Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I want to talk about the role discipline plays in your daily routines of your VA business.
Today’s Quote: Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. – Jim Rohn
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
I talk a lot about good habits and the importance of routines in your time management and general VA business success.
And they are important.
I want to talk about the most important thing, though, and that is actually doing them.
How many of you have created lovely routines or procedures, but then you never actually do them?
You aren’t alone if that sounds like you.
It’s the discipline of doing what you know you have to do, that will help you be successful.
Like Jim Rohn says, it is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.
Goals are great – you know where you want to go, you even might know the steps you need to get there.
But if you never take any steps, your goals will stay just goals.
The idea is to accomplish the goal.
And you do that by taking action. Probably lots of actions.
That takes discipline. And habits and routines. We’ll talk about all three today.
Habits
Let’s begin with habits.
It’s often said that building great habits is an essential part of success as a VA.
That’s true. We have a lot of balls to keep in the air and building good habits is an excellent way to get things done.
What are good habits?
In terms of goal setting, they are the things that you do on a regular basis to make sure you achieve your goals.
For instance, if you are looking to get new clients, you want to make sure that one of the things you are doing is having regular conversations with business owners.
Creating a good habit around those conversations might mean asking for conversations as often as you can (when the time is right).
Too often we talk to people who could potentially be our clients and yet we never ask them if they want to take some time to actually discuss that. Lost opportunity. It’s a good habit to look for those opportunities and when they come up, ask.
Another one might be processing the conversations after they take place – ie what went right, what went wrong, what would you change for next time, or taking the stuff from a conversation and putting it somewhere, like a follow up sheet or a CRM or a project management system.
When you process what happened you are making things better for the next time. Do more of what worked, do less of what didn’t.
Who here has said after a conversation ‘I wish I had said this’, or ‘I didn’t know what to say when she said that’. These are things that we can fix for next time. It’s a good habit to process what took place so you can adjust it moving forward.
The habits you build in how you do certain things can really help you make the most of your efforts. Our time is all valuable and so we want to make sure that we use it wisely.
Same with follow up. If you take the time to update your follow up tracker with the information from that interaction, you can make sure you are prepared for your next conversation, or you can make sure to remember what you promised them, or where you found them.
And you may have heard about habit stacking, which is an awesome concept from Atomic Habits book.
It means stacking one habit onto another so that you can create a new habit.
Like taking your medication after you brush your teeth every day.
Or washing your hands after you go to the bathroom.
Or contacting another person after updating your follow up tracker.
When you do ‘one more thing’ every time after doing something, that’s stacking and it creates that new habit.
Having long term habits can create really positive change in your business. You gain momentum and you streamline decisions, because you don’t have to make one (should I do this?), it’s just ‘now I do this.’
Success, one step at at time!
What are you doing in your business right now that could benefit from some good habit creation or stacking?
Routines
Now let’s talk about routines.
Routines are different than habits. They include habits, but they are what you might consider a structured process of habits.
I like to think of routines as establishing order of what we need to do on a regular basis.
They can help you with time management because you can set a time to accomplish the things you need to get done.
You may already have a morning routine, or an afternoon one.
Routines are not unfamiliar in our lives.
But in our business I think sometimes we might see routines as a negative thing.
VAs often tell me that they don’t like doing the same things over and over – but the interesting thing is that you can do whatever you want whenever you want.
But routines are such that they help you get things done – so you should try to find a way to incorporate them into your business.
I like to advise VAs to take the first hour of their day for themselves.
No email, no social media, no client work.
That first hour can really help you set up your day or your week or your projects. That’s a routine that everyone should have.
When we allow our first task to be ‘check emails from clients’ it can derail our whole day.
If you find that you are always running to keep up with what you need to do in a day, consider that first hour or so and what you are doing, what you are allowing to make your decisions. I bet you will see it’s something that you can change.
An end of day routine can help you get set up for the next day too. Or an end of week routine. What can you put in place to help you take the weekend away from work and start as easily as possible on Monday?
Combining these two – planning your Monday, and then taking that first hour to do what you planned, actually helps even more. It’s like routine stacking!
Another tip about routines if you find them monotonous, is to move them around during your days. So you aren’t doing the same thing at the same time every day, but you can change things up. Book something in at 9 on Monday and Wednesday, at 11 on Tuesday and Thursday, and at 2 on Friday. Keeping your daytime schedule fresh can really help you avoid that monotony too.
Routines help you to implement your habits, or just get stuff done.
And because routines don’t have to mean doing the same things every time, they are flexible.
What I actually prefer instead of routines is processes.
I was introduced to this concept by an ADHD entrepreneur coach and I think it’s brilliant.
I actually think that routines don’t always work because they tend to be repetitious. Or at least they might not work long term.
A process is just that – a series of steps to get something done.
A routine. But with a twist.
A process can be created that is adjustable, and that might even work better.
So in terms of the ADHD coach advice, you can create a long process or a short process, and choose which one you do based on your energy level.
For instance, if you aren’t feeling it one morning, rather than skipping your routine altogether, you instead choose the shorter process to do (the must dos).
That way you are making an adjustment, you aren’t abandoning what you need to get done. You are just adjusting what you do based on how you feel. It’s not ‘do or don’t do’, but it’s ‘I have to do at least this’.
Isn’t that an interesting concept?
Anyway our energy, or our schedule, or our distractions can all derail routines pretty easily.
