There’s a new lifestyle experiment circling the world right now: personal assistants (on the other side of the world). Tim Ferriss definitely popularized this concept with his book The 4-Hour Workweek.
As I sat and read the book I was in the mindset that “I’m a simple guy, I will never need an assistant.” In hindsight, I realize that was the wrong way to consider the idea. For some reason we’re of the thought that a lot of tasks we do are essentially “ours” that no one else could take over. That’s ultimately wrong.
Take e-mail for example: Tim has even outsourced (through a series of rules) his own email. You and I aren’t in the same position as Tim but think about other mundane tasks that can easily be translated to an assistant:
- Booking travel (15 minutes)
- Researching the iPhone and how to jailbreak it for T-Mobile usage (15 minutes)
- Researching the pro/cons of upgrading to a Macbook Pro (15 minutes)
- Researching the pros/cons of trying FireFox Beta 4 and if my addons will work with it (10 minutes)
- Monitor my financial accounts weekly and pay credit cards monthly (15 minutes)
- Write a nice thank you/nice to meet you note for people met at SXSW (15 minutes)
- Contact a company to get a refund (10 minutes)
- Contact another company to get a new download/activation code (10 minutes)
I created that list during the first two hours of my Friday morning. I put myself in the mindset: if I had an assistant right now, what would I ask them to do for me? I’ve already come up with almost 2 hours worth of work… during my two hours of work. That seems like a compelling reason to consider it.
I can think of so many things i’d have a PA do for me right now– the biggest one? Organizing my desk. And maybe killing the 500 new items I have on my google reader and then giving me a short summary of the good ones.
Awesome idea, if I could have them go look at the kinds of articles I’ve ‘starred’ and learn my interests I would subscribe to a lot more!
This is really interesting. I’ve heard of it before, but I didn’t think it was fast becoming a popular option. I live on the other side of the world. I’d happily work as someone’s personal assistant. The obsessive-compulsive in me is looking for more chaos to sort.
Interesting point. I definitely use up a lot of time researching things. But could you trust someone to do things to your satisfaction. Like if you said “find me a reasonably priced laptop”. How would you know that they had found the best value one for you.
Still it would make you feel important.
@Lisa: Haha, how much are you charging? ;)
@James: Well, based on testimonials it sounds like they do a much better job researching than I do for my 9-5, haha. It’s not about feeling important, though. I just want to cut out the riff-raff and have time to do what I really want (like go out and buy my new toys).
I was kidding. Mostly. It depends on how much outsourced PAs earn. Haha. It’s a fantastic idea for a business though.
Woah, it would NOT be a good idea for me to have a PA. I swear, I’d become the laziest sack of sh*t ever.
would love an assistant. I dont think I will become lazy when I have one. That particular idea of hiring a pa for research will do me so much good, esp in school. But ill do majority of the work, and cosider my pa as slight advantage.
ill elaborate: http://weblog.xanga.com/Ardenlabroasuncion/647459913/personal-assistant.html
so where do we get one of these? because i may look into it.
@Lisa: Depending on the tasks and the volume of work, they can go from $5-15 on average (more for more complicated work).
@Deutlich: The point is not to be lazy but to free up your valuable time to spend it on what you want to do (learn a language, read a book, go to the gym, etc.).
@arden: Way to be on the competitive edge. ;)
@d: I’ve heard good things about YourManInIndia (recommended by Tim) which runs GetFriday.com.
hahahaha
oh lordy. yeah. i can think of a few things i’d assign to my PA. but i realize that i already may have enough people who want to hurt me, no need to add another, right?
Haha, I mean a virtual personal assistant. ;)
I am looking to become a PA to someone, how would I go about doing this?