Working from home routine of a VA

Rebecca’s super-organised working from home routine

Recently we heard about first aid trainer Andrea Bonacker’s home working day spent chasing her cat up and down stairs and trying to explain the bodies in the hall!

Today VA Rebecca Harvey of Let Me Organise You shares the secrets of her productive working from home routine:

As a super-organised VA (Virtual Assistant) I ensure that I have at least 3 days of the week working from home.

By batching tasks together for the rest of the week (meetings, onsite work for clients, business and personal errands) I ensure my working from home routine is clear from distraction.

A typical day usually pans out as follows:

08:30am
Showered, and dressed, at my desk, with a cup of tea and checking email – There might also be a program of washing due to finish in the washing machine in the next half an hour(!)

09:00am
If it’s a nice day then I’ll take a little break whilst I pop the washing outside on the line, and make another cup of tea! Back to answering and actioning my emails.

After answering any outstanding emails I will then create my to do list for the day.

10:00am
Time for breakfast, which I will eat at my desk whilst I catch up on Social Media – This includes interacting with my news feeds (liking, conversing with people, interacting) I’ve gained quite a few clients through using Social Media in this way.

10:30am
On with the day’s tasks – I tend to work on a project-by-project basis with clients so my tasks can be very diverse. One moment I can be developing a new website for a client, the next hour I could be researching the best way and prices to place a client’s logo onto a set of memory sticks.

I use the time when making any cups of tea to do a little tidying up in the home – putting dishes away etc. Makes for a tidy mind too!

1:00pm
Time for lunch, which I eat at my desk. I use this time to check Social Media. This is my window to the outside world on a day working from home – News stories often break on Twitter first!

1:30pm
Back onto tasks for the day – I like using the afternoon for creative time – So creating a newsletter for a client is a perfect afternoon job. I can also crank up the volume on iTunes now!

3:00pm
Time to bring in the washing. This is also a good time in my working from home routine to make any phone calls – I batch these together doing one after another to maximise my time here.

3:30pm
Checking emails and answering any that need action. I finish the afternoon off by doing some Social Media scheduling for clients. This gives them a good backbone for the coming week ahead.

5pm
My working from home routine ends when I start prepping for dinner.

(You can see Rebecca’s super-organised desk on Home Office Gallery 5).

Rebecca is a Virtual Assistant specialising in New Media, and her business Let Me Organise You is based in Leicester. As well as operating as THE Business Princess! Rebecca helps clients with Website, Tech Training and Social Media solutions for their businesses, so that business owners can concentrate on doing what they do the best.