I really loved this concept when I first heard it, and yes because I have been ‘do it or don’t do it’ camp many times. And then I get behind.
But instead, figure out what it is that will still move you forward and do that.
Thinking of your routines in terms of your energy level can really be helpful to make sure you are moving forward every day towards your goals.
And I bet you’ll find that you don’t have the repetition that sometimes makes routines mundane.
Discipline
And finally, the big kahuna – discipline.
Discipline is the key to accomplishing what you want. Why?
Because discipline means doing something even if you don’t want to do it.
Brushing your teeth as soon as you get up.
Washing your hands after you get them dirty.
Or sending that email to invite a contact to a discovery call.
Or talking to that high maintenance client about something that is bothering you.
We talk about habits and routines and processes and they are all good things, but they sometimes get stale or as I said, skipped or avoided for one reason or another.
When we work by ourselves, we can tend to let ourselves off the hook much more often and leave things that should get done.
When you are disciplined, you do that thing anyway.
Of course it makes no sense to try to be disciplined about everything.
You need to pick and choose the non negotiables, otherwise you will just get tired and quit.
Discipline means identifying what the goal is and working towards it.
So, if you are looking to get a certain number of clients in the next month, what do you need to be disciplined with?
- creating content that aligns with the clients you want to work with
- showing up in your networks every day to be helpful and get visibility
- having a certain number of interactions every day or every week so that you can get the discovery calls
- following up with existing connections to further conversations
- sending proposals immediately after discovery calls or in response to an rfp or job posting
When you set a short term goal, you need to make sure that every action you are taking is leading towards that goal.
Look at what you are doing right now – is it leading you in the direction of the goal?
If yes, great. Keep doing it.
If not, stop doing it. Do something that will help you reach your goal.
One of my business coaches instilled this in me – when you are doing anything, ask if it is helping you to reach your goal. If it is, keeping doing it. If not, ask yourself how you can adjust it so that it is moving you in that direction. If you can’t, then question whether you should even be doing it.
Yes, discipline can also help you STOP doing things.
If you tend to go down a social media rabbit hole, use discipline to stop doing that.
Maybe that means setting an alarm that tells you when you stop surfing.
Maybe that means removing the app from your phone.
Maybe that means never logging in until a certain time during the day.
Whatever you need to help you break that habit is the discipline.
If you get stuck in research and never make a decision, use discipline to stop that.
Set a goal of whatever you are looking for in your research and put the data into a spreadsheet. (I will find 3 hotels for my client for their event, and pull the booking managers name and contact info). or (I will compare the features of 5 email management platforms and then choose the one that is right for me).
If you are taking 8 hours to write a blog post or podcast episode, set up some processes to help you work more efficiently. You can write a blog post in 20 minutes, with the right processes and tools in place.
Use templates, PM systems, checklists, chat gpt, whatever you need to expedite your procedure.
Let me repeat that – if you are taking 8 hours to write a blog post or podcast episode, it’s wayyyyy too long. Figure out a procedure to speed up your work and do it in a timely fashion.
Discipline can be used in a number of ways. And it can be the thing that makes or breaks your success, because you know what you need to do to get to where you want to go.
Anything you can do to take a step forward is progress, but letting yourself off the hook on a regular basis can derail your success so easily.
Structure and strategy need help. And remember as Jim Rohn says, discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
Doing what you need to do will help you accomplish your goals.
What is the point of the goal if not to accomplish it? So figure out how to get it done. Discipline is essential in your business.
If you are letting yourself off the hook too frequently, find an accountability partner or group that will help you keep on track to do what you say you want to do.
Remember that … these are things you say you want to do!
I hope that gives you some insight as to how to use habits routines and most importantly discipline to build your VA business.
Nothing works if you don’t so you want to give yourself the best chance to succeed.
Create the goal, determine the steps to get there, and just do it.
Do You Need Help?
If you need help getting your goals set up and your habits, routines and discipline plan mapped out, get in touch with me. I’m here to help.
It’s the only reason I’m here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, group coaching, and live and self study trainings. If you want to talk about how we can work together, let’s connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/chase
Thanks for tuning in this week! I’ll see you next time!
What You Need to Do Next:
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The Virtual Circle is a group coaching mastermind option that costs less than private coaching, and can help you achieve the goals you set for yourself. We have one group training call and one group coaching call each month that will help you set goals and plan and implement the action steps to achieve them. There is also a VIP level of TVC that includes a monthly private coaching call, if you want a little extra personal attention. Check it out here: https://yourvamentor.com/TVC. We’d love to have you join us!
I also have a brand new low-cost monthly membership program that will help you build your VA business – and it doesn’t require you to be on social media! It’s an email membership that I call The Virtual Toolkit! Every Monday morning you’ll receive a lesson and a downloadable resource in your inbox, that you can use to take a step further in your VA business. I’ve created TONS of amazing resources for you – from business foundations and building resources (financial stuff, calculators, productivity, tech tips and tools, website planning guide) to marketing tools (branding worksheet, blogging templates, content calendar, client acquisition, marketing campaign planner) to advanced business skills (package planning, branding tools, onboarding checklist, seo checklist, client management) and personal growth stuff (goal setting worksheet, networking, speaking tips and tools, conflict resolution tips). All of this is available to you for just $9 a month!! You get your first resource as soon as you register, and every Monday morning after that you’ll get a fresh new one. Get more details and sign up here now!
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Click here for more tips to help you with your productivity and time management in your Virtual Assistant business.
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