Before You Hire a VA, Do This One Exercise — It Changes Everything

remotebob
Feb 2, 2024
4 min read

Updated: May 5

You've decided you need help. You know you're spending too much time on things that don't require your unique skills or attention. You might even have a VA lined up.

And then comes the question that stops most people in their tracks: what exactly do I hand over?

Delegation sounds simple in theory. In practice, when everything feels important and you're not sure where to draw the line, it can feel surprisingly difficult to get started.

This guide walks you through a three-step process that takes the guesswork out of it — so you can hand things off confidently and actually reclaim your time.

Step 1: Write Down Everything You Do in a Week

Before you can decide what to delegate, you need to see it all in one place. Most people dramatically underestimate how many tasks they're personally handling until they write them down.

Spend ten minutes listing every recurring task in your week — personal and professional. Don't filter yet, just capture everything.

A typical list might look like this:

Driving kids to school Monday to Friday
Making breakfast for the family on Wednesdays
Publishing three social media posts per week
Writing and publishing one blog per week
Creating and sending a weekly newsletter
Speaking and mentoring at a university
Writing a book
Attending a business networking event
Saving expense receipts to Google Drive
Invoicing consulting clients
Ordering groceries
Taking out the bins
Going to the gym
Replying to emails
LinkedIn outreach to potential clients

Everything goes on the list — even the things that feel automatic or minor. Those are often where the most time hides.

Step 2: Identify What Doesn't Need to Be You

Now go back through your list and ask one question for each task: if someone equally competent could handle this, would I want my time back?

Mark every task where the answer is yes. You're not committing to anything yet — you're just getting honest about what genuinely requires your personal involvement versus what's simply landed in your lap by default.

Using the example list above, the tasks that could realistically be delegated include publishing social media posts, writing and scheduling the blog, creating and sending the newsletter, saving receipts, invoicing, ordering groceries, managing emails, and LinkedIn outreach.

The tasks that stay with you — driving your kids, your networking relationships, writing your book, speaking engagements — are the ones that either require your physical presence or your specific voice and expertise. Everything else is fair game.

Step 3: Estimate the Time Each Task Actually Takes

This is the step most people skip — and it's the most revealing one.

Go through your delegatable tasks and put an honest time estimate next to each one. Then add them up.

Here's how that looks using the example above:

Publishing 3 social media posts — 20 minutes per post, 1 hour per week
Writing and publishing 1 blog — 2.5 hours per week
Creating and sending 1 newsletter — 45 minutes per week
Saving expense receipts — 15 minutes per week
Invoicing clients — 1 hour per week
Ordering groceries — 30 minutes per week
Replying to emails — 5 hours per week
LinkedIn outreach — 3 hours per week

Total: 14 hours per week. That's 56 hours per month.

Add in anything monthly — in this example, a monthly call with the accountant brings the total to 57 hours per month.

That's 57 hours of your time, every month, spent on tasks that don't require you specifically. Seeing it as a number changes how it feels.

One important note: if you hand these tasks to an assistant, expect them to take around 10 to 20% longer than they take you — at least initially. That's completely normal. You've been doing these things for months or years. Factor that in when you're planning hours with your VA.

What to Prepare Before Handing Anything Over

Knowing what to delegate is only half the job. The handover itself needs to be set up properly — otherwise you'll spend the time you saved answering questions and fixing mistakes.

Here's what to get ready before your VA starts:

A list of tools Write down every platform used for each task. For the example above: Buffer for scheduling social posts, Wix for publishing blogs, LinkedIn for outreach, Xero for invoicing, Mailchimp for newsletters, Google Drive for documents, Gmail for email. If you're not already using a task management tool like ClickUp, Asana, or Trello, now is the time to set one up — it makes tracking progress and hours significantly easier.

Login details for everything Prepare access credentials for every tool your VA will need. LastPass is the safest way to share passwords without handing over the actual credentials directly.

Relevant links and reference materials Your website, social media profiles, previous blogs, newsletter examples, information about your services and target audience. Anything that helps your VA understand your business, your voice, and your standards before they begin.

A content or topic list If you have upcoming blog topics, social media themes, or newsletter ideas already planned, write them down and share them. Don't make your VA guess what you want to communicate.

A schedule Does the blog always go out on Thursdays? Are social posts due on Tuesdays and Saturdays? Does the accountant call happen on the 30th of every month? Document it. Predictability makes everything run more smoothly.

Clear goals for each task This is the piece most people forget, and it matters. If your social media following has been growing at 10% per month, that's the baseline expectation. If LinkedIn outreach has been generating four new leads per month on average, that's the target. Setting expectations upfront means you and your VA are measuring success the same way.

Your Delegation Checklist

Before you hand anything over, run through this:

✅ List of tasks to delegate, with the days and frequency each should be completed
✅ Time estimate for each task
✅ List of tools your VA will need to use
✅ Login details for every tool
✅ Links to your website, social media, and content examples
✅ Topics or briefs for upcoming content
✅ Clear goals and expected outcomes for each activity

If you can tick every box, you're ready to hand things over properly — and your VA can hit the ground running without needing to come back to you with basic questions every other day.