15 Tasks You Should Hand to a Virtual Assistant This Week

Stop thinking about it. Here’s a concrete list to get started.

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Why “This Week” Matters

The biggest barrier to hiring a VA isn’t cost. It’s inertia. Business owners spend months thinking about what to delegate, worrying about how to explain their processes, and waiting for the “right time.”

There is no right time. There’s only the current time, and the admin you’re doing right now that someone else should be handling.

Here are 15 tasks that are immediately delegatable. Pick three. Start there.

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Email Tasks

1. Inbox Triage

Your VA scans your inbox every morning, sorts emails by priority (urgent/action needed/FYI/archive), and presents you with only the ones that need your input. Everything else is handled, filed, or deleted.

Time saved: 20-40 minutes per day Why it matters: You stop your day with a clean inbox and a clear mind, instead of scrolling through 50 messages to find the 5 that matter.

2. Standard Email Responses

Most of your emails fall into categories you’ve replied to a hundred times before. “What are your rates?” “Are you available next Thursday?” “Can you send the invoice?” Your VA creates templates and handles these responses, in your tone, from your account.

Time saved: 15-30 minutes per day Why it matters: Enquiries get faster responses. You stop rewriting the same email.

3. Follow-Up Emails

You sent a proposal on Monday. It’s now Friday and they haven’t responded. Someone needs to send a polite chase. That someone shouldn’t be you.

Time saved: 5-10 minutes per follow-up (multiplied by frequency) Why it matters: Follow-ups are the most impactful admin task : they directly convert to revenue. And they’re the most commonly dropped.

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Calendar Tasks

4. Diary Management

Your VA manages your calendar, scheduling meetings, preventing double-bookings, building in travel time and lunch breaks, and protecting focus time for deep work. When someone asks for a meeting, they deal with the back-and-forth.

Time saved: 15-30 minutes per day Why it matters: Your calendar works for you instead of happening to you.

5. Meeting Prep

Before each meeting, your VA prepares a brief: who you’re meeting, what was discussed last time, any outstanding actions, and relevant documents. Arrives in your inbox 30 minutes before the meeting.

Time saved: 10-15 minutes per meeting Why it matters: You walk into every meeting prepared, without scrambling.

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Financial Tasks

6. Invoicing

Your VA creates and sends invoices on schedule. They track what’s been paid, flag what’s overdue, and send reminders for late payments. You stop chasing money, they do it for you.

Time saved: 1-3 hours per week Why it matters: Cash flow improves because invoices go out on time and get chased consistently. You stop being the person who has to ask for money.

7. Expense Tracking

Every receipt gets logged, categorised, and filed. Your VA maintains your expense records so they’re ready for your accountant at quarter-end, not in a shoe box on your desk.

Time saved: 30-60 minutes per week Why it matters: You stay HMRC-compliant without thinking about it.

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Client Management Tasks

8. Client Onboarding

New client signs up? Your VA sends the welcome pack, collects required information, sets up their folder in your filing system, schedules the kickoff call, and sends the first invoice. The same professional onboarding experience every time.

Time saved: 30-60 minutes per new client Why it matters: First impressions are professional and consistent, even when you’re busy with other clients.

9. Client Communication Follow-Up

Your VA monitors your client communication tracker and chases anyone who hasn’t responded to requests for information, feedback, or approvals. Polite, persistent, and consistent.

Time saved: 15-30 minutes per day Why it matters: Projects stop stalling because someone is always following up.

10. Testimonial and Review Collection

After project completion, your VA sends a personalised request for a testimonial or Google review. They follow up once if needed, then log the response.

Time saved: 10 minutes per client Why it matters: Your review count grows consistently without you having to ask (which always feels awkward).

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Content and Marketing Tasks

11. Social Media Scheduling

Your VA takes your content ideas (or creates posts from templates) and schedules them across your platforms. They can also monitor comments and flag anything that needs your personal response.

Time saved: 2-4 hours per week Why it matters: Your social presence stays consistent even when you’re too busy to think about it.

12. Blog and Newsletter Formatting

You write the content (or provide bullet points). Your VA formats it for your website, adds images, optimises the layout, and schedules it. Same for newsletters, they handle the technical side of getting it out the door.

Time saved: 30-60 minutes per post/newsletter Why it matters: Content actually gets published instead of sitting in drafts.

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Operations Tasks

13. File Organisation

Your VA creates and maintains a logical filing system in Google Drive (or your platform of choice). Documents are named consistently, filed correctly, and easy to find. That folder of “Misc Documents” from 2023? Gone.

Time saved: Variable (but eliminates 5-10 minutes of searching multiple times per day) Why it matters: You stop wasting time looking for things.

14. Research

Need to find a new supplier? Compare insurance quotes? Research competitors? Investigate a tool or software option? Your VA does the legwork and presents you with a summary and recommendation.

Time saved: 1-3 hours per research project Why it matters: You make informed decisions faster, without doing the digging yourself.

15. Data Entry and Spreadsheet Maintenance

CRM updates, spreadsheet maintenance, database cleaning, contact list management: any structured data task that requires accuracy and patience but not your specific expertise.

Time saved: 30-60 minutes per day Why it matters: Your data stays clean, current, and useful.

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How to Delegate Effectively

Delegating isn’t just “telling someone to do it.” Here’s the framework:

1. Record yourself doing it. Use Loom or a screen recording to capture yourself doing the task once. Talk through your decisions and reasoning. This takes 10 minutes and saves hours of written instructions.

2. Provide examples. Show the VA what “good” looks like. A sample email, a completed spreadsheet, a filed document. Examples are worth a thousand words of instruction.

3. Set the boundaries. What can they decide themselves? What needs your approval? “Send standard replies directly; draft responses for anything unusual and send them to me for review.”

4. Give feedback early. Check the first few outputs and provide specific feedback. “This is perfect” is good. “This is perfect : and next time, also CC the project manager” is better.

5. Trust the process. After the first week or two, stop micro-checking. A good VA finds their rhythm quickly : let them.

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Pick Three. Start This Week.

Don’t try to delegate all 15 at once. Pick three that cause you the most pain or take the most time. Hand them over. Once they’re running smoothly, add more.

Quickest wins: Email triage (#1), invoicing (#6), and file organisation (#13). These have immediate, visible impact and require the least handover.

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Ready to Hand Over Your First Three?

At Empower VA Services, we specialise in exactly these tasks. Tell us which three are eating your time, and we’ll have them off your plate within the first week.

Book a free discovery call →

Fifteen minutes to plan your first delegation. Your future self will thank you.

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Nicola Berry is the founder of Empower VA Services, based in Falkirk, Scotland. Fifteen tasks down, and counting.