So you decided to create a Virtual Assistant Business; it seemed like a good idea; you could do it from home with the baby and kids, it’s important for you to be there for them, but now you’ve lost control. Then you get a client or two or three, and the money starts coming in, but you’re constantly tired and cranky after all, you now not only have the children to take care of, but you have to juggle clients, family and friends.

Here is what you’re feeling right now, exhaustion, stress, frustration, you’re being pulled from pillar to post, you can’t concentrate on one thing for long, everything is getting away from you, and you feel like you’re spiralling out of control. But you know what? This was actually avoidable if you had only set yourself up for the win from the beginning.

We all have the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month and a year. No matter how much you scream, “I wish I had more time, ” you’re not going to get it. So trying to squeeze more into a day, is only going to end up ruining your business and crushing your dreams.

The VA Project has a Time Allocation Wheel (it’s free to sign up, and there are heaps of goodies to download for start-up Virtual Assistants).

10 Things That Will Put You In Control

Here are some things you can do right now to stop spiralling out of control:

  1. Grab some paper (possibly a lot of paper A4 sheets), your favourite pens and four highlighters,
    • one colour for day
    • one colour for week
    • one colour for month
    • one colour for client work
  2. List down everything you do in a day, and I mean everything, because doing things takes time, so don’t take any shortcuts here; if you do then you may as well stop the exercise right now because you’re sabotaging yourself.
  3. Using your day job highlighter, go through and highlight absolutely everything that needs to be done for a day
  4. Using your week highlighter, go through and highlight absolutely everything that needs to be done weekly
  5. Using your month highlighter, go through and highlight absolutely everything that needs to be done monthly
  6. Using your client highlighter, go through and highlight absolutely everything that you do for your client.
  7. Using a red pen, write down how much time you spend doing each day, week, month, and client task. I’m guessing you’ve got a lot of red pen marks
  8. On a separate piece of paper, divide it three. Each section represents morning, afternoon and night
  9. The daily tasks you’ve highlighted, are they best done in, the morning, afternoon or night? Write the task into the relevant section with the time it takes to do the task.
  10. Do the same for week, month and client

The Outcome

You should now have a clear view of where your day is heavy, the morning, afternoon or night. Is there anything you can do differently to give you a more even workload during the day?

Everyone has different factors that impact their day-to-day work and home life. Knowing where you’re spending your time will help you to manage it better, feel less stressed, and be more in control. Being able to recognise major time wasters (and we all do them) is half the battle.

Your Next Steps

You can regain control of your Virtual Assistant biz easily with The VA Project Monthly Coaching Calls, get the support you need when you need it and don’t forget to schedule your coaching time into your plan too, contact us to find out more.