Tell me more ×
Personal Productivity Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people wanting to improve their personal productivity. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite
2

As a busy individual, I am trying to figure out how I can gain leverage in my personal life in the same way I have leverage in my work life.

Online personal assistants seem to be a god-send. Inexpensive help for finding information, calling businesses to make appointments, managing a calendar and email, etc.

Problem is many of the assistants on various sites are overseas, lack local context, and require very specific instructions that can be more time consuming to write than the task itself.

Any ideas on how to successfully make use of online assistants? Specifically looking for

  • Techniques: e.g. how to communicate tasks, check results, etc.
  • Counter-intuitive tasks: e.g. taking a picture of your book shelf and asking them to prioritize books to read based on online reviews
  • Specific websites: with high quality assistants or novel capabilities
share|improve this question
2  
You are asking about three different questions. Split them up. – Brian Carlton Jun 22 '11 at 21:44
2  
Closing as too vague to be answerable -- please split it up into answerable questions! – HedgeMage Jun 22 '11 at 21:59
I think we should re-open it though. It's a very interesting question and it could be a community wiki question as well, and I am sure having answers for this could benefit our members. – JFW Jun 25 '11 at 7:52

closed as not a real question by Brian Carlton, HedgeMage Jun 22 '11 at 21:59

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.