The three-question test
Before you hand anything over, run each task through three questions:
- How often does it happen? Daily and weekly tasks pay back your training time quickly. A task you do twice a year isn’t worth writing an SOP for.
- Does it follow rules? If you can explain how to do it in steps, someone else can do it. If every instance needs your judgment, it’s not ready to delegate.
- Is it easy to check? A calendar invite is either right or wrong. A strategy memo is harder to judge. Start with tasks you can verify in seconds.
Tasks that score well on all three are your first delegation list. Tasks that follow strict rules every time might be better automated than delegated.
First tasks by department
Admin and your own time
- Inbox triage with labels and drafted replies
- Scheduling meetings and managing your calendar
- Meeting notes and follow-up emails
- Travel booking and itineraries
- Document formatting and filing
Sales
- Updating the CRM after calls
- Researching prospects before meetings
- Following up with new inbound leads
- Sending proposals from templates
Customer support
- Replying to common questions with approved answers
- Order status and shipping updates
- Processing refunds within a set limit
- Tagging tickets so trends are visible
Marketing
- Scheduling social posts from an approved calendar
- Replying to comments and messages
- Resizing and updating graphics
- Pulling monthly reports from analytics
Finance
- Sending invoices and payment reminders
- Categorizing transactions and matching receipts
- Tracking bills that are due
What to keep
Some work should stay with you, at least for now:
- Decisions about money, people and strategy. Pricing, hiring, firing and major purchases.
- Your most important relationships. Key clients and partners expect you.
- Work you haven’t figured out yet. If you can’t explain the process, fix the process before delegating it.
Your VA can still prepare everything for these decisions: the research, the options and the numbers. That preparation is often where the biggest time savings hide.
Turn the list into a role
Once you have ten or fifteen tasks on your list, group them. If most are admin and calendar work, you need an executive assistant. If they cluster around customers, a customer service representative. If they’re scattered, a general virtual assistant.
Our free What to Delegate First checklist has the full list by department, marked by how easy each task is to hand over.