Time Management and Organization

with Mei Yee Leong

Virtual Assistance is a multi-faceted, multi-pronged, job. It’s not easy.

With everything I have to handle, I have to make sure to manage my time effectively and productively. There’s only so many days in a week and so many hours in a day, and much work to be done within the time frame of a week. Balance is key. Managing your time effectively not only makes work a little more plain sailing but also makes sure that you get the right balance within your day; doing things like sectioning time off for eating, working, relaxing and sleeping really helps balance things out. I used to just work tirelessly from the moment I woke up until late into the evening, dragging out the time and feeling like I wasn’t getting anywhere. I remember working with a client overseeing both their content creation and social media scheduling and I would work on it all day until I finished it (and I would still feel like it was not complete!). Approaching work this way did not give me enough head space to tackle each task within each aspect properly. I had no real perspective of how things could improve, nor room for creativity, or for my ideas to grow! Now, I now how to pick up and put down the work appropriately, which allows me to breathe. This is so essential. Knowing when to pause, stop and go is so important to retaining flow and momentum!

Now, I haven’t perfected it personally – I still need to work on my exercise regime but we’re getting there.

So what can help with regards to managing your precious time?

Making lists

Writing down what projects and tasks you have to get done is a good way of filtering out and solidifying what needs to be done. I write individual task lists with action steps and important things like feedback, deadlines and important notes from communication from team members. This really helps brings to the forefront, what is important and what needs my focus.

Prioritising

You probably have a whole list of things that need doing and your priorities probably change from day-to-day and week-to-week. So after making that list of things you need to do, what are the top priorities? What deadlines have you got coming up? What projects/clients need your attention right now? This would really help with allocating time to what is the most important, first, then you can organise the other tasks within the other slots of time you have available.

Chunking time blocks

If you have a few projects on the go then it can be difficult to think about different concepts, ideas, simultaneously. It is much easier to block times in the day and give a clear cut time-frame within on which to work on particular projects.

Using a calendar

Allocating tasks to days through the week, is a good way to break down the tasks. It can also help you figure out estimates for clients too.

Using a time tracker

If you work hourly for clients, then this is a must but working to time is a good way to keep motivated and focused on task.

Suggested programs and books;

– Clever Fox Organiser. This highly detailed and in-depth daily organiser has sections for to-do, priorities, life balance to-do list, schedule, vision board, and much much more. Super helpful for a busy entrepreneur! It is also available in a whole array of gorgeous colours, so there is bound to be one that suits your colour scheme!

Click here to check it out in more detail.

– The reliable post-it note. Handy for writing on-the-go notes and highlighting tasks/ideas/notes for clients and projects alike. If you’re anything like me, then having reminders scattered around your planner and/house is important! Click here to find it on Amazon.

– Asana. A useful project management program, which helps you break down tasks into sub-tasks for work projects, as well as personal projects.

https://asana.com/

– Monday.com. Another useful project management tool, which is useful for larger teams. Boards can be created for individual projects with the feature of notifications being able to be sent for comments and changes on the boards.

www.monday.com

Do you utilise any of these methods? Do you have any others you would like to share?

Comment below or share on Lindsey’s Instagram.

I hope this is helpful and has given you some things to think about with regards to organising your time more effectively, helping you become more efficient, productive and having more time to yourself too! 😉