Time is money.
That’s why at the executive level—or any level, really—it’s your time that will determine how much progress you make.
Executives spend about 43% of their time on their agendas, and according to the Harvard Business Review, the more time they spend purely on their agendas, the better they feel about their time management.
But if you have a lot of responsibilities, it can be hard to control your own time.
That’s why people turn to a virtual assistant for their calendar management services. Rather than making your calendar the bane of your existence, this gives you complete control over your time. And better yet, you won’t have to be the one micromanaging every last detail of your calendar.
Here’s how it works.
How Better Time Management Makes You More Productive
Time may be money, but it’s also finite.
There are only 24 hours in a day—and only so many hours in a workday. The productivity you squeeze out of those hours comes down to how you manage your time and your energy.
An optimized calendar can help you improve both.
But what are the specific benefits that you get when you work with a virtual assistant who helps manage your calendar?
Fewer Distractions
According to TeamStage statistics, distractions can make you twice as prone to making errors.
A virtual assistant has more time to spend on your appointment setting so you’re not busy with the distraction of setting your own. Rather than playing phone tag, you’re busy on that task you know you have to get done.
More Focused Time
Productivity guru Cal Newport, author of “Deep Work,” says: “Less mental clutter means more mental resources available for deep thinking.”
If you’re removing cluttered, administrative time from your workday, that leaves more time to think about big-picture issues. And as Harvard Business Review showed, executives feel more effective when they spend more time on their agendas—and less time managing their calendars.
Less “Clutter Time”
On the opposite side of the spectrum, outsourcing your calendar management to a virtual assistant has one immediate benefit you can’t deny: time saved.
Rather than run through a list of administrative tasks to start your morning, you can start it with an hour of deep work. Rather than go back and forth with team members as you schedule meetings, you can let the assistant handle it.
This means more focused time (see the point above) and, at the very least, more “me” time to help you decompress from your work.
The Benefits of Hiring a Trained Virtual Assistant
If all the above is true, why hire a trained virtual assistant in the first place? Can’t AI do it? A calendar scheduling program?
Well, not exactly.
As it turns out, there are specific benefits when you work with a trained virtual assistant through a virtual assistant service who specializes in calendar management.
The “Backup Assistant”
What if you already have an assistant?
A trained virtual assistant can work “backup,” giving you more flexibility to keep your calendar in line at all times. A virtual assistant can work remotely or live in another time zone.
Training Provided on Your Software
Let’s be honest: not every virtual assistant’s skill levels are going to be on equal footing when it comes to the software you use. But the more proficient your assistant is at your software, the better they’ll be at managing it in a way that syncs neatly with your phone, your calendar app, and your desktop.
Reduced Assistant Turnover
When you work through a managed virtual assistant service, you don’t have to worry about one particular assistant’s schedule.
Reduced assistant turnover means a steadier workflow that keeps your calendar moving without interruption.
Screening Candidates
This is all about saving time, after all. But how much time do you save if you do all the hiring, screening, and training yourself?
If you can barely manage your own calendar, screening VA candidates is already too much to ask in addition.
Keeping Priorities on Track
Sometimes, the mere act of having a third party review your calendar can offer some perspective.
A managed virtual assistant can help you keep your priorities on track—while also adding helpful bits like calendar reminders.
Choosing Part-Time or Full-Time
What if you don’t need a full-time assistant?
Virtual assistant calendar management services you hire through a virtual assistant service can cater to your specific budgetary needs, ensuring you don’t pay for more than you need.
Managing Multiple Senior Leadership Calendars
Maybe it’s not time you need to save, but headaches.
If your company struggles with managing multiple senior leadership calendars, a trained virtual assistant can bring their know-how to your process. Better yet, they’ll do it without you having to worry about the calendar anymore.
Saving Cost
Statistics suggest virtual assistants can save businesses up to 78% in operating costs.
It’s not just the efficient workflow that makes this possible. It’s avoiding hiring full-time help, which can also mean expensive payroll for the same results.
A dedicated, trained virtual assistant, on the other hand, can often function like a full-time employee for a fraction of the price.
How Virtual Assistants Can Help with Meeting Preparation
Did you know 71% of workers waste time every week with postponed or canceled meetings?
Master your meeting scheduling and you’ll master one of the most important aspects of executive management—meetings.
Outsourcing calendar management to a virtual assistant can help you minimize meeting preparation time while never forgetting what’s on the agenda. Here’s how they can help:
Keeping Track of Attendance
If you’re in a senior management role, you likely have more important things to do than manage everyone’s attendance tracker. A virtual assistant can keep track of attendance.
Even better, they can email meeting notes to anyone who missed the meeting, which keeps your business humming along.
Updating Your CRM with Meeting Notes
Let’s say your company had a meeting with an important client, and someone from your company missed out. Have your virtual assistant update your CRM (customer relationship management software) with the appropriate meeting notes.
You can also reference these notes yourself when you prepare for another regular meeting with the same client. This helps you spend less time on notes and CRM updates—but without missing out on the benefits of both.
Sending Out Meeting Reminders and Agendas
As Harvard Business Review noted, executives feel best about their time management the more they can focus on their agenda. And meetings are an integral part of that.
One benefit of working with virtual assistants with access to your digital calendars?
They can send out meeting reminders and agendas that get everyone in the meeting on the same page before the meeting occurs.
Reducing Cost with Virtual Assistants
Have you ever been through an independent virtual assistant hiring process—one you tried to do entirely on your own? It can be an expensive proposition on two fronts. First, you might hire a VA whose productivity doesn’t justify the cost. And it can also cost a tremendous amount of time and energy, especially if you’re unhappy with your first choice.
What if you only need to get your calendar under control, and not every aspect of your professional life?
Paying too much with an independent VA or even hiring someone fulltime from a local employment agency might be counterproductive. Instead, you can hire a virtual assistant specializing in solving your specific digital calendar problems.
And if you’re focused on smart scheduling rather than every aspect of your role as an executive, you may not need to hire a “generalist” VA who can do it all.
Instead, calendar management services can offer everything you need to get your schedule back on track—without breaking the bank.
Benefitting from Virtual Assistant Calendar Management Services
Your calendar is supposed to empower you, not drag you down. Yet that’s exactly what too many executives let happen.
Rather than using their calendar as a tool to manage their life, they start to live by what the calendar says. And in doing so, they lose productivity, time, energy, and even money.
Hiring this work out to a calendar management service is a great way to avoid these problems.
Curious how a Prialto assistant could help you? Check out what sets us apart.
By working with someone who’s trained for your specific style of calendar management, you can get all of the benefits of an enhanced scheduling system without the steep learning curve.
If you’d like to learn more about how Prialto’s virtual assistant service can help you manage your calendar and more, contact us now to set up a discovery call and start amplifying your productivity today.