Virtual Personal Assistant Blog

Spring Break: How to Take the Stress out of Planning your Spring Break

If you’re looking forward to celebrating your spring break by travelling to an exotic destination which boasts an endless array of white sand beaches but are a little overwhelmed by the prospect of organizing your dream spring break trip, continue reading to discover six tips which have been designed to make travel planning a breeze.

Six tips on planning your dream spring break:

1. Remember that the longer you stay, the cheaper your accommodation is likely to be

Whether you plan on staying at a luxurious five star beach resort, or you’re looking to rent an apartment, if you have time up your sleeve it’s well worth considering vacationing for a few weeks as most hotels, resorts and apartments offer highly discounted rates for customers who are booking an extended vacation.

2. Research each of the destinations on your short list thoroughly

By researching each of the destinations which have made your short list, you’ll be more likely to find a destination that suits the style of spring vacation that you’re looking for. As an example, if you’re a student whose looking forward to beach parties and pool parties, visiting Cancun, which is known for it’s legendary parties may be a great idea.

Whilst if you’re looking to plan a family friendly, spring break vacation you may prefer visiting Puerto Vallarta, which has a more laid back vibe. Also consider whether you’d prefer to visit a location where English is the official language such as Oahu or Maui in Hawaii, or whether you’d prefer to test out your high school Spanish in a location such as Cancun or San Jose.

If you have a busy schedule leading up to spring break you may want to consider getting a virtual assistant to help you research travel destinations.

3. Consider seeking virtual assistance

If you’re short on time but want to ensure that you’re getting the best deals possible it’s well worth hiring a virtual assistant to organize your spring break for you. A virtual assistant can take care of a variety of tasks, as an example your assistant can browse hundreds of resort reviews on websites such as Tripadvisor, to ensure that you book accommodation at a resort which boasts exceptional service and a wide array of amenities and facilities. As another example, a virtual assistant can search the websites of multiple airlines in order to find the best available deal, on your specified travel dates.

Other tasks which a virtual assistant can take care of include organizing shuttle transportation from the airport to your hotel or resort and booking tours, attractions and activities that you may be interested in, in advance of your vacation. So once you embark on your vacation, you won’t have to worry about organizing an itinerary.

4. Book your spring break well in advance

Many airlines, resorts and hotels offer unbeatable deals for early birds who book their vacation in advance. So if you’d like your vacation budget to stretch a little further, it’s definitely worth booking your flights and accommodation well in advance. Remember that it’s also worth booking your vacation in advance as spring break is a high peak travel season, so the longer you wait the higher room prices are likely to be and as many spring breaks are extremely popular, accommodation may sell out at certain resorts and hotels.

5. If you’re on a budget consider sharing a room with friends or family members

If you’re on a strict budget, why not book a twin room and split your accommodation costs with a friend or family member? Remember, that if you’re on spring break you’re likely to spend the bulk of your time exploring your destination, so you’re unlikely to spend much time in your hotel room anyway!

6. Make sure that you have an up to date passport

What’s more important than a new bathing suit and your smart phone? Your passport! Even if you’re sure that your passport is lying around somewhere, it’s well worth checking the expiration date of your passport as many countries require your passport to be valid six months after you return home.

So if you’re in the process of planning your next spring break, simply follow the six tips listed above and you’ll have your spring break planned in no time! Also take our advice and hire a virtual assistant, as they make travel planning a breeze!

Increase Productivity While Working From Home

When running a home business, you have to deal with all kinds of tasks constantly. Because of this burden, things can begin to feel overwhelming. Thankfully, there are many awesome activities you can do to break up the monotony and frustrating menial tasks you are faced with every day. To help you begin leading a more successful and happy home work life, try out these four awesome tips to increasing productivity while working from home:

1. Take Frequent Breaks
Overworking yourself may seem noble or like it will make you more successful, but it actually does more harm than good. When you fail to take frequent small breaks, your brain becomes exhausted, and your ability to focus on task effectively diminishes. Working that 30 minutes extra a day is not worth having your overall work quality fall.

2. Exercise Your Mind and Body
One of the best things you can do during breaks are small mind and body exercise. Whether you attempt yoga, a quick run, or a small relaxing nap, these sorts of body boosting techniques can help your mind become sharply focused. If you want to lead a more relaxing and successful work life, finding what mind and body boosting exercises fit your lifestyle can provide a huge boost.

3. Find Time for Social Interaction
Keeping yourself kept up in your home office day after day can have negative mental effects. Getting out there and doing business face to face when possible cannot only increase your business’s reputation, but will help your overall mood skyrocket. Nobody wants to be strapped to a chair for the entire work day, and doing so is terrible for your mental health, so start planning things you can do to make your work day a bit more social.

4. Hire a Virtual Assistant
To free up time during your workday, and get rid of the time you waste every day on menial tasks, hiring a virtual assistant is highly recommended. By hiring one assistant to help you with day-to-day work tasks, you will be able to expand the breadth of your business goals.
For quality virtual assistant services, you need go no further than OkayRelax. Their virtual assistant services pair you with a personal VA to help you lead a more successful and relaxing home work life. From administrative tasks to making dinner reservations for a well deserved after work break, your assistant will help you lead a more fulfilling life.
Here are just a few of the amazing tasks that your OkayRelax virtual assistant will help you handle:

-Time Consuming Research: Need a topic thoroughly researched, but don’t have the time to scroll through Google through hours on end? Let an OkayRelax virtual assistant take on this sometimes-frustrating burden for you. Give them a topic and then sit back while they put together a detailed and easy to understand report for your convenience.

