Episode 214: Get Organized and Boost Your Productivity as a Virtual Assistant

Full Episode Transcription:

[00:00:00] Are you feeling burned out and overwhelmed in your virtual assistant business?

[00:00:04] I know that the demands of our work, our family, our personal life, it can all be really overwhelming. It can definitely be a lot. So in this episode, you’re gonna learn how to regain control with these three essential steps to get organized and become more productive in your virtual assistant business.

[00:00:24] These techniques will help you efficiently manage your work from home life so that you can have more time to enjoy the things that truly matter to you. So these steps that I’m gonna share with you today, they are the biggest trick to reducing how much time it takes for you to get your work done. When I started implementing these tips into my business , I went from working, I’d say 25 hours a week, sometimes even 30, like with my kiddos around me.

[00:00:58] I don’t know how I did that. Now, I work probably a max of 15 and I get more done than I did when I was working 25, 30 hours a week. Okay, so tip number one is to prioritize and break down your tasks in your business so you can get organized. So the very first step to organizing your virtual assistant business is figuring out what tasks you have to get done and prioritizing them.

[00:01:25] So I want you to get a sheet of paper and throughout the next week, do a brain dump of all of the things that you have to do in your virtual assistant business. Whether it’s something you do every single day, maybe you just do something once a week. Maybe you just have to do something once a month. I want you to write all of these down and you can put them into categories to make it a little bit easier for you right off the get-go.

[00:01:51] So daily tasks that you do, you know, maybe five days a week, you write on the daily column, weekly tasks that you maybe just do once a week. You put in the weekly column, and then monthly tasks you do like once or twice a month, put in the monthly column. So you need to identify what you’re supposed to be doing in your business and then break that down into these different tasks.

[00:02:15] That way you can understand all the steps you’re really doing, a nd see that visual of what you need to be working on so you’re not spending your time focusing on things that don’t matter. So the next step in this is to organize those tasks. So you’re gonna put similar tasks together and write out an estimate for follow along it will take you. This step is so critical. You have to map out your tasks so you know what you’re supposed to be doing when you sit down to work. If you don’t have any idea what your tasks are, start by making an inventory of today, yesterday, and last week. Look backward to see what you’ve been doing so that you can identify the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that you do on repeat.

[00:03:04] So when you’re organizing these tasks into similar groups, if you’re doing a bunch of different things for know your social media to market your virtual assistant business. I want you to group those together and have one dedicated work block where you are doing those things. Because if you break it up and do part of this on Monday and part of it on Wednesday and part of it on Thursday, your brain has to keep.

[00:03:32] Kind of regetting into that marketing mode, and that takes a lot of time. And so that’s time that you are wasting. Whereas if you just had it all in one like two hour work block, you get in that mindset and you get it all done, and then you don’t have to look at it again and until the next week. So it allows you to be really focused and to not have to keep spending time getting back into that mode.

[00:03:58] The second tip I have for you is to get organized by scheduling your time. So having a well-structured and organized schedule is essential in making the best use of your time. So as a work from home mom, it can be difficult to separate work from your personal responsibilities. But creating a schedule that’s both realistic and flexible is going to help you find that balance.

[00:04:23] So I really recommend to use a digital planner or a calendar to schedule tasks for yourself and set deadlines. And in order to avoid burnout, you have to also make sure to give yourself time for your personal wellbeing, such as prayer, exercise, spending time with family. You know, personal, like just chill out time, all those things.

[00:04:49] So remember that is also really crucial to build in buffer time into your schedule for unexpected events or tasks. So personally, I like to use my digital task management program Trello, along with my planner from Horatio Printing to schedule my time into different blocks. I do have my whole entire business weekly schedule on Trello for you in the free Weekly planner, so you can find that at arianna vernier.com/free-weekly-planner.

[00:05:29] That is ariannavernier.com/free-weekly-planner, or you can find the link for that in the show notes. And that will give you kind of like the structure of just what I use for my business every day. So in my planner, I write down, you know, my work blocks, when I’m gonna be able to work, when I’m gonna be focusing on family, when I’m gonna have my personal time, and I put all of that, I’m blocking into my planner.

[00:06:02] But in my task management program inside Trello, that’s where I write down what I’m actually doing in those work blocks. So what tasks am I getting done? And I set due dates on it and I can move it around if I need to, if something comes up. But I try really hard to not move it around because then I just keep procrastinating things.

