I recently started reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, and while I don’t plan on quitting my job to start selling widgets and become a millionaire, I was intrigued by some of his recommendations for time management and achieving efficiencies in your day-to-day life. One of the first things he mentions in his book as a way to achieve personal time nirvana, is to outsource your life as much as possible to personal assistants. This includes outsourcing your inbox!Not to worry, he doesn’t expect everyone to have personal assistants, but instead recommends getting affordable virtual personal assistants who will do everything from setting appointments with your doctor, to paying your bills. AskSunday is one which seems fairly reasonable. This flow chart shows how it all works.
Granted, the flow chart doesn’t cover any of life's contingencies, but hey I haven't had a personal assistant, so maybe life really can be put into four colorful boxes if you have someone in the background taking care of things for you. For the low low monthly subscription price of $29, AskSunday will process up to 30 email or phone requests from you. And you thought you couldn’t afford a personal assistant!
The major concern for most people is obviously going to be the security of their data, and apparently they claim to have “a highly secure data center keeping all of your data safe and protected. Agents can't see any of the passwords you have provided in the Sunday Portal”. I'm sure this pithy description of their data protection methods isn't going to be enough comfort for most people, which is why I'd love to know how comfortable you would be in “outsourcing” your life to one of these services?
Gautham Hegde
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Strategists & Planners
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Gautham,
I am also reading the "4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. Excellent book!
If I remember correctly, Tim had some good points to consider when a personal assistant is handling private information:
Create separate passwords that will only be used by your personal assistant so you can keep track of there actions. If anything happens you can delete there account. Also, if you are like many, your login credentials are similar for other online accounts. This will remove any possiblities of them using your "default" login credentials elsewhere.
Also, never give them debit card info for purchases, instead give them your credit card info. It is much easier to correct possible mis-purchases or fraud.
Posted by David Lano | February 5, 2008 10:31 PM
Posted on February 5, 2008 22:31