-Administrative Tasks: Never waste time setting up meetings and transcribing audio again. With an OkayRelax virtual assistant you can simply delegate the tasks you need administrated for the night, and they will take care of the rest. That way, you will have plenty of extra time to focus on the actual needs of your clients.

-Schedule Management: Crafting your schedule week after week can take hours of annoying work. Thankfully, OkayRelax virtual assistants have plenty of experience crafting schedules for home businesses in all sorts of industries. Additionally, your personal assistant will help ensure that you never miss an important call or meeting!

-Restaurant Reservations: After work, you just want to relax with some good food, wine, and company. With an OkayRelax virtual assistant, the sometimes-complicated task of researching and booking an awesome restraint reservation will become simple. Simply tell them your tastes, budget, and the kind of atmosphere you crave, and the assistant will do the rest.

-Activity Recommendation: For healthy work breaks and after hour fun, OkayRelax virtual assistants can be an excellent source of support. Allow them to take the time out of their day to plan awesome activities for you, and you will free up tons of time to get the amount of work done you need to do to relax.

-Travel Planning: Looking to schedule an awesome vacation, or a work trip that will help you make your business skyrocket? At OkayRelax, the virtual assistants will make sure your trip goes off without a hitch. Allow them to research hotels, restaurants, activities and more that will make your trip stellar.
Now that you know all the amazing benefits to be had with an OkayRelax virtual assistant, do not hesitate to make an appointment for a free consultation today! A more relaxing and successful home workweek is just a call away!

Top 5 Ways a Virtual Personal Assistant Can Make Your Halloween Perfect

Halloween can be one of the most fun holidays there is to celebrate, as there are great festive opportunities for the whole family to get swept away in the frightful spirit. But with so many different things going on for every imaginable age group, Halloween can also be incredibly stressful to manage on your own. Luckily, if you are working parent or busy professional and you want to get the most out of the Holiday’s traditions, getting planning and logistical support is a lot easier than you might imagine. Here are 5 ways that a virtual personal assistant can help you plan your Halloween celebration

1. Search for The Right Themed Costume

Themed costumes are a big win every year on Halloween, and whether you want to dress up like your favorite character from a current T.V. show or a recognizable icon, a virtual personal assistant can help you find the perfect themed costume for you. Start off by telling your virtual assistant what theme you are going for, for example by telling them the kind name of the T.V. show that you are looking for costume ideas for. Then, give your virtual assistant some budget and style tips, and let them get to searching! Your virtual assistant will be able to return a list of potential costumes that meet your criteria, and order your favorite one.

2. Order Your Favorite Candy

Buying candy from the supermarket can be a big chore around Halloween, as stores can’t keep the most popular varieties stocked and prices tend to get more and more inflated the closer to Halloween you get. But if you have a favorite candy flavor that you’ve just got to have, and you don’t have the time to wait in lines or shop around to find your favorite, a virtual personal assistant can help. A virtual assistant can order your favorite sweets from an online retailer, helping you avoid the lines and get exactly what you want. All you have to do is let your assistant know what your sweet tooth is craving!

3. Help Coordinate and Order Your Decorations

If getting into the spirit all out and decorating your front lawn is part of the holiday fun for you, don’t worry, your virtual personal assistant can help with that too! If you don’t have exact ideas about what kinds of decorations you want, but have some vague idea of what themes or scenes you want to create, let your personal assistant know. They can research coordinated decoration ideas for you, and order a whole spread to help make your house extra spooky for the holidays. All you have to do is let your assistant know what budget they have and what kinds of things you are looking for, and they can easily do the rest.

4. Research Big Events in Your Area

If you have a hankering to get out this Halloween but don’t quite know what to do, a virtual personal assistant can be a huge aid in helping you find the perfect parties and events in your area. Just let your virtual assistant know what times you are looking for events, and how far you are willing to travel, and they can help generate a big list of all of the events going on in your area. From there, you can pick your favorite dance, parade, or party opportunities, and even have your virtual assistant purchase tickets or make reservations for you.

5. Manage Your Contacts to Keep Your Holiday Social

At its core, Halloween is a very social holiday, and your personal virtual assistant can help you make sure that you get the most social interaction that you can out of the scariest night of the year. For starters, if you have children, your virtual assistant can reach out to sitters that have worked out in the past and help coordinate child care to help you get out of the house. Since it’s such a social holiday for young people too, finding an available sitter may take quite some time, and delegating that task to your virtual assistant will let you focus on more fun things.

From there, your virtual assistant can reach out to your contacts to find the best parties and look for the best social opportunities, or even invite all of your closest friends to your place if you want to be at the center of a holiday social event. Your virtual assistant will do all the leg work for you of figuring out what your best friends will be up to, and help you plan to make sure that you can spend as much time with them as possible. No matter how you like to celebrate Halloween, a virtual personal assistant can help you get in the spirit, and make sure that you have people around you to celebrate with!