I'm a father of 2, and getting a virtual-assistant service has given me back 10 hours a week to spend with my family

• The couple has two small children and a very busy life managing their careers.
• They started using a virtual-assistant service to help them with daily chores and organization.

Editor's note: The family asked to remain anonymous for work privacy reasons. Their identities are known to Insider.

I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. I'm a management consultant in London, and my wife runs her own business. We're so busy that we have to try and squeeze life admin into work time, which means you're not always paying attention, or things just don't get done.

Tasks like sorting out the washing machine that's not working or getting the kids vaccinated and having to sit for an hour on the phone to make an appointment all pile up. And suddenly the home to-do list becomes more urgent than the work one.

When we got a virtual assistant, though, it changed everything. Now we outsource our chores. In turn, we have more time as a family.

I was skeptical at first

We use a service called BlckBx, in which we can list the tasks we need to do through a portal and in a group chat, and the team gets right on it.

I must admit, I'm a pretty cynical person, so the idea that there's someone or some solution out there that can solve the problem of having too much to do is hard to believe. But I was part of a trial group that my company rolled out as a work perk before extending it to all employees to help improve work-life balance for everyone.

They could pay me more money, I suppose, but that doesn't change my stress levels or what's going on at home. This acknowledges the constraints all working parents are under.

I've been able to cut down my to-do list

I've since been able to cut my personal to-do list by five to 10 hours a week. We've had help with things like organizing our older child's birthday party, sorting out our window cleaning, upgrading our internet plan, getting broken luggage fixed, organizing online-shopping returns, booking restaurants so my wife and I can spend quality time together, and arranging activities for family vacations.

Getting more things done with less effort is mind-blowing. Five hours doesn't sound like a lot in a week, but when you think about how my assistant's job at work is to optimize every 10 minutes, with work calls shrinking from an hour to 45 to 30 to 20 minutes, everything's scheduled with crazy intensity.

Ordinarily, a third of the stuff on my to-do list, I just wouldn't do, and life would just be a bit poorer as a result but we'd get by. Another third, I'd try and get done while multitasking at work. And then the other third, I'd have to do at, say, five in the morning on a Saturday, which has a knock-on effect for what kind of mood and energy levels you have on the weekend when you're meant to be spending time with your family.

Our marriage is more equitable now

Now I have more time with my kids, and I'm a lot more productive at work. My wife has also been a massive beneficiary. It's allowed for a more equitable distribution of the home workload.

It's been a real game-changer to allow us to balance everything.

She used to have a corporate career at a big bank, and she's now a Marie Kondo tidying consultant, which she started during the pandemic while she was on her second parental leave. Being able to ring-fence her time to pursue this has enabled her to start her next chapter and flourish.

I wouldn't have thought that such an incremental change could make such a difference. I always think of things in systems, and now I feel the system, in terms of how we take care of our personal admin, is a lot more stable and resilient. That means we can enjoy our lives more and not worry so much about what's around the corner.