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If you expect someone else to do the work that you currently spend your valuable time doing (and you should have someone else do the work), then you need to be able to effectively communicate instructions of how to complete the work. This seemingly monumental task is actually not that complex at all...
I've been able to hire someone to not only be my assistant...I've actually hired someone to run my entire business so that I don't have to! I've been able to do this by analyzing the tasks that I was spending my time doing (each and every minute) and then creating detailed instructions of how to complete these tasks. How To Hire a Virtual Assistant
How to Easily Instruct Someone Else Do Your Work for You! Keep a Business Journal for Two Weeks
That’s right! You need to keep a journal! Start today: schedule a total of 1.5 hours each day (2 45 minute sessions) where you will concentrate solely on writing about what you’ve been working on that particular day. Start work at 9am, work on your morning tasks that you normally progress through, and jot a quick note on your notepad after each task you complete. You do not need to describe the whole activity (you’ll be doing that later in the day): you simply need to jot enough of a note down so you’ll remember that you worked on this particular task later in the day.
Set aside two blocks of time on your calendar: 1 at 1115am before your noon lunch and 1 at 415pm before you leave at 5pm. During these times you will be writing complete details of what you’ve been working on throughout the day, as you’ve briefly noted on your notebook paper through the work day. Please keep in mind that there is no way to be too overly detailed on these writings: you need to fully describe what it is that you’ve been doing all day! Examples of a few hypothetical tasks are noted below. Task Example:
Ron Doe requested to have a new product added to his website Ron emailed me yesterday evening (I opened the email around 10am this morning) asking to add a new product to his website. As he has done in the past with other products he’s wanted added to the site, he provide me with a word document (which he has typed) that contains the text content for the new product webpage. In addition, he provided 3 pictures of the product which will be used on the product.
I reviewed the email so I was sure that I understood what Ron wanted completed on his website. I then composed an email to the design team (a different team then has handled Ron’s site in the past) with full and complete details of the new product page that Ron wants added to the site: these details include the word document, 3 images provided by Ron (I specifically noted where and how to use these images on the new product page), the login information for Ron’s website so the design team could modify the site, a timeframe for when I want this task completed (by tomorrow morning at 8am), and also my cell phone number which the team could call if there are any problems (I want to ensure that this project doesn’t get delayed due to any problems…being in constant contact with the team ensures progress) |
Task Example:
Create new email account for Sarah at Sarah’s Services company Sarah has added a new employee to her company and would like to create an email account for this new team member. She emailed me asking me to call her about creating a new email account (I’m not sure why she didn’t simply tell me what email account she wanted created via email). I called her to discuss the email address and she decided to use
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To create the email address, I logged into our email hosting account and followed the process to create an email account (full instructions are available via the help feature of the hosting account). I then called Sarah and helped her setup the email account on her computer system: this included understanding which email program she was using (Microsoft Outlook), finding the information on our hosting provider that relates to Outlook, providing her with the needed information for the account (username, password, etc.), sending a test email to the account, having her reply with a test email back to my email account, and finally confirming that the email address was created successfully.
As you can see from these examples of a sample business journal, the details are very clear as to what the author was doing throughout the day: there were few generalizations in the journal, the entire process of what was done was described, and there were few questions left about each activity after the writing for that activity was completed. An easy way to know if you’re compiling this journal correctly is to think of it like this: when your wife/husband/girlfriend/grandma/mom/friend/stranger/etc asks you at the end of the day “How was work? What did you get done today?”, you should be able to print out this document and hand it to them without saying a word at all. They should then be able to read the document and have no questions at all regarding the tasks you did today.
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While this task may seem a bit over the top and time consuming, it is highly valuable and imperative that you complete it with dillegence and attention: if you fail to complete this part of the life changing process, then you will ultimately fail in your attempt to change your life.
Complete your daily business journal that summarizes all of your daily business tasks in full for 2 weeks consecutively: do not leave out any business related tasks at all! After compliing this journal with 2-weeks worth of records, you will be ready to analyze exactly what your job is, which will ultimately leave you ready to hand the torch off to someone else so that you don’t have to do any of these tasks anymore! Related Resources: (1) Task Journal Worksheet (coming soon)
Use this worksheet to keep track of all the tasks that you're working on each day. This worksheet will be a great aide in developing detailed instructions for the work that you're currently responsible for. You can then use these instructions to hand this work over to someone else so that you don't have to do it.
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