Despite my recent post re: working on the weekends - I find myself doing just that!

Seems I should be slapping my own wrist, hehe.

In my own defense, I made a decision a few months ago that if I wanted to complete my book I would have to allow myself to do some writing on the weekends. For the simple fact that between client work and family time I didn’t have the time to write during the week (unless I wanted to stay up really late - no thanks!)

And so since June i’ve been working on my book pretty much every Saturday and maybe the odd Sunday here and there. And i’m happy to say that my book is off to the designer and will be published by the end of the month. Yay!

This would not have happened if I hadn’t allowed myself to write on the weekends. My book would still be in my brain instead of on it’s way to paperback.

And now I find that I actually enjoy working on the weekends - gasp! Even though my book is done, I find that the weekends are my best time to get creative/new projects underway. It feels like the ideas just start flowing on the weekends, and with my husband home I can actually sneak in a few dedicated FOCUS hours during the afternoons - without kids or clients bugging me.

Am I starting down a slippery slope to working all the time (again)? Doesn’t feel that way quite yet, although I do need to keep an eye on myself I suppose.

I guess the thing is that I truly enjoy my work. Especially now that i’ve put my life’s work down on paper in my book Becoming an Online Business Manager. I LOVE what I do (which is why I wrote the book) and now I feel like there is so much more I can do to help others do the same. It’s fun stuff and doesn’t feel like work to me at all.

I’ll do my best to keep myself in integrity here - so long as my creative weekend work time doesn’t get in the way of family/fun time on the weekends I think all is well. Now, time to really unplug for the day!

Are you losing potential clients because you aren’t yet able to offer website maintenance along with your current repertoire of skills?

When it comes to working with online based business owners, there is a continuous need to update websites with new details - shopping cart links, audio recordings, a quick webpage for a new teleclass or event.

If you can’t offer this skill-set to your clients … you’re missing out.

Announcing our newest Hot Skills VA Training program - the ‘Basic Website Design & Maintenance for Virtual Assistants’ course.

My partner Cindy Greenway and I have been wanting to teach a course on how-to do basic website changes for quite some time now, but really neither of us is qualified to teach the ‘latest and greatest’ of what is out there. (Really, we need to take the course ourselves… hehe.)

So after much nagging from yours truly, my good friend and biz associate Amy Taggart of DesignFormare.com agreed to do this training with us. I have worked with Amy for over a year now, and she is certainly my go-to-gal when it comes to any website design based questions. She’s been both VA and website designer (over 10 years designing) so she understands both sides of the coin.

If you are a VA or other online support professional who would LOVE to add basic website design skills to your portfolio we’d love to have you join us - there is a $100 early bird savings if you register by August 15th.

>> Check it out at:
http://www.hotskillsvatraining.com/websitebasics/

So I logon this past Monday morning to check my email, and find an invitation to present at an online event. The person coordinating the event was looking for 42 different speakers on a ‘first come first serve’ basis… looked like fun to me so I sent her a ‘yes’, figuring I was a shoo-in being that it was first thing Monday morning.

Well much to my surprise all the spots were already taken! I checked her original invite message and saw that it was sent on Saturday morning… which means that 42+ people were checking their email on the weekend and responding ahead of me.

At first I thought ‘Bummer! If only I had checked my email on the weekend’… then I shook my head and remembered that there is a very good reason I don’t check email on the weekends. If I do I instantly become SUCKED INTO THE VORTEX OF EMAIL and easily spend a couple of hours working where I only meant to do a quick 2 minute check-in

I made a very conscious decision a few years ago not to work on the weekends, and let me tell you - once you get in the habit of having a couple of work free days each week it is a treat. I remember reading an article by someone (can’t remember who it was) where they talked about how they used to work 7 days a week, got burnt out and then made a change to turn off their computer on the weekend with no exceptions. The funny thing was that they became much more effective overall and were getting alot more done in 5 days than they ever did in 7 days. I believe downtime is necessary to a) sustainable work habits (ie: not getting burnt out) and b) to giving our brains some ‘unplugged’ time so they can perform better when needed.