[00:06:22] So that’s just a tip for you guys there. So I want you to consider organizing your day into time blocks and designating specific hours for important tasks, meetings, personal commitments, all of those things. Time blocking really helps to establish designated working hours and prevents your work from spilling over into your personal life.

[00:06:44] So you have to set really firm boundaries to keep these things separate. Multitasking, you guys like, we all do it as women, we think like we wear that multitasking crown as like, I don’t know, almost like makes us a superhero and it does, but it also keeps you from doing your best work because you’re not giving your all to one thing.

[00:07:07] This is something I realized pretty quickly with having my babies around me when I was trying to work. I never felt like I was giving my all to either thing my babies or my work, and so I really had to work around that and figure out how can I do this work that I’m called to do and pour my all into it, and how can I be the present mom I wanted to be, and personally for myself, I had to kind of separate the two.

[00:07:33] So I did work from home with my babies for a long, long time, but what ended up being really helpful for us was we do have our kids in daycare for just three days a week, and then I have them the remaining four days home where I can pour into them. So that makes it so when they get home from daycare, I can be fully present.

[00:07:56] I don’t have to be on my phone trying to work and finish things while they’re playing. I can be fully there playing with them. The third tip that I have for you is to automate everything that you can. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to have like a program, you know, doing something for you.

[00:08:16] That’s not what I mean by automate here. I just mean getting the tasks on repeat. So like when you sit down to do it, you just breathe through it and you don’t have to try to remember what you’re supposed to do. Or just flick them off your plate completely and delegate them to someone else. So automation can be your best friend in helping you manage your virtual assistant business much more efficiently.

[00:08:40] It’s gonna give you the time and the space to get organized in your business. So I want you to go and look at your inventory from step one and find the tasks that you can automate, such as social media, posting, email marketing, sending your invoices. All of those things can be automated. There are numerous tools and software available that cater to the various aspects of managing your virtual assistant business.

[00:09:08] You guys, I have episodes that talk more about Dubsado, which I love for automating all of the like client management, sending invoices, contracts, all of that. There’s different tools I cover on the podcast about scheduling social media, et cetera, so you can go find those. We do have a podcast catalog that you can find the link to over in the free Facebook group that’s at facebook.com/groups/ditchtheclassroom. Scroll to any of the podcast episode posts in there and you’ll see the link in the caption for that catalog that you can then go search and like just type in a different terms you’re looking for episodes on, and it’ll show you what episodes I have about that. Anyway. So by automating those repetitive tasks in your business, you’re gonna free up more time to focus on the other aspects of your business that demand your attention, such as the planning and the strategy for growing your virtual assistant business.

[00:10:08] So those automation tools help maintain consistency and they streamline your processes, ensuring that your business rans smoothly and consistently. So I hope these tips helped you guys to be. More organized in your life to feel like you can take on all of this and to grow and to get your virtual assistant business to the point that you want it to be.

[00:10:30] And by prioritizing those tasks, scheduling your time effectively and using automation, you can create an organized and productive virtual assistant business. Implementing these strategies is not only going to reduce your stress, but it’s also going to ensure that you enjoy a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, that you got the tasks you need to get done, done, and the least amount of time as possible, and then you can go and spend the rest of that time pouring into yourself, your family, your faith, all the things that are so important to you.

[00:11:06] So just remember that while you are striving for that success in your virtual assistant business, a well organized system is going to help you work smarter, not harder. You’re gonna have more time for your family and for God, which is what we’re doing this all for anyway. Right? So just an FYI. We go super in depth on all of this whole episode. We go really in depth on this whole topic of streamlining your virtual assistant business, all the tasks you have to do, being able to scale your business in the Scaling Virtual Assistant Mastermind. We do have that open for registration right now.

[00:11:44] So if you are ready to take your virtual assistant business to the next level, get more streamlined, get more focused, scale, become the expert in your field. Then come and check out the details of that program. You can find it at ariannavernier.com/mastermind or find the link in the show notes. Check it out, apply. We only have a few spots available for that. It’s really like a very tight-knit group where I am pouring into you, into your business, walking you through just really, really holding your hand through this process. So, if that’s for you, go check it out. Again, that’s ariannavernier.com/mastermind and we’ll see you in the next episode.