – and its also the one that most people, especially entrepreneurs, have the hardest time letting go.
  
  Thanks for the comment, bud.
  
  Chris
  
- Mark Kelly says:
  
  August 25, 2010 at 10:10 am Mark Kelly(Quote)
  
  Interesting goals of outsourcing handling of your finances but be sure to run a background check on the individual you choose and conduct regular audits of their activities. Trust but verify!
  
  - Chris C. Ducker says:
    
    August 25, 2010 at 1:13 pm Chris C. Ducker(Quote)
    
    Nice tips, Mark.
    
    Thanks for dropping by – much appreciated.
    
    Chris
    
Abigail Wilson says:

August 19, 2010 at 7:04 pm Abigail Wilson(Quote)

Hi Chris,

I am now thinking on hiring my own VA after I stumbled across your new service website virtualstafffinder.com.

Talk to you soon Chris.

Thanks for inspiring me.
Abigail

- Chris C. Ducker says:
  
  August 19, 2010 at 7:13 pm Chris C. Ducker(Quote)
  
  Hi Abi
  
  Great! We’d be happy to welcome you on board to the service…!!!
  
  Looking forward to that consultation call soon, then.
  
  Thanks for the comment, here, too – always appreciated.
  
  Chris
  
Mars Dorian says:

August 21, 2010 at 2:26 am Mars Dorian(Quote)

That’s awesome Chris, damn, I thought you were tweeting with me

My workload is still feasible – I do everything by myself.

Tip: You never get rid DM Spam if you follow only specific people

- Chris C. Ducker says:
  
  August 21, 2010 at 4:39 am Chris C. Ducker(Quote)
  
  Hi Mars
  
  All my personal tweets are ‘mine’ obviously, buddy – its all me. But the ‘check this out’, ‘new post’ and ‘dont forget to’ stuff is my PA, yes.
  
  Thanks for the comment, buddy – youre first in a while.
  
  Have a great weekend,
  Chris
  
Matthew Needham says:

August 21, 2010 at 6:15 am Matthew Needham(Quote)

Great tips Chris. Just to let you know, this is the real Matthew Needham replying to you!!!

Some of my social media is managed by my VA, but I mainly use them for my accounting admin.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the new Virtual Staffinder comes up with.

Ashlyn says:

January 10, 2011 at 8:09 am Ashlyn(Quote)

You got it right, Chris!

I do personal outsourcing to my VA who manages my Twitter, Facebook, e-mails, bookings, and more. She usually arranges the things that I need to give my attention first, like meetings, clients to contact, updates and stuff. Doing some personal outsourcing helps me a lot to fulfill my dreams for myself and my business needs.