Why Time Management Is So Important To Virtual Assistants

Time is a finite resource and one that a lot of professionals and enterprises don’t handle particularly well. This is one of the areas in which the role of virtual assistants could prove pivotal in making the situation better. 

So, in this post, we’ll discuss how time management can make the lives of virtual assistants easier, as well as a way in which they can use time management to do a better job. Let’s just dive right into it!

1. Setting reasonable deadlines

One of the vital virtual assistant services is managing your schedule, which is why it’s so important that they understand how to set reasonable deadlines. 

You see, according to Parkinson’s law of deadlines, the work expands to fill the allotted time we set aside for its completion. This means that if you give people (even yourself) too much time, nothing will ever get done. 

At the same time, if you give yourself too little time, you won’t be able to meet the deadlines intended. 

This is why it’s so important that your virtual assistants develop a feeling regarding which task takes how much time. This sounds simple enough, but you would be surprised at just how hard it is to figure out the time it takes to complete a task that you’ve never done before. 

Even if you have done it, unless you’ve measured time, chances are that you’re still semi-oblivious about the exact timeline. 

With the help of a time management platform or even a regular time-management process, you’ll pay more attention to these things. This means that you’ll be more analytical and develop a better understanding of underlying processes. You won’t just have it all on paper; you’ll develop a better passive understanding of what’s going on. 

2. Setting realistic goals and avoiding burnout

Understanding time management is incredibly important in order to ensure that your goals are realistic. 

One of the biggest mistakes that employers make is measuring the performance during one hour and assuming that a daily performance should be that times eight. This is a completely false assumption.

First of all, people behave differently when they know that they’re being observed and that their performance is being measured. They try harder. They try harder even though they know that this will come back to haunt them (since this will now be a standard that’s expected of them and that they can’t maintain for too long).

There’s a reason why we have an eight-hour workday, even in capitalism. The truth is that a lot of employers did a lot of surveys and figured out that, past this eight-hour mark, they’re actually losing money. Employees are no longer paying as much attention, which means that they make more mistakes and get injured more often. 

Moreover, you’re not as productive during the first hour as you’re during the eight. So, by managing time better and understanding it, you’ll be able to set more realistic goals. Realistic goals will keep you on track and avoid disappointing anyone and it will help deal with the majority of time-management bottlenecks. 

3. Work-life balance

Virtual assistants are remote workers, and because of this, they’re often struggling to maintain a good work-life balance. Sure, they often have to be available during business hours, but they’re not necessarily in the same time zone, which means that being available can seriously offset their day-night cycle.

Sure, some people are early risers while others are night owls; however, humans are diurnal creatures. Regardless of how productive you are in the evening and how late you like staying, it’s always better for your health, stamina, and mental endurance to get a full night’s sleep. This will sometimes be incredibly difficult.

Now, to get back to the point of work hours. While it’s true that you usually have to be present during work hours (as a virtual assistant), chances are that your work will not end at 5 p.m. You see, a lot of employers and clients keep in touch during off hours.

Sure, in Australia, it’s not completely justified for employees to ignore calls from their employers after hours, but this is still not a common thing or a common practice. A lot of employees will still return their calls out of fear of retaliation (even if not legal or practical, it’s still possible). 

Better time management will make it easier for employers and employees to make an arrangement that helps everyone maintain a better work-life balance and establish clear boundaries.

4. More effective communication

A clear schedule eliminates a lot of unnecessary communication. If you can see one’s schedule and track their progress via a project management platform, you don’t have to bother them while they’re working just so that you can ask them where they’re at. 

Second, you need to understand a thing or two about the meeting dynamics. What does this mean? Well, in the past, office workers used to lose an average of 31 hours per month on unnecessary meetings. This is a massive waste of time, especially when this time can be used better. Most importantly, the majority of these meetings could be resolved through an email or a 5-minute Zoom meeting.

The next thing worth keeping in mind is the fact that keeping track of what everyone’s doing allows you to update the schedule so that everyone remains on track. Sometimes, it’s not even the fact that someone’s late with their task. It’s about the fact that they didn’t let anyone know that they’d be late while there was still time for things to be fixed. 

Better time management helps virtual assistants organize and run more efficient meetings, keep everyone up to date, and update schedules.

Wrap up

At the end of the day, it all comes down to making better schedules, finding a better work-life balance, and being more effective no matter what you do. The key thing to keep in mind, however, is that it takes two components. The first one is the right time management platform (you can’t do this manually, to begin with). The second one is the right professional on your side.