Today’s Quote: Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you. – Carl Sandburg
Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today we are talking about time management.
This is something that so many VAs come to me for help with.
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Why is time management so important in your Virtual Assistant business?
We all have a lot to do – no matter what stage of our business we are in.
Starting out, we have a lot to learn. We have a lot of set up to do. Maybe we are also still working a job while we do that. What about managing family time around all the new stuff?
Time management is something that is a good skill to perfect in general, but particularly in business as a VA.
We work alone, time can often get away from us.
As a Virtual Assistant, time is money and we need to maximize our billable time and managed the rest so we get things done.
Good time management will:
- Reduce stress
- Improve focus on everything
- Improve the quality of your work
- Improve productivity
- Improve your success
- Make you a better decision maker
- Keep you healthy
- Give you more free time
So how do we do it better? Like everything, it starts with a plan.
You have to actively decide where you will spend your time so that you can use it most effectively. Use your calendar and set deadlines for everything – especially if you find yourself losing time with anything.
Not everything is urgent. When a client sends you something to do, prioritize and book non-urgent things into your schedule appropriately.
Use tools that work for you – that could be a program or a notebook – find something that you naturally turn to, and use it for everything.
I use my Google Calendar and my Bullet Journal religiously every single day to help me stay organized.
Book meetings – don’t take unexpected meetings. Scheduling everything. One unexpected meeting in your morning can derail your whole day.
Work with buckets of time – start and stop times for everything you will do (and stop at the stop time!). One of the things that VAs get stuck on too often is getting lost in a project, or going down a rabbit hole. Don’t allow yourself to do that. Focus on the time it should take to do something and then it’s your job to get the work done in that time.
Don’t multitask – focus on one thing until it’s done, or progressed, and then move along to the next.
This is essential for client work. Don’t check emails from 10 clients at once. You can’t possibly bill the right time for that.
Batch your work from each client so that you focus on it for 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Work only on that client’s work, and then stop at your designated stop time and move on to another batch of work.
Keep a distractions list. When you are working on a designated task, and you think of something else, write it down on a notepad. Then you won’t forget about it later, but you don’t need to interrupt what you are doing now to think about it. Schedule distractions time into your calendar and look after your distractions items then.
Manage distractions and interruptions of all kinds and if you are regularly derailed by these things, find a solution – office hours, post your work times, schedule meals or breaks or free time with family, etc.
Be aware of time wasters and get better at handling them:
Social media – no one needs to be on social media as often as we are. If you work on social media, schedule your time to get your work done and ignore everything else.
If you do need to check in, schedule a bucket of time to do so, and stop when the time is up.
Email – no one needs to check email 10 times a day, unless your client is paying you to work for them all day long, you should be checking in at regular intervals. I often suggest a morning check in, a midday check in and an early afternoon check in. Three times is more than enough (even too much) and you will not be distracted by things in there unnecessarily.
When you do check your emails, be sure to schedule out the new client requests in your calendar.
Tech issues – sometimes we get slowed down by tech. If this is you, identify whose issue it is. If it’s yours because you do things you shouldn’t, then consider delegating to someone else. If it’s your tech providers, consider changing them. Allow for tech issues but don’t let them take over your whole day if possible.
Procrastination – why do we procrastinate? Because we are doing something we don’t like, we don’t know how to do, or we are overwhelmed by the time it will take, or the investment it will be.
Time management doesn’t have to be a strain. It can actually be very free-ing once you get a system in place that works for you.
The biggest issues I see with VAs:
- Not calculating the time it takes to do something properly
- Mismanaging distractions
- Allowing going down rabbit holes
- Being a perfectionist
- Skipping breaks
If you can get even one of these things under control this week, do it. And then pick another to work on the following week, and so on. Before long your new habits and routines will be freeing up your time and you’ll be working more focused and have more energy too.
You’ll be one step close to being a ridiculously good VA!
What You Need to Do Next:
If I can help you learn how to manage your time better, reach out to me at tracey@yourvamentor.com. I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I’d love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.