DarrenBarefoot.com

Last week I was talking to IT journalist Danny Bradbury about a forthcoming story. He booked the call using a virtual personal assistant. Coincidentally, he wrote a blog post describing his search for and in praise of his newfound sidekick:

The cost? Less than the revenue from a feature article each month. The benefits? Time, which as both a writer and a parent, is the most precious commodity for me. If I wanted to fill the time I’m saving with more work, I could sell more articles and make more dough, but I don’t think I will. I’m hitting my financial targets, (with the cost of the service factored in), and for the first time in years, I’m relishing the ability to take some ‘me’ time and some more family time.

He sounds sold. Subsequently, I read about virtual PAs on Boing Boing, who referenced this Los Angeles Times article:

But I was surprised at how much they could do. Once I had registered at the website, I uploaded some personal data, such as my frequent-flier account numbers, and the names and phone numbers of my dentist, hairdresser and doctor. If I wanted an assistant to make purchases on my behalf, I could also load credit-card information in encrypted form.

That second article also discusses local assistants, should your demands be more of the ‘pick up my dry-cleaning’ variety.

For the average middle-class person living in this post-consumer age, time is increasingly replacing money as our scarcest asset. It’s funny (though not particularly surprising) how moving to Malta has freed up a ton of my time. If I were back in Vancouver, though, I can see how five or ten hours of somebody else doing mundane tasks would be quite useful.