I found a better way to manage task for my VA
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
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