All of this makes me wonder - is it necessary to be working on the weekends? Are we addicted to our email? Even just a quick check-in can become the equivalent of ‘working’ if you aren’t careful and get sucked into email like I do. I’m curious how much online and virtually based business owners actually do work on the weekend? If this event being full by Monday morning is any indication i’m thinking it must be alot of people, which surprises me for some reason.

Regardless, i’m OK to have missed the boat on this one due to my decision to not work on weekends. My downtime is too important to risk getting sucked into the email vortex in case someone sends another cool opp on a Saturday morning.

I was quite happy a couple of weeks ago to connect with Karri Flata - right here in my own backyard! We both live in a small city here in Southern Alberta (Lethbridge for those who know the area) and it is not necessarily a bustling metropolis of internet savvy folks. The city is quite the opposite in fact, as not many people here are familiar with online or virtual based businesses (I still don’t think even my parents really have a clue what I do even after all these years).

So to find a fellow VA here was a real treat… and of course we were both quite excited to escape our homes for an evening and meet for a cup of coffee at our neighborhood Starbucks. Which we did last night, we shut the place down! (You know you are a parent when instead of shutting down the bar at 3am you shut down the Starbucks at 10am, LOL)

It was really great to connect with Karri, not just to enjoy some rare face-to-face time but also to learn about her business and what she is creating. That is probably one of my favorite things in life - meeting other online adventurers and learning what they do. Karri is a copywriter/editor extraordinaire, which is a skill I have the utmost respect for. I’ve worked online for many years now, and it is very difficult to find someone who ‘gets’ what it is to write online and does it well (not a strength of mine that is for sure!). Needless to say, check out Karri’s site if you are looking for some help with your copy.

Makes me want to get out a bit more… before kids I did a fair bit of business travel and had a blast. I’m looking forward to the day when I can actually attend some biz conferences, network with folks, meet clients, etc. Once the girls are a bit older of course, until then i’m quite content to stay at home and go for coffee every once in a while.

Had an interesting shift today while preparing to be interviewed for a VA Expert series. A sort of answer to a post I did a while back.

My 4 month old daughter is home with me, and while generally quiet I wondered if I should have maybe found someone to take care of Lexi while I did the interview (which is being recorded).

Then it occured to me - what is so bad about her making a bit of noise in the background? Isn’t that the whole reason I do the work I do - so that I can be at home with my girls and make a living? So if they make some noise in the background shouldn’t that be considered the norm and not something I have to apologize for?

Likewise, I setup an appointment to interview a fellow Online Business Manager this week for a book i’m writing. The only time that worked for both of us was a time when her son would be home with her and may interrupt… and she was asking if that was OK? My answer of course was not a problem! If anything it made me feel an instant kinship with her, being that we both have wee ones at home.

I’m done apologizing for having my kids in the background… no more ’sorry! that’s just my daughter’ when im on calls. If the person on the other end of the line doesn’t understand, then perhaps they aren’t the client for me. (That being said, i’ve never had that happen.) And if something happens and the kids cause such a disruption that the call can’t continue, we’ll look to reschedule and i’ll make it up to that person.

There are of course instances where I would not want to have my kids around - such as leading classes for our Hot Skills VA Training. I will have someone come over to watch the girls as needed, thank goodness grandma lives nearby!

An oldie but a goodie… I wrote this free online course back in 2005, and it is still ‘bang on’ when it comes to the skills that clients are hiring for.

In fact, we talk to clients every week who are eager to hire a VA with these skills but are having trouble finding someone. A shame if you ask me!

Go ahead and get your copy of the free eCourse here… and let me know what you think?

For years now i’ve managed my ‘to-dos’ within my Outlook inbox… basically the emails I keep in my inbox are the things I need to do, plus I use the handy tasks feature that was updated with Outlook 2007.

