As a business owner, managing your calendar can feel like a full-time job in and of itself.

Keeping up with all the demands of work, home, family, and friends is no easy feat, and requires careful planning and organization to make sure that nothing falls by the wayside.

But when you have so much to contend with already, this can be much easier said than done.

How can we make sure our schedules run like a well-oiled machine without taking time and energy away from our priorities?

This is where virtual assistants (VAs) come in.

Let's explore below.

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant is an independent professional who, similar to a traditional executive or personal assistant, provides administrative, creative, technical, or other support services to clients. Virtual assistants, however, are not physically present in the office but work exclusively on a remote basis.

Their services can be tailored to meet your business needs, allowing you to access the specific skills and support you need without the hefty overhead costs associated with hiring a full-time employee.

Do you need to hire a virtual assistant for calendar management?

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." – Peter Drucker

Many small business owners don't see the need for a virtual assistant, especially for managing schedules. It's easy to believe that it's only a few clicks here and there, so why would we hire someone to do something we can easily do ourselves?

But with so much to do and only a limited time to get it done each day, solid time management is essential for busy business owners. But even still, it can be pretty time-consuming to make sure your schedule is optimized and you're managing your calendar effectively.

So, for those who wish to truly make the most out of their days and get more meaningful work done, finding ways to streamline this process even further is key.

And this is where a calendar management virtual assistant comes in very handy.

What are the other benefits of hiring virtual assistants to manage your calendar?

If you are still on the fence about hiring a virtual assistant for calendar management, here are some of the other benefits you can take advantage of.

You save time

The more senior you are, the more that meetings consume your time. According to the results of a survey by Bain & Company, business leaders can spend up to 40% of their time in meetings.

While there’s no doubt that meetings are an essential and unavoidable aspect of running your own company—and attending meetings should definitely stay in your remit—all the work that goes into arranging, planning, and following up on meetings can be done just as well by another experienced professional.

Simply by handing those particular tasks over to a virtual calendar assistant, you could reclaim up to six hours per week.

You save money

As a business owner, you'll understand the importance of managing not just your time, but your resources, too.

Hiring virtual assistants can be a great way of minimizing costs compared to hiring full-time in-house staff. This is because virtual assistants are paid an hourly rate for their productive time spent working on tasks for you, as much or as little as you need.

And because virtual assistants are remote workers, you don't have to worry about providing office space, equipment, health insurance, and so on. With all of these costs combined, hiring a VA could save you up to 90% compared to an in-house assistant.

You stay organized—both at home and at work

From scheduling meetings to staying on top of projects, most business owners would struggle to get far without an organized calendar. Nevertheless, staying on top of it all can still be a real challenge when you have so many different things going on in your professional and personal life.

Hiring a virtual assistant to manage your calendar can be the perfect solution to staying organized, making sure you never lose track of important dates, events, or deadlines again.

And the great news is, their support doesn't have to end at your company's front door.

For those who have soccer practice, school recitals, field trips, play dates, and family functions to juggle on top of all their other responsibilities, a calendar management VA can be a real game-changer. As well as adding upcoming events to your personal calendar, they can coordinate with other family members and send reminders to make sure nothing falls through the cracks and no one gets double-booked.

And the even better news is, they can go one step further than simply sending reminders for those birthdays and anniversaries that always seem to creep up on you when you least expect it. They can boost your personal organization even further by making sure you've always got great gifts and cards for your loved ones. Simply provide them with clear criteria to follow—such as budget and preferences—and they can do the rest. No more last-minute panics for you!

You reduce stress

It's something that we all experience at some point or another, but it's an unfortunate reality that stress and business ownership often go hand-in-hand. In a world where demands are high and expectations are even higher, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the pressure.

While there are many things you can try to reduce your stress levels, it’s possible you simply have too much on your plate.

With a virtual assistant working on the less-impactful but still necessary tasks that would eat away at your time and energy, you can regain control over your schedule and restore balance to your life.

See: 6 Stress Management Techniques From The World’s Most Successful Business Leaders

You can focus on what's most important

In the words of Jim Rohn, "We can no more afford to spend major time on minor things than we can to spend minor time on major things."

Having an extra set of hands to schedule appointments and meetings across your multiple calendars grants you more freedom to focus on the core tasks or projects that will take your business further.

