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Before TaskRabbit, it was difficult to efficiently outsource tasks that required physical presence, but that does not diminish the value of virtual assistance. The world is increasingly online — including your grandmother now that Facebook hit 500 million users — and so is your to-do list. You don’t have to reside in the Boston or San Francisco areas to live smarter by shifting some of the burden to a computer-savvy Rabbit.

The Lost Art of Thank You Notes

Perfectionism, combined with the fast-paced modern lifestyle, can make it easy to forget your manners. Now that everyone you know can see how much fun you’ve been having via your Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare activity, it’s more awkward than ever when you realize that a month or two has passed since a family member or business associate did something really awesome for you and the gracious thank you note you had planned fell by the wayside. Maybe you got married and invited an overwhelming number of guests. If you’re embarrassed that all the time you’ve spent typing has diminished your penmanship, try Paperless Post. If you simply can’t find the words or time, enlist help.

Throwing a party

One of the best ways to get the word out and determine head count for a party is through online invitations. There’s a plethora of potential services to use: evite, Socializr, Facebook, and our favorite, Pingg. Bounce party theme ideas off a Rabbit and have them wade through the hundreds of templates in each service to assemble the best invitation to impress your friends. If you want to go the old school route or have a particularly formal event, we can sift through paper invitation options as well. How about hiring a party planner Rabbit? You’ll be able to relax and enjoy your party as much as your guests when you leave the work of tracking down temporary furniture like folding tables and chairs or researching venues and caterers to the pros.

Online presence

Effectively organizing text and photos on a web page can make a big difference when you’re trying to launch a business, rent out a property, or display a menu. Not everyone knows how to put together a quick web page, but our techy Rabbits do. Even those who are creating their own sites can benefit from usability testing. If you want to clean up some images for your existing web site or to improve your confidence on social networks but aren’t ready to shell out for your own copy of Photoshop, lean on a Rabbit who already has it. Maybe your business needs a blog to keep your customers engaged but you’re feeling bogged down by all the work it takes to keep generating new content. Let a Rabbit do your research or create a few stock posts to use when there isn’t anything particularly newsworthy to share.

Online Dating

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek and champion automator, was once challenged to outsource his online dating, and you know what? It worked. Maybe you’re shy or aren’t sure how to convey yourself in a way that is most appealing to the opposite sex. This is exactly the type of situation that calls for a third party proxy. A Rabbit who is detached from your personal embarrassment will have no problem getting you out there. Leave it to your matchmaker Rabbit to create your first profile, manage and maintain profiles on multiple sites, pre-screen other profiles according to your criteria, or even schedule dates at designated times. All you have to do is show up and be your charming, delightful self.

Our customers come to us under a variety of circumstances. Some are racing the clock and won’t meet a deadline without some help. Maybe they’re lives are crazy busy or maybe they’ve procrastinated too long. Some don’t have the means to complete a specific task. They need a pickup truck to haul mulch or some borrowed brawn to move furniture. Some lack the technical expertise to complete a task – they’d like to repair something around the house but don’t know a socket wrench from a ratchet wrench, or they want to set up a wireless router and network in their home office.

Others are just more enlightened. They simply don’t want to spend their valuable free time picking up prescriptions and dropping off dry cleaning, washing windows and mowing the lawn. They prefer spending time doing what they love. Everyone loves free time.

At TaskRabbit, our goal is to help as many people as possible join the enlightened group. As we’ve mentioned before, according to the American Time Use Survey from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend an inordinate amount of time performing mundane and tedious chores. It doesn’t have to be that way!

By outsourcing your personal tasks, you can free up more time to do the things you love. Helping people discover a better, smarter way to live is what keeps us energized at TaskRabbit. We know life is busy. And we are here to help.

Whether you are new to the “Daddy Community” or you are a long-time member of this elite society, there is one thing that every dad could use in their lives and it isn’t another tie; It’s more free time.

This Father’s Day, don’t spend money on a store bought gift. Store bought isn’t personalized, and frankly, he probably has enough “stuff.” Give  your dad something far more valuable and memorable; A Day to Himself to Relax.

