25 Tasks to Hand Off to a Personal Assistant
The Top Benefits of Having a Personal Assistant
Remember all those times in December you vowed to “pick this back up after the holidays”? Well… it is after the holidays, and your to-do list is stacked with obligations that were pinned in December… plus all the new add-ons from January. Before long, it’ll be May and most of this list will remain unchecked. If you find yourself in this position, trying to get on top of a to-do list that only keeps growing, you’re not alone. But you are trying to do it all alone, and that’s why you keep falling behind. Instead, you could work with a part-time personal assistant who supports your daily life and takes that endless to-do list off your hands.
Not sure where to start? We’ll cover 25 concrete tasks you can offload immediately and reclaim 10+ hours of your week.
Task Bucket #1Administrative & Inbox Management
These are arguably the most time consuming and easiest-to-be-consumed-by tasks. Fortunately, they are also the easiest to delegate, since they don’t require creative input. These types of tasks do not only apply to business owners and executives; there’s plenty of life that happens in your inbox outside of work, and an assistant can clear your mental (and desktop) clutter by handling daily maintenance.
1. Email Filtering: Setting up rules, flagging urgent items, and deleting spam.
2. Calendar Management: Scheduling meetings, confirming appointments, and buffer-blocking.
3. Travel Planning: Booking flights, hotels, and creating itineraries.
4. Data Entry: Updating CRMs or transferring data between spreadsheets.
5. File Organization: Sorting Google Drive/Dropbox folders, archiving family photos, and naming files correctly.
6. Registration Management: Tracking registrations, renewing memberships, and preventing subscriptions from lapsing.
TASK BUCKET #2Personal & Lifestyle Support
“Lifestyle support” may conjure images of getting a green juice at 5am or accompanying a celebrity on a press tour, but in reality, it can simply mean researching cleaning services or scheduling kids’ after-school activities. You don’t have to be a celebrity to need unique support for whatever your lifestyle may include. Life administration gets in the way of anyone’s productivity. An assistant can reduce the friction of routine and day-to-day tasks so you can focus on higher-level priorities like strategic projects or family.
7. Appointment Setting: Booking doctors, dentists, or car maintenance.
8. Gift Buying: Researching and ordering gifts for clients or family.
9. Researches & Comparisons: Finding the best price for a purchase or service.
10. Bill Pay/Invoicing: Paying bills or setting up auto-pay, confirming refunds.
11. Meal Planning/Ordering: Organizing grocery delivery or meal prep services.
12. Running errands: Grocery shopping, dropping off dry cleaning, and specialty shopping.
13. Handling returns: Processing, boxing up, and dropping off purchases to return.
14. Meeting Service Providers: Oversee internet setups, contractor projects, and handymen services.
15. Event Organization: Prep for dinner parties, holiday parties, and birthdays.
Task Bucket #3Marketing & Content Assistance
Many personal assistants enjoy flexing creative skills, especially in social media. While a proper Social Media Manager is a distinct role, and assistants shouldn’t be expected to grow your account, they can help you execute the strategy you create by being responsible for the basics that help keep your online presence active.
16. Social Media Scheduling: Uploading posts to Buffer/Hootsuite or directly to social media platforms.
17. Basic Graphic Design: Creating simple Canva graphics for posts using templates.
18. Blog Formatting: Uploading content to WordPress, formatting headers, and adding images.
19. Newsletter Prep: Assembling links and formatting the weekly email draft.
Task Bucket #4Customer Service & Operations
As a small business owner myself, this was the bucket I immediately handed off to my assistant. I found myself spending so little time on projects and operations that really required my attention (social media, core business services, and higher-touch customer service), but as soon as I hired someone to handle the basics of my business operations, I immediately felt the impact (for example, I was finally able to start consistently writing these blogs!). An assistant can keep your business running smoothly without your constant intervention.
20. FAQ Responses: Handling standard customer inquiries using templates.
21. Onboarding New Clients: Sending welcome packets and contracts.
22. Chasing Payments: Following up on unpaid invoices.
23. Vendor Research: Finding new software tools or suppliers.
Task Bucket #5Research & Reach Tasks
Assistants are not business development representatives, but they can conduct preliminary research to help expand your network and knowledge base. They can look into details of provided lists, or filter contacts according to your specific needs.
24. Lead Generation: Building lists of prospects based on criteria.
25. Event Research: Finding industry conferences or networking events to attend.
I’d be willing to bet at least a dozen of these tasks are applicable to your life, if not the majority of them. Remember, you can start small. Your PA doesn’t need to start with lead generation and more sensitive business matters; they can simply start by running errands and scheduling a cleaner. Delegation is a skill that gets better with practice and is bolstered by trust. Start by picking just three tasks from this list that you could hand off to an assistant this week. Getting started can be the biggest hurdle, but you’ll find the floodgates will open in a different way – instead of drowning under your to-do list, the ease of passing off tasks to your assistant will flow seamlessly from your radar to their responsibility. Your time is your most valuable asset so be precious about conserving that– not about who picks up dry cleaning.
