Santa’s lil Task Runner - 5 ways to keep sane this festive season

http://eclectiquebutterfly.blogspot.com.au/2010/12/some-christmas-funnies.html

Is it any wonder that Australians greet Christmas with a mix of quiet delight and a sinking sense of misery?

Any of these scenarios sound familiar?

• Mum is in the kitchen slaving over chooks, hams, seafood, salads, roast veggies, trifle and plum pudding.
• Uncle is on guard duty to stop the kids from squeezing and shaking the presents too much before the big reveal.
• Aunty is almost to the point of stapling the baby into her Christmas gown to avoid any more nudie nappy runs.
• Every 3 minutes one of the kids insists on putting the antlers back on the less than impressed family dog.
• Grandpa is in the corner making more and more unwanted advances towards the sherry.
• Nana can’t get over the heat...oh the heat...and what it’s doing to her ankles, knees, hips and ears.  
• Whoever gave the toddler a noise-maker is inches away from being strangled by Dad. 

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It's not even Christmas day!

So we've put together 5 ways to use TaskRunners to keep some sense of sanity working up to the 25th. 

1) Help with cleaning and fix-it projects

The house has to be super clean in order to pass the fingered glove test the mother-out-law (oops, typo) loves so much. So if scrubbing the house like a crazy person was one less day of hard work you didn’t have to do, post a spring cleaning task. 

Those DIY and fix-it projects from last year better not be hanging around lest Dad gets a lecture from his father and father-in-law. You can get help tackling those as well.

2) Pick up the grocery shopping 

Feeding an army at your party and don't want to break the bank? How about asking a Runner with a Costco membership to pick up your shopping and even have it delivered. It's worth the savings in time and money. 

Trips to the farmers markets. Picking up the 10 cartons of alcohol. Picking up the Christmas ham! Don't lose hairs over it, if it's one less thing on your to-do list, have someone help out. 

3) Put up (or taking down) the decorations 

If you love the idea of entering the best Christmas lights on the street competition you could possibly do with a spare hand. Or even if it's just dragging the tree from the garage and putting up the 500 decorations. That's at least a few hours of your weekend you could be doing something else. 

4) Be your personal shopper

How nice would it be to simply write lists and send off to your personal shopper? Well, you can. Managing your time and priorities is one of the best ways to help handle periods which can become overwhelming. Delegating tasks is not about losing responsibility but about prioritising your time and using it wisely. 

5) Help at the party

Treat yourself to actually enjoying your own party and relax with the help of Runners waiting on your guests and helping set up and clean up. A little box of choccies to say thank you for their help would be a special touch. 

It’s funny. Christmas is such a special occasion but the thrill of actually being able to have Christmas your way somehow diminishes as the workload piles on. Even before you can say “yes, we get to do it our way this year!” you’re surrounded with chores and complaints.

Lighten the load with TaskRunners. Large or small, we can put some of the jolly back into your Christmas this year!

Are you planning to have a stress-free Christmas this year?

Can you help us launch TaskRunners?

At the crux of it, TaskRunners is all about help. Helping people who need things done and connecting them with people who are looking to earn some extra income by providing that help. My English teacher would be appalled to see the word ‘help’ used four times in a paragraph. Sorry Mrs Brown, but I’m trying to get a message through here.

As we inch closer to our website going live in a mere week or so I’m buzzing with excitement that it’s come this far. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished as a team (thank you Michael, Grant, Bek and Corn) and thrilled to have had such positive support from our growing community to keep the dream going. The best is yet to come.

I’ll be honest – starting a marketplace of any sort is not easy. Think eBay as a prime example. Critical mass, ie getting enough people to use the site as either Task Posters or Task Runners is the key, otherwise it simply doesn’t work. The great news is that it IS going to work and you know why? Not because I’m financial and emotionally vested in it but because YOU, our friends, our fans, our family want it also see it succeed. And damn it, it’s going to happen. Here’s where you come in.

The 'Go Live' button. 

On the day we go live, the last thing you and I want to see is a measly handful of tasks posted by my dear mother.  We want to get everyone hitting the ‘Post it’ button from the get go. Flood the pages with things you need done for the house, in preparation for Christmas, for that party you’re having with 50 friends, with getting your small business in order – tasks that have been sitting around for way too long waiting for the tooth fairy to take away and leave her gold coin for. It’s time to get it done!

So what can you do to help? In any of the following ways:

• Post your tasks of course!
• Share our page www.taskrunners.com.au with your friends on email, Facebook, Twitter and any other social media and let them know what amazing things we’re looking to do here at TaskRunners,
• Give out flyers to your local coffee shop, businesses, schools and clubs,
• Leaflet drops in your building and around your suburb. We can post these out to you, just email me at Cheryl@taskrunners.com.au and let me know how many you’d like and your mailing address and I’ll get that out to you quick smart.
• Spread the word whichever way you like.

I can’t say thank you enough for your support. There truly are amazing people in the world. I’m looking forward to hearing stories about your experiences and how TaskRunners has really made a difference.

Yours in tasks

Cheryl

"I am surrounded by good energy, great opportunities, and amazing people." - Sylvia Borges

Small task, HUGE help!

Reckon these guys could lend us some 'Help'?

TaskRunners needs your Help! 

It’s exciting times at TaskRunners. Whilst the website and design has been finalised and the copy is percolating nicely, as we come closer to launch time we still have some burning questions we need answered. That’s why we need you to share your thoughts with us so we can turn some of those assumptions into facts (or send them to the discard pile!).

We know if you don’t know your audience, you’re pretty much boned. That’s why we really need you to help us out by answering a ten minute survey. It sounds simple enough, but trust us, your feedback could make the difference between TaskRunners soaring like an eagle or coming to earth with the wet ka-thunk of an uncooked turkey. Believe us, we don’t like wasting good turkey.

It's question and answer time

We’ve created some questions based around finding out what is taking up too much of your time and you’d dearly love to jettison if you got the chance, what kinds of skills you could bring to the table, how you feel about in-kind (or barter) versus cash and generally what does and doesn’t float your boat when it comes to the things you need to do.

It’s something that anyone who leads a busy life can relate to (which is all of us, right?). We’re also particularly interested in hearing from small business owners, parents (especially super busy mums), freelancers, uni students, retirees, people who would like to or currently use barter – even if it is to tell us you think our ideas are not on the money. But no matter your circumstance, each voice counted will get us further away from guesswork and closer to the facts.

So please, help us to help you lighten the load. Give us five minutes out of your busy day today and we will use those five minutes to plan how we can repay you with a lot more free time at a later date! We’ll be ever so grateful.

Just click the link below to take you straight to the survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/taskrunners

Help us spread the word around through your Facebook timeline, twitter or email. 

Thanks a bunch!

The TaskRunners Team