Think of all the ways in which a father could enjoy more free time in his day. Free time equates to rewards like: getting to watch that basketball game he’s been looking forward to, catching up on nap time, working on his golf game, reading that book he’s been looking forward to finishing or simply enjoying more time with the family.

Think to yourself: “What can I do for Dad that would relieve some of the mundane chore time from his day.”

Ideas for Helping Dad:

• Mow the lawn and do that extra yard work that needs doing
• Clean and detail his car (saves him time AND money)
• Take the trash out and organize the recycling
• Heavy lifting around the house
• Organizing the garage
• Cleaning the Gutters
• Updating his computer
• Housework (from painting to fixing those broken shelves.)
• Taking and picking up (and paying for) his dry cleaning.
• The best gift you can give someone is free time.

Second best gift? Check out what our friend Tim Ferris has to say about the TOP GIFTS THAT CAN CHANGE OR SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Summer has finally arrived- hooray! With a brand new set of to-do’s. Boo. Never fear- TaskRabbit’s here to help!  We’ll complete those to-do’s so you can have the fun. How can we help? Check out our Top Summer Tasks…

Install Your A/C – Everyone has struggled through the process of trying to install an air conditioner each summer; they’re heavy and awkward. It’s a strenuous task that can often take two people (unless you’re a pro weightlifter; in which case, congratulations). TaskRabbit’s Runners can do it all or give you a helping hand!

Set-up/Clean-up BBQ – It’s a staple in your summer schedule: the Barbeque. It’s fun, relaxing… during the actual event. Throwing one yourself can be another story; organizing a BBQ can be too much, not to mention the cleanup. Focus on the important stuff (the relaxing/fun parts) and you can let us handle the rest.

Pet-sit While on Vacation – It’s summer, so you want to take a little time off to get out of your home and go somewhere else; you’ve earned it, right? It’s tough to bring your pets on the vacation with you, though (getting away from the pet care can be half the reason to get away, too). There are plenty of Runners who would love to tend to your pet for a week while you tan in the sand.

Buy Ice – It’s summer; you need ice. Instead of trekking out to the store in the heat, just ask someone to do it for you. It’s so much cooler that way.

Entertain Children – There’s no school to keep the kids occupied. Your (relatively) peaceful home is bursting with the beautiful noise of screaming children during the day. Everyone could use an hour to sit and relax, so just have one of your neighborly, background checked and personally interviewed TaskRabbit Runners come over and help them with tutoring, playing in the back yard, or help you bring the kids to the beach for the day.

As with every task that you post on TaskRabbit, you decide the price so you never have to pay more than you want. As always, you never know what will come up this summer, but whatever does, we can handle it!

Now that Kobe is off to San Francisco, our new intern, Radar, has taken charge of “Happy Animal Wednesdays” (and most other days if we’re being

Kobe's Summer Intern, Radar

honest) at TaskRabbit. He’s been all over town trying to spread the word on how TaskRabbit can help Animals throughout the summer. Did you happen to spot him at Yappier Hour last week? If not, keep your eyes open because he’s been all over Boston handing out doggie gift bags with our interns!

Radar really wants to make sure that his four legged friends around the city get to enjoy summer just as much as their parents. Just last week he organized the photography for his cousin’s first birthday party at Petco and today he’s been hard at work to find a walker for his buddy Dewey, the Golden Retriever. Thanks to Radar’s hard work, animal related tasks are pouring in at TaskRabbit. Please remember to keep Radar in mind this summer if it’s too hot out to make a run to Polka Dog Bakery or if you’re traveling and need to find a dog friendly hotel…he’s a great runner!

Yes the rumors are true, as Scott Kirsner reported this morning, Kevin and I have decided to move west for the launch of TaskRabbit.com in San Francisco. It was a tough decision to head west, and I’ve appreciated all the support from family and friends as we make this journey. I realize there is some rivalry between the two coasts, especially when we are talking about a certain city, but our reason for moving is simple. TaskRabbit has a somewhat unique model, in that we are hyper-local, we scale city by city. It is only natural at this early stage, as the Founder, I would want to ensure that everything goes perfectly in the second market. So in order to absolutely nail our launch in San Francisco, I want to be out there, learning the landscape, the neighborhoods, and the idiosyncrasies. After this second city, we will have learned enough about scaling of the model to go quickly after that. Our Boston-based operations team will remain in place the Cambridge office to support our East Coast growth. Look for us to bring on more Boston suburbs this summer.

