by Francis’ Main Virtual Assistant
A Screenshot from my work diary
Green are working days
I have been asked a question by Francis (My employer) regarding my work schedule. Normally, I work 25-30 hours per week and thankfully I am very much regular with my work routine. That’s why I was asked to provide some tips and techniques about how to manage my working hours and stay productive at the same time.
Well, it was a tough question to answer because I simply don’t have a mechanism for this act specifically. But here are some tips you can keep into your consideration and I am sure these would definitely help you as a virtual assistant.
- Schedule your working hours for each week – Although it sounds simple, but yes – it’s important to schedule your working hours before starting each week. This is what I do. I aim for a target and try to catch up these hours within weekdays i.e. Monday to Friday
- Schedule your working hours for each day – Like I schedule my hours for each week, I also create a work plan for each day individually.
- Know your best productive timings – As a virtual assistant, you must know yourself when it comes to productivity. You should know at what time you’re most productive and when you are less productive.Keeping these timings into your consideration, decide which tasks require more of your brain and which require less attention to detail. For me, I found myself most productive at the start of the work and late at night. I am very much less productive after lunchtime and try to work on some no or less brainer tasks during this time.
- Take breaks from time to time – Rest is important for your daily productivity. Take short breaks within your daily work schedule, this will help you amazingly to boost up your productivity level.
- Try to achieve your target within weekdays – It is very important that you try to finish your work quota within weekdays. If you don’t finish your target within weekdays, try to catch them up as soon as you can.
- No work on weekends – At the initial span of my virtual assistant career, often I couldn’t finish my workweek within weekdays and used to prolong my workweek to weekends. That hurt my productivity very badly, I had a very strange anxiety in my mind regarding those pending hours and that feeling didn’t help me relax during the weekend even if I only had one hour pending.
Now I have decided to finish my work as soon as possible even if some working hours are still pending. After then I do rest, do some leisure activities, dine out with friends, watch a movie etc. I found this really helpful. This gives me a lot of peace of mind and re-boosts my energy level to its maximum.
I hope that these tips will help you work better as a virtual assistant. Please feel free to share other tips and techniques you use to plan your workweek and stay motivated.
Comments for How to Stay Regular and Motivated As a Virtual Assistant
| Jul 16, 2014 | no more weekends’ by: JomvieI also have that kind of sentiments at the wee hours of the afternoon. And I am trying to fight off procrastinating during these hours but often I lose 😀 and often I find myself most productive at night probably because the weather is cozy and my brain works comfortably. Great tips though, will take one or two from you =D especially that “no work on weekends” |
| Jul 17, 2014 | Some things come with time by: FrancisPeople are different, and all have their strengths and weaknesses. But it’s good to exchange with one another to see what tips we can “steal” from each other.For me, the setting goals – and keeping them – tip echoed most with me.We can discuss the issue of working at night too (you have a voicemail ;)), if that is more comfortable. Interestingly, I heard this from other VAs from the Philippines, too. Perhaps when I visit the Philippines this year, I will understand why it might be an alternative to work at night… |
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