Late last year, I was considering getting an administrative assistant for myself. I simply had too much to do — to many e-mails, too many tasks. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hire a local person to help, or just use a virtual assistant. During that internal debate, I was also trying to get more organized. As you can see in my initial post on this blog, I dove into GTD and started using Nozbe to manage it.
The result? I have no need for an administrative person of any kind. By keeping my email inbox at zero and my task list up to date, I can easily find the information I need and get to work. Having another person in the mix would only serve to complicate things.
I’m sure there are many jobs that require an assistant of some kind. Anyone that deals with a large volume of incoming calls and meetings would do well to have someone sift that information for them and keep their schedule up to date. However, I’m finding that simply dealing with email and tasks is best managed by myself.
It’s hard to calculate the exact savings, but let’s go with this: $10/hour, 20 hours/week = $200/week or about $800/month. That’s some nice savings! Factor in the small costs to get GTD in place (buy the book, get a filing cabinet, perhaps pay a little bit for some software), and you’re still saving a ton of money. Not bad.