In the 18 months TaskRabbit has been doing tasks for people, we have experienced tremendous growth. The company has expanded from me working alone in my apartment in Charlestown, to five full time employees and an office in Cambridge. We have more than 300 runners completing tasks in the Boston area. And we are continuing to grow. It’s a dream come true.

Both Boston and San Francisco are home to some of the brightest minds in innovation and venture and we will look to both coasts when we seek an additional round of funding to support our growth.

Kevin and I are pretty excited. We’ll be driving across the country, with our 100lb yellow lab Kobe in tow. The timing worked out that my sister is getting married in Nashville, TN this weekend – at 2:30pm on Saturday. We’ve got 24 hours to drive from Boston to Nashville staring Friday afternoon. Of Memorial Day Weekend. One of the busiest driving weekends of the year. And hitting New York City at rush hour. We should be fine, right?! I am a little concerned, but we have to make my sister’s wedding, so that’s what we’ll do.

After Nashville, we plan to get on either I-70 or I-80 to make the trek to San Francisco. Would love any recommendations here.

You can follow our progress on Twitter and I plan to checkin on Gowalla the entire way. Maybe even get a few video blog entries in. Kobe is ecstatic, he loves a good car ride. Hopefully he’ll love the 3,000+ car ride as well!

By Intern Jen Smith

Over at TaskRabbit, we are as mad as a March hare over animals. In case you haven’t heard the story, TaskRabbit was created when our Chief

Kobe preps for Dog Day Afternoons!

Inspiration Officer, Kobe, needed a new bag of dog food and his Mom (our boss) didn’t have time to run to the store. With Kobe as our guide, we are working to increase the number of animal related tasks in many special ways

For starters, we’ve kicked off a pet food delivery program with Polka Dog Bakery. With Polka Dog, you can have your pet food delivered directly to your door at regular intervals for just $10. With the help of our awesome 200+ runners, this means that Kobe’s friends in the greater Boston area don’t have to lose precious puppy sleep over their next meal.

Recently, a dog-walking task inspired us to reach out to the pups of Boston. With summer approaching, we will soon be starting our “Dog Day Afternoon” events where we visit local dog parks equipped with special doggie bags.

Kobe hired a new intern named Radar. He’s really fond of Nunziato Field Dog Park and Gold Star Mother’s, so be on the look out for him! After a busy day on the job, we promise to reward him with some “dogtails” during Yappier Hour at the Liberty Hotel. Hope to see you there!

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RTM Kills Your To-Do Lists

Fact: Life is busy.

While innovations like smartphones and laptops have made things more convenient in a number of ways, they have also managed to make our everyday lives more hectic, simply by virtue of the common sentiment that everything is easier to do, and you’re expected to get it all done, so how do you prioritize tasks? (*Must remember, take heartburn meds after eating Buffalo wings…)

Thankfully, someone turned me on to Remember the Milk. (Should have named it “Remember the Heartburn Meds…”)

The premise is simple: it’s a way to keep your tasks, duties, responsibilities, etc., organized and prioritized; a to-do list with some very clever features.

Simply type whatever task you’ve got to remember and RTM will add it to your list in order of priority and due date (you can specify all of these details when creating the task or you can edit them later on). There are folders for work, personal (eat fewer wings), study, and an “inbox” within your account.

In a feature I’m particularly fond of, for creating a due date and time, you can just type “next Thursday at 5pm” and it will appear in the proper place on your list. There’s the traditional RTM website as well as a smartphone App, which of course syncs up with your online account. I could write more about specifics, but you should just check it out yourself.

*Full disclosure, we’re not affiliated with them, but for me personally and for the TaskRabbit Team, it has been incredibly useful for making my life more organized and generally easier (that’s what we’re all about at TaskRabbit; making life easier). One final note, on my Droid phone, a light blinks green when the screen’s off to let me know that I have a text message, email, etc., but for the reminders I get from RTM, it blinks blue. I found this very exciting, maybe too exciting (ask my officemates), but it was just another great feature of a very useful tool.

Thanks Remember the Milk! And away I go to Remember the Tums…