Offloading just one hour of recurring admin tasks every working day for a year would ultimately allow you to reclaim the equivalent of 29.5 eight-hour workdays, or just under six whole working weeks. Having enough time to effectively plan how you’re going to achieve your goals, as well as having plenty of time and mental energy to put your plans into action, is what makes it possible to make real progress.

How virtual assistants can help you with scheduling and calendar management

Now, let's dive into how a calendar management virtual assistant can make your schedule run smoothly and save you a lot of time and effort.

Initial set-up to get your VA started

Before a VA can start helping you manage your busy schedule, they will need to be granted some level of access to it, whether that's Google Calendar, Outlook, or whichever calendar app you use. It's also worth providing access to your inbox, as that's where most of the communication around scheduling usually takes place.

Your assistant will also need step-by-step instructions for tackling your tasks, as well as guidance on your preferences. By clearly explaining what needs to be done—and how it needs to be done—from the get-go, you lay a solid foundation for a smooth and successful experience working together.

See: Five Essential Tech Tips For Getting Started With A Virtual Assistant

Scheduling meetings

Once your VA has access to your digital calendar systems and is familiar with your preferences, they can start to field any meeting requests you receive and schedule meetings and appointments on your behalf.

They can handle all the back-and-forth communication to coordinate availability and avoid scheduling conflicts, as well as sending invites to all attendees.

Meeting planning and follow-up

After a meeting has been scheduled, your virtual assistant can set up reminder notifications to help you stay organized. They can also help you prepare for the meeting and make sure attendees have everything they need by sending out any important links or documents.

During the meeting, your calendar management VA can take minutes to capture all the details that are discussed.

When the meeting is over, they can compile their meeting notes and send out follow-up emails so that all attendees are on the same page.

Booking appointments and reservations

Of course, it's not just business meetings we carve out time for in our schedules.

But even for such a simple task, it can still eat away into your vital time and energy resources. Who wants to wait in long call queues, navigate through endless automated menus, or fill in repetitive online forms when there's so many more productive things you could be doing?

Whether you need a dinner reservation, a haircut, a mechanic to fix your car, or a taxi to get you there, a virtual assistant can save you the hassle of making inquiries or booking appointments so you can focus on what matters most.

Event coordination

A skilled virtual assistant can also help manage larger events in your calendar, such as conferences or webinars. With the right instructions, they can help you coordinate the logistics of the event, from arranging venue bookings to creating registration forms, to help make sure that everything goes smoothly and according to plan.

Not only that, a virtual assistant could help you take even more time-consuming administrative tasks off your hands, such as creating presentation materials, proofreading and editing, promoting your event on social media, and organizing your travel arrangements.

After the event is over, your VA can also compile feedback from attendees, which can be invaluable for planning future events.

Organizing your to-do list

Not just limited to appointment-setting, a calendar management virtual assistant can be an invaluable tool for helping you manage all aspects of how and where you spend your time each day to maximize your productivity.

With plenty of information and the right guidance, a skilled virtual assistant can plan your schedule for the week and create optimized to-do lists, taking any and all deadlines or important events into consideration.

Having all your daily and weekly planning prepared in advance allows you to dive straight into the important stuff rather than wasting your valuable time and energy each morning trying to decide what to work on. It's a great way to avoid decision fatigue—the more decisions a person makes, the harder each decision subsequently becomes, as well as choice paralysis—the more options we have in front of us, the harder it becomes to choose one. Both of which can seriously hold you back

See: 7 Ways A Virtual Assistant Can Help You Work Smarter

What's the bottom line?

From coordinating appointments in your digital diary to setting reminders and deadline alerts, a virtual calendar management assistant can take the burden of scheduling off your hands. Their support means your vital resources can be managed more efficiently, leaving you with more to invest in your core business functions.

Are you looking for the perfect virtual assistant to help make sure you never miss important tasks, meetings, or events again? Time etc is here for you.

Since 2007, we've been dedicated to our mission of helping hardworking business owners take back control of their time and unlock their full potential by matching them with the best virtual assistants for their needs.

We have a vast pool of virtual talent waiting to take those tedious and time-consuming tasks off your hands, with each assistant having passed a rigorous 10-stage process to be able to join us.

Speak to our expert team to get started and we’ll set you up with a dedicated professional based on the skills and experience you need.

Still on the fence?

Try us out for free today!