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I am a small business Conversation Consultant and public speaker that uses the power of the internet to leverage your success. Productivity in Context is a web magazine focused on Productivity and tools for organizing. Make this your headquarters for improving your life and work through increased mindfulness, education, and workflow practices.

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Please contact me via e-mail: stephen @ hdbizblog dot com

Stephen, thanks for the opportunity to write on your blog. I may not be an expert on personal productivity, but I’ve been around long enough to know this: no matter how unproductive you may feel at the moment, 10, 20, 30 years ago you would have been in much worse shape! If you’re not old enough to remember what conducting business was like in the past, or if you just want to stroll down memory lane, please check my post from last year, Unwinding the Clock of Innovation. What do you think? Were the old days a better, simpler time — or not so much?

…relics from the past …

1. The Telex machine. Used to transmit messages across wires, like a telegraph. We had one in our office. When it kicked in, it made the office sound like the old newspaper rooms you’d see in the movies.

2. Adding machines. When I joined the workforce, they looked like this, not like this. Not much computing power, and come to think of it not much styling, either.

Brad Shorr
wordsellinc.com

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5brlhp. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Virtual Assistants are a hot topic right now, and Mark Shead of Productivity 501 has some tips for those of you that may be thinking about taking that plunge:

5 Tips for Getting a Virtual Assistant

1. Expect to spend some money.

If you don’t have money set aside you’ll probably get frustrated when something takes longer than expected. I would suggest budgeting enough for 2 or 3 months 1/2 time as a trial if you have enough work to keep someone busy 20 hours per week. Consider your trail to be an investment in education for yourself.

2. Decide what you need.

You can get someone very inexpensively with minimal experience or someone with a lot of experience at a much higher price point. If you are expecting it to be a long term thing, you may be better off getting someone inexpensive and putting a lot into training them. If you just want someone for a project right now, you might want to hire someone with a lot of experience.

3. Be prepared for differences in culture and language.

If you are looking to take advantage of lower cost of living in India or China, be sure to consider the cultural and language differences. There is a big difference between Indian English and American English. Make sure you have a good understanding of these differences before you turn someone loose on answering email for you.

4. Virtual isn’t always better.

You may be better off hiring someone locally. There are a number of things that can be done virtually, but many of the big time savers come from having someone who can run a package to UPS, take your car to the shop, pickup office supplies for you, and sign for a package when you are gone.

5. Try multiple providers.

Trying multiple providers simultaneously can be a good way to make sure you are getting the best person for you needs. You can even assign them all the same (or similar) tasks to get an idea of whose skills best meet your needs. In general you will pay more for experience and for having someone in your timezone. However, there are some very skilled people in other parts of the world where the daily wage is much lower than in the US. If you can find someone who fits your needs and develop a long term relationship the cost of trying out a bunch of providers up front will be minimal compared to your savings over time.

Mark writes for Productivity501. For more information about virtual assistants, see The Ultimate Virtual Assistant Guide.

The big question: Have any of you tried a Virtual Assistant? What are your thoughts?

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/68agco. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

My friend Patricia Mayo, who writes the excellent blog ComHacker, has just published an e-book (the Crystal Edict E-book) on how to find, train, and get the most out of a Virtual Assistant. I’ll let her tell you a little about it:

Here’s a short list of a few things my virtual assistant is doing for me, just to give you an idea:

• Research on blog topics - I give him a little nudge in the right direction, maybe even with a few trusted sources, and I get what I want in about 24 hours. If I want pictures and links like a blog post and additional references, he takes care of that too (and like a pro!).This gives me time to just write. I don’t have to waste any time finding the information, and instead get to spend every second coming up with more great ideas, and turning the research provided into provocative eye and brain candy.
• Organizes my online files - As most marketer netizen types these days, I have an absolutely massive collection of ebooks, audio books, programs, PLR packs and articles. One of these days I’m going to compile all that information plus everything I have learned into a few ecourses - but I have to know what I have first!
• Handles almost all my email - I probably read more in a day than a professional editor does in a lifetime… or at least it would seem that way with all the newsletters I get every single day, all with great tips, free (or practically free) downloads, invites to conferences, or the typical “buy me” questionable could-be-spam stuff.

How does that sound? Pretty good, eh? If you would like to find out more about this amazing resource and how it can work for you all you have to do is get your hands on some crayons (yes, crayons) and then click the Crystal Edict E-book link and download your very own copy of Patricia’s free e-book.

Yes I said free! Why is it free? Well:

If I, quite possibly the most over-ambitious person in the world, can bring to you this e-book for absolutely free because I not only have the time available to do it, but also don’t need money so bad I have to nickel and dime you to death - anyone can conquer their overwhelming pile.

~ Patricia Mayo

Patricia Mayo’s Crystal Edict click to read more and get your download.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/6s7b9d. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5zkcyz. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen