Are you in a profession where you book appointments with the general public or a large group of people? If so, you will be able to save yourself and your clients a lot of time with this new tool from the makers of WhenIsGood. It’s called YouCanBookMe and it allows you to publish available times directly from your Gmail or Google Apps calendar.

One of the best ways to save time is to delegate. Properly done, you can multiply your efforts by spreading work and save your energy for the most strategic work — work which presumably only you can do.

There are a number of firms that provide virtual (remote) assistants.  I have used both offshore and USA resources. Individuals that work for these firms will perform a wide variety of tasks for you from updating websites to sending flowers to your wife.  If you can state your needs clearly, they can save you a lot of time and potentially money as well. If you’re not in the habit of being crystal clear, however, you can frustrate yourself (and them) in the process. This is true even in local face-to-face delegation but it is a more acute problem in the offshore model where you face cultural and language differences.

Tim Ferris (author of The Four Hour Work Week) has assembled a list of firms through which you can hire a remote assistant. Some firms have areas of specialty (Agents of Value) while others are more general (AskSunday).

For work that requires a high-touch phone presence (scheduling sales appointments, for instance) or discernment about American culture (we speak more slowly in the South), I recommend using a local person. Check out Cindy Filer’s Innovative-Outsourcing for superb USA-based virtual help.