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• Outsourcing is about taking things that we would normally have to do in our day-to-day lives and having someone else do it at a low(ish) cost. Aaron Lynn
• Delegation,  Management,  Collaboration,  Teamwork,  Cooperation

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More and more people are outsourcing personal tasks

• Sending work offshore has transformed the U.S. economy. Now, some families are tapping the same approach for personal tasks, getting them done for a fraction of what they’d cost at home. Taking your to-do list global. Ellen Gamerman

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The main benefit of outsourcing is that it allows you to focus on what you’re best at …

• Do what you can do the best and outsource the rest. Tom Peters
• I outsource because it makes me more effective. It helps me focus on the high value, 20% tasks that make the biggest impact in my life. Celestine Chua
• Why drown yourself with work that is not of pertinent value to you when you can outsource it for $5, $8, or $10 an hour? Celestine Chua
• The more low value tasks you outsource, the more time you have to do higher value stuff. Celestine Chua
• Focus on your strengths,  Focus

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… by freeing up your time

• A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. Henry David Thoreau
• Think about the things you do weekly, but really don’t like to do or would rather have someone else do. Outsource those tasks. Start enjoying the extra time you now have—and put it to good use by doing something productive!  Aaron Lynn
• Time management

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It can also teach you important skills and allow you to take control

• Getting a remote assistant is a huge departure point and marks the moment that you learn how to give orders and be a commander instead of the commanded. Tim Ferriss
• It’s time to learn how to be the boss. It isn’t time consuming.  It’s low cost and it’s low risk.  Tim Ferriss

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The first step is to calculate your hourly rate and find tasks that someone else can do for less

• The important thing to remember about personal outsourcing is that you absolutely must know how much your time is worth (usually per hour). This is the only way to find out if something is worth outsourcing or not. Aaron Lynn
• If you spend your time, worth $20 – 25 per hour doing something that someone else can will do for $10 per hour, it’s simply a poor use of resources. Tim Ferriss

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The best tasks to outsource are well defined, time consuming and low value

• Each delegated task must be both time consuming and well-defined. Tim Ferriss
• There are times when you have low value tasks that can’t be cut away. They simply have to be done. That’s what outsourcing is for. Celestine Chua
• Using people to leverage a refined process multiplies production; using people as a solution to a poor process multiplies problems. Tim Ferriss

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Don’t outsource what you can automate

• Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined. Otherwise, you waste someone else’s time instead of your own, which now wastes your hard- earned cash. How’s that for incentive to be effective and efficient?  Timothy Ferriss
• If something can be automated, then automate it. There’s no point in outsourcing something if it can be handled by systems in the first place. Celestine Chua
• Automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.  Bill Gates

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Don’t outsource tasks that you can do quickly, unless you repeat them regularly

• It makes little sense to get a price quote on a plane ticket when you could do the same online in 10 minutes and avoid all the subsequent back-and-forth. Tim Ferriss

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Things to potentially outsource to physical assistants

• Grocery shopping (i.e. get it delivered)
• Laundry
• Cleaning
• Cooking
• Gardening

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Things to potentially outsource to virtual assistants or freelancers

• Administration
• Social media
• Customer support
• Research
• Fact checking
• Data entry / word processing
• Article submission
• Event planning
• Trip planning
• Travel research
• Slideshows
• Site commenting and back linking
• Design
• Proof reading
• Copy editing
• Order fulfillment
• Video production and editing
• Web development / programming
• Translation Work
• Accounting / bookkeeping
• Website maintenance
• Community moderation
• Photoshop
• Transcribe notes
• Dictation
• Email management
• Database management
• Data analysis and chart creation
• Calendar management and scheduling

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Overseas companies have a lower hourly rate and can provide better value…

• The pros of jumping time zones and visiting third-world currency are two-fold: People work while you sleep, and the per hour expense is less. Tim Ferriss

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… but realise that a low hourly rate can sometimes end up costing more

• Per hour cost is not the ultimate determinant of cost. Look at per task cost.  If you need to spend time restating the task and otherwise managing the virtual assistant, determine the time required of you and add this to the end sticker price of the task.  It can be surprising.  Tim Ferriss
• As cool as it is to say that you have people working for you in three countries, it is uncool to spend time babysitting people who are supposed to make your life easier. Tim Ferriss

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For ongoing relationships, it’s best to use a firm rather than a sole operator

• Use a virtual assistant firm instead of a solo operator. Tim Ferriss
• I recommend that you hire a virtual assistant firm or virtual assistants with backup teams instead of sole operators. Better safe than sorry.  Tim Ferriss

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When you’ve identified a potential virtual assistant, put them to the test with a trial task

• If it’s for an ongoing, long-term position, I recommend specifying a trial task. This is highly important. The candidate must complete the trial task and show the output as part of his/her application. Celestine Chua
• Test a few assistants to both sharpen your communication skills and determine who is worth firing. Tim Ferriss
• The proof is in the pudding. It is impossible to predict how well you will work with a givenn virtual assistant. without a trial.  Tim Ferriss

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Some guidelines to follow when outsourcing

• Send one task at a time and each in a separate email.
• Give precise directions.
• Specify the deliverables.
• Request a status update after a few hours of work on a task to ensure that the task is both understood and achievable.
• Use Parkinson’s Law and assign tasks that are to be completed within no more than 72 hours.
• When assigning multiple tasks, set an order of importance.

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Questions

• Is there other work which you can do and create more value with?
• Is this really the best way to spend your time?
• Can this task be done with better quality and in a faster manner by others?
• What has been sitting on my “to do” list for a long time?
• What causes me the most frustration and boredom?
• Every time you do a task, ask “Could a virtual assistant do this?”
• What are my top five time-consuming non-work tasks I could assign for sheer fun?

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