What does a day in the life as a VA look like? It's not all cups of tea and the odd hour tapping away at the computer and lunches out with friends contrary to belief.
So what does a typical day look like for me?
Like most business owners I start my day the night before. Around 9:30/10pm, I plan for the day ahead, I look through all of the Tasks I have been set and their deadlines and make a plan by time blocking.
I use time blocking as it ensures I keep to my clients budgets and hours booked. It also makes me schedule in time for myself like stopping for lunch.
I'm up by 7am most mornings, once my toddler daughter stops waking up 2/3 times a night (She's 3years old...any hints as to when this might stop and she'll sleep through.... Answers on a postcode please!?!), I would love to say I plan to join the 6am club to fit in some exercise but at the moment 7am works for us. I get the toddler's Breakfast and then rouse the 9year old from her pre-teenage like slumber. Honestly it's like raising the dead some mornings!!
Then it's all systems go to get everyone out of the house for the 8:30am School & Nursery Run. If I have to visit the post office to send out letters for clients I do this on the way back from the school run.
9:15am I'm at my desk, I do a quick check of my emails & socials.
9:30am I schedule client catch ups early (A couple of my clients like weekly Catch-ups whilst others like a monthly check-in) to avoid disturbing the the flow of the day and interrupting client work.
10am - 1pm is Client work, this could be scheduling posts for clients social media channels, doing research and collating data, Newsletters, managing memberships subscriptions, sending out letters and documents, anything goes...no two days are the same and the work is always varied, which I love.
1:30 - 2pm I scroll through my social media channels, reply to any messages or Comments on posts, scour Facebook and LinkedIn posts for VA requests and introduce my business. I will sometimes use this time plan out content for my blog and social media posts.
2-3pm - Client work, I will usually use this hour for email based tasks.
3-7:30pm is my Family Time, My kids are home from School and there is often homework or errands to be run and I find the kids very distracting if I try to work, especially as my home office is in the main living room for now. Like seriously, how many snacks can one child possibly need between getting home and dinner? or it's "But mum I really need to show you this video on you tube"!! **eye rolls**, if you're a parent you know what I mean and feel my pain.
We're also in the throws of moving house and disappointingly there isn't a fairy or magic wand that does packing or solicitor forms for you. I do occasionally sneak in some emails or do a little of my own bookkeeping from my phone but only ever for my own business.
7:30pm - 9:30pm - I occasionally co-host webinars or zoom meetings for clients, when I'm not doing that I usually spend time on creative tasks like website builds or Canva related client tasks, as I find I'm more creative in the evenings for some reason. I will sometimes use this time for Self development and Learning. I'm currently doing two courses, one bookkeeping qualification and one to be MailerLite certified.
9:30pm - 10pm maybe a couple more emails and then I plan for the following day.
10:30-11pm - Bedtime
So there we go, there is often a myth that VA's only work part time due to family commitments but I can assure you that any VA business worth it's salt is not your standard 9-5 career. Yes we may not keep standard hours like a normal office based admin assistants but we are thinking and working on and in our business all day everyday. I've started to be a little stricter with myself recently and am trying to not work at the weekends but as you know us business owners, we do what we have to do to get the job done.