I found a better way to manage task for my VA

5 replies
As my portfolio of niche sites has grown, I very quickly realized that the challenge of managing all my sites was going to rapidly get out of hand, and, when that happened, my business would not perform as well as it otherwise could.

How I Solved the Problem with a Task Management Tool

To alleviate that problem, I created a visual task management tool for myself. The idea behind the task management dashboard was to give me a color coded high-level view of my business so that I could easily spot missed or incomplete activities.

In the screenshot below, you will see that I have all the tasks down the column on the left and then I have all my site's URL's listed on the row headers (blanked out in the screenshot). Then, each completed task has a cell that is green. If the task is yet to be started, the cell is blue, and if in progress, the cell is yellow.



The whole idea behind a task management tool of this type is to take advantage of the way my brain already works. If something is out of sight, it generally gets forgotten. With a color coded task management tool, I found that this problem was greatly reduced. I should add this the screenshot above is only a partial list of all the tasks that I have to personally handle. Under the section on backlinking, I have another section devoted entirely to monetization strategies, and below that is a section for optional tasks/tests that I perform on sections of my portfolio.

Managing Tasks Assigned to my VA

For those of you who've followed me for a while, you should already be saying, "Hey, wait, what about your VA? How do you handle that?". Excellent question!

As I have mentioned numerous times, I am a HUGE believer in hiring people to do my work for me. If you have read the eMyth, you will already understand that, as the business owner, your primary job is to create systems for other people to follow. The free eBook that you get when you subscribe to my newsletter is an example of one such system.



When I first created this task management tool for my VA, she was thrilled because she said that it made it really easy for her to stay on top of the work that I was assigning her.

Before I created this dashboard, I was continuously emailing her tasks, and as soon as I hit about 5 sites, it became a total nightmare. I had no record of what tasks I'd assigned to her and she had no efficient way of sharing with me which tasks she'd completed and which ones she needed more instruction on. As the above task management tool is just a Google spreadsheet, I was easily able to invite her to have access to it, and now any time I make any changes, Google docs automatically sends her an email to let her know that the spreadsheet has changed.

With the spreadsheet above, tasks assigned to my VA never fall through the cracks, and, if you use more than one VA like I now do, you can just enter their name in a blue cell so they know who the new task should be assigned to.

I'm sharing this with you all in the hopes that some of you will have ideas on ways to make what I have created better. I look forward to reading your comments.

Thanks,
Trent
#found #manage #task
  • Profile picture of the author helterskelter
    I could kiss you for posting this. I've been trying to wrap my mind around the organizational aspects of running so many sites, and I like the method you've set up. I'll spend some time thinking about this and let you know if I have any suggestions for improvements.
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    • Profile picture of the author gandfscott
      Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best! My biggest problem with having a VA is getting them to report correctly on what they've done through the day.
      This is such a simple idea but will help enormously.

      Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author Srdjan
        Thanks Trent, as always simple ideas are most effective.
        Nice post

        Best regards
        Srdjan
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      • Profile picture of the author Trent Raymond
        Originally Posted by gandfscott View Post

        Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best! My biggest problem with having a VA is getting them to report correctly on what they've done through the day.
        This is such a simple idea but will help enormously.

        Thanks!
        You're welcome!
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  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    I got out of mini sites a while ago because of organizational conundrums like this. I just really am not that organized, honestly.

    But great thoughts. I like it.
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