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My Assistant Will Take Care of It & Now Yours Can Too

November 27, 2009 14

If you’re reading this post you’re probably a professional in marketing, public relations, social media or have a sales role of some kind. Or maybe you’re an entrepreneur, a small business owner or a combination of the listed occupations. No matter what your background, you’re extremely busy running from appointment to appointment and back to back conference calls. You haven’t booked your flight for your business trip next week or even looked up a hotel and still need to pick up a birthday present for a party that night. I’ve got great news for you! You’re now one step closer creating a more productive and stress free life with your very own Personal Assistant. Who wouldn’t love even an extra hour a day to read, meditate, work out, cook, enjoy time with friends and family etc.?

You may think Personal Assistants are just for the rich and famous and cost a fortune. You may also be an excellent multitasker and see no need for a Personal Assistant. BlackBerrys and laptops have definitely improved our efficiency, but even the most organized business professional can appreciate a helping hand. I’m grateful for my helping hand and Personal Assistant, AskSunday. I began using the AskSunday 24/7 Assistance almost 2 years ago and can confidently say they’ve significantly increased my productivity by helping me accomplish tasks that are important and urgent but don’t require my specialized skill or knowledge.

AskSunday is a service that provides Virtual Personal Assistants. They offer various packages for their 24/7 Assistance that begin as low as $37/month. They accept requests via email, phone, and even Twitter! They also offer Dedicated Assistants that provide help at a higher level. I’d like to share personal examples of how AskSunday has helped me optimize my valuable time.

1. Reservations- Reservations may seem simple but when I need a specific type of environment for a business meeting that has tables and chairs set up a certain way, a specific location in the room, various food preferences, want to prepay the bill and don’t have a restaurant in mind because the meeting is in a location I’m not familiar with, I AskSunday and they deliver. They do the research and provide me with various options.They also provide alternatives and let me know if there may conflicts with my request. I get back to them with my choice and they confirm the reservation by telling me who they spoke with in case anything comes up.

2. Price Comparisons- There are many times when I want to buy a product and know I can easily spend 20-30 minutes price comparing online but don’t because I’m busy working on a more important task. Same goes with booking travel. With AskSunday I can find the most cost effective solutions for purchases and travel without investing any extra time. They look things up, send me the options then go through with the actual purchasing, always making sure to send me a confirmation.

3. Booking Appointments and Cancellations- There are many appointments we put off booking because it’s on the bottom of our to-do list. AskSunday will book health appointments, spa treatments and other personal appointments. Many often put off cancellations more than booking because we already went through the hassle of setting it up. We know it may take a while to get through and confirm the cancellation. AskSunday has also helped me cancel other things that are necessary but not priorities. I somehow get on mailing lists for many magazines and catalogs that I don’t wish to receive. They help me help the environment by canceling these extraneous subscriptions.

4. Data Entry- Have a stack of business cards that need to be entered in your address book? Evernote your business cards and AskSunday will enter them for you. Have other data that needs to be organized in an excel spreadsheet? No problem! AskSunday does this in your sleep!

These are just a few of many requests AskSunday has assisted me with. Additional resources I have learned from are two books that have tremendously enhanced my knowledge on first prioritizing my tasks- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and then outsourcing certain tasks and knowing how to determine which items to delegate – The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Now that you’ve read all about the possibility of having a Personal Assistant and how they have immensely increased my productivity I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that I’m giving away an entire month of AskSunday’s 24/7 Assistance’s Gold Plan! I’m very grateful to now have an opportunity to share my positive experience with one of you.

Here’s How you will win a complimentary month of AskSunday’s 24/7 Assistant service:
First you Must be a fan of Marketing Melodie’s Facebook Page to qualify. Once you’re a fan you can enter 3 ways. If you participate in all 3, you will be entered 3 different times.
1. Leave a comment my Facebook “Discussion” telling me how AskSunday will make your life more productive.
2. Retweet this blog post with the Tweet button on the top left of this post and make sure to include my Twitter name @MyMelodie in the tweet.
3. Leave a comment on this blog post with insight on what you personally do to increase productivity.

I will choose 1 lucky winner on Sunday December 13th, 2009. I’m choosing this date because it’s my birthday so there’s no better day to give away something very valuable to me! I wish everyone the best and success to increased productivity!

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14 comments Leave a comment

  1. To personally increase my productivity, I find that I need to “unplug” completely from the internet for certain periods of time. No Twitter, Facebook, blogging, email, etc. This allows me to spend some quality time “heads-down” on projects without being tempted to check in on what is happening in cyberspace!

    I also recently started using a Franklin Planner again. I had used it several years ago when I worked at HP to keep track of tasks, projects, and priorities. Now that I am juggling many different areas (work, personal, family, etc), I am finding the planner is really helping me keep my priorities straight.

    Thanks for asking, Melodie! This is a fun contest. 🙂

  2. I have to start my day with a plan… and not have too many to do’s on my list or else I’ll get completely overwhelmed.

    To that end – (reading Becky’s comment above) I too went back to a paper based Franklin Covey planner. Funny how I love technology yet I can’t beat paper for keeping me in line.

  3. Should you be receiving instead of giving on your birthday?!?! I tried one of these services before but was disappointed. Maybe you just need to go with the best and it seems like AskSunday is one of the more well known ones. Also I think that to maximize your benefit from a service like this you need to have done some pre-planning and preparation. Would be interested in trying it again.

  4. Having someone to delegate to sometimes improves the management of non-delegated tasks too, because you have to actively manage the To-Do list, which can be ignored or procrastinated on. Some of us are very, very good procrastinators. 😉

  5. I’ve been using Toggl for 4 months now. I have categorized highest priority items, clients, prospecting and project work. I keep track of every minute of every day.

    It helps keep me disciplined when I find myself shopping online at Banana Republic.

    Happy Birthday Friend.
    Mel

  6. Thanks to everyone who entered so far! I love learning from you guys and appreciate your insight.

    @Becky- I may just need to set aside time to “unplug” as you said. Any recommendations to someone who is connected at all times? Do you set aside a specific amount of time, say 1-2 hours each day? or does it vary depending on what projects you’re working on, how much time the projects may take etc?

    @Melani- Thanks so much for sharing about Toggl. I’m checking it out now and it seems to be a great way to stay on task!

  7. I create very specific to do lists with very defined actionable steps that need to be done in order to be checked off on the list. it helps me focus on the immediate tasks.

  8. Thank you so much for choosing me as your winner! And a very Happy Birthday to you. 🙂

    The amount of time I unplug depends on the project. When I have a big deliverable, it can be from 1-3 hours in one chunk. Otherwise, I try to unplug at least an hour during the workday to focus.

  9. @Becky- CONGRATS on winning the AskSunday contest. I look forward to hearing your feedback and trust you will make good use of your membership.

    @Everyone- THANK YOU for reading my post, joining me on Facebook and participating in the contest! I really appreciate your interest and have some good feedback on how to make my own life more efficient. Please check back soon for more relevant contests, I’m constantly brainstorming new ideas on how to best customize my promotions to fit my audience. Any feedback and ideas are always appreciated!

  10. After reading 4-Hour Workweek, I immediately added an autoresponder to my email so it would have me check emails in “batches” and not constantly be combing through my inbox. I also asked around and decided on odesk.com for building my team of virtual assistants. The autoresponder has been a great way to let people know that I’m only checking email twice a day and it’s a way for me to put in a plug for my video tutorial blog (i.e. “…Thanks for your email. If you’re writing because you have a question about video production, please check out my blog betterinternetvideo.com…”

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