How I Run Our Virtual Company From My IPhone in About 30 Minutes a Day

In about 30 minutes a day I can run my entire company, Jet Set Life, from my iPhone. I'll admit in advance, that most of the set up work to do this took hours of pre-planning, but once that's done you're pretty much good to go. In this post, I'll briefly explain the macro view of how I do things, just to give you an idea of how you can implement the same procedures.

General

1. Processing My Email - I use the pre-loaded iPhone e-mail app and have it set to push from my G-mail account. I have two virtual assistants that shield me from 99% of emails that come in for me. I set a 5 sentence limit on my email responses. So, this process usually takes me about 5-7 minutes per day.

2. Managing Virtual Assistants - I have two VA's in the Philippines that are outstanding. To manage their projects and our communications I use an app called Note Master. This app allows me to sync with the Google docs that I created for them. They each have two simple documents. The first document is called the "Master List" which is where I have identified their daily tasks and projects that I want them to do. The second doc is called the "Communication Log" which is used for our daily conversations and the random questions that occasionally come up. Each morning I open up the Note Master App and tell it to sync with my Google Docs. I then review only one doc, the "Communication Doc", to see if there are any questions or concerns that I need to personally handle. There rarely are any. This takes me about 5 minutes.

3. Managing My Web Developer - I have an amazing web developer that I do roughly the same process with using the Note Master app. In his case, "The Master List" serves as the place that I add ideas of how I want to develop the site and "The Communication Log" functions the same way as above. Again, I only review the "Communication Log" for any questions that he has. As long as I'm clear in my instructions in the "Master Doc" there usually aren't any questions. This process takes me about 5 minutes.

4. Voice Memos - If I find that I can't communicate quickly and clearly to my VA's, Web Developers or answer emails in less than 5 sentences I'll use the "Voice Memo" pre-loaded app. I'll simply record a better description of what it was that I was trying to say in the communication log. This takes me about 1-2 minutes and is only used occasionally.

5. Managing Multiple Projects - I manage all my projects with an app that's designed with the "Getting Things Done" philosophy called Things. I only allow myself to work on three projects at any given time. Just three. When more projects come up I simply get them out of my head and on to a separate list inside of the "Things" app called "on deck". Each morning I only look at the 3 simple projects that I'm working on and choose just 3 "mission critical actions" that I want to do that day towards completing those projects. This process takes me about 10 minutes.

Total Time - Roughly 30 minutes!

Crutch Activities

The following are crutch activities that I do when I'm bored, want to zone or just want to convince myself that I'm actually doing something productive when in reality I'm just being busy.

1. Facebook App - My VA approves all my friends and deletes the prickly hug crap. So, the only thing that's left for me to do is post a status update. This takes me about 2 minutes.

2. Twitter App - I post the same status update on Twitter as I have on Facebook so whenever I make a Facebook update I simply use the cut and paste feature built into the iPhone to post it to Twitter. I found that the easiest app to do this with is the Twittelator App. This takes me about 1 minute (maybe less).

4. Word Press - I use this app to capture random ideas for future blogs. It has an option to save it locally on the iPhone or upload it directly to word press as a draft. The newer version actually allows you to publish your blog directly to word press from your iPhone. It's hard to quantify how long it takes me to do this, because I use it whenever I'm feeling an "inspired action".

3. A Small World - I wish I could share this one with you, but ASW is by invite only. ASW is a really cool social networking site that's primarily targeted at travelers. I use the app just to check my ASW emails. I generally have only one or two emails per week and use the five sentence max rule for my replies. This takes me about 5 minutes.

So, all in all some days may take me 15 minutes and other days may take me 45 minutes but I probably average about 30 minutes per day Monday- Friday (and never on weekends)