This system has worked fine for me for many years, however some new client work that I took on recently has required that I keep track of many more projects for many different clients. Outlook just wasn’t cutting it anymore, I needed to find something new. I’ve tried some of the other online project management systems out there (Basecamp, Smartsheets) but found that they became almost more work to remember to update than if I just used good ole Outlook. Great systems, just not the answer for me.

My colleague Lori Benns introduced me to Wrike, and there is one thing that immediately tickled my fancy about their system. You can send tasks from your inbox to your Wrike account just by cc’ing the wrike email address (that they provide when you sign up). So love this! Instead of requiring that I a) login to my account b) type in my task instead I can just a) send the email to the wrike email addess and it is automatically added to my list of to-dos. You can also categorize into folders (ie: client names, projects, etc) and include due dates by putting this information [inside square brackets] in the email subject line. Easy peasy.

I’m a fan of keeping things simple, and this system marries what im already doing in my inbox with the function of keeping myself organized and on task with a traditional project management system. I give Wrike two thumbs up and a snap, there is a free 30-day trial so check it out.

If you can make this I will be the first in line to shell out the cash. I need a portable laptop desk that allows me to have a baby on my lap while typing/working. Something that will be comfortable for the baby (either lying down or sitting up) but that still allows me to reach the keyboard to tap-tap away.

Needs to be portable so I can take it with me throughout the house… ie: when my toddler just has to watch Blue’s Room I can take it with me to the family room.

On that note, if it could also read a book or sing a song to my toddler while im working that would be ideal! Am i asking too much?

Part of me wonders if i’m going a bit overboard here… i mean really, put down the laptop girl! But now that I have two wee ones in the house + work to be done the reality is that I really do need to work throughout the day at times.

Anyhow, seriously… if anyone can bring this lovely contraption to life for me I am waiting here with open wallet.

Now that i’m back in the flow of work since having my daughter Alexandra in February, I find myself doing a bit of ‘trial and error’ when it comes to working with the wee ones around.

For example, when I have client calls… is it OK to have 2 little girls in the background, both of whom may cause a ruckus at anytime? A 2 year old fit or a 2 month old crying - take your pick, haha.

I find that most of my regular clients/colleagues are pretty understanding about this… especially those who already have kids.

As a funny aside - I was talking to the owner of a new children’s hair cutting salon that just opened up here in town the other day. While on the phone booking an appointment I could hear her little ones in the background. She said to me “you can always tell those who have kids vs. those who don’t. If someone has kids they will just talk LOUDER when they hear my kids in the background. Those who don’t have kids ask ‘do you need to go?’ and im like why? oh the kids, just talk louder!”

So very true, hehe.

Having worked online for 5+ years now, I find that most people are totally fine with having kids around. Many times the people i’m talking to are in the same boat, and have their little ones around too.

However what about those more ‘professional’ calls. For example, I have a new coaching client that i’m working with… we’ve done a few calls now and during each call i’ve had my little baby right here on my lap. So far she’s been super quiet, and is usually either sleeping or breastfeeding (little does my client know!) so it hasn’t caused any issues. But one of these days I know she just won’t cooperate and it will cause a disruption in our calls. He does know that she’s around btw. And my 2 year old is either sleeping (love those afternoon naps!) or at her friends house.

I can of course ask my mom to come over to babysit for a bit… alas she can’t feed the baby if need be so certain parts of me may be required regardless of her being there.

I’m also working with another client now helping manage some of his client’s projects…. part of which requires the odd phone call here and there. Again, do I tell each of these clients that there are kids around? Doesn’t that come across as unprofessional? Hmmm…

Curious what you other mommy VAs do - do you do client calls with your kids around? And if so, do you always tell people that the kids are around, or just cross your fingers that they’ll behave? Do you tell some but not others?

Having just had our second baby on February 12th, i’ve REALLY been enjoying some time off from work. I made a point of taking 6 weeks off so I could enjoy (survive?) having another wee one in the house along with my now 2 year old daughter Samantha.

Well, my 6 weeks is up as of April 1st… and part of me wonders, do I really want to work at all? I’m toying with the idea of quitting it all together and just hanging out with the kids. LOL, just kidding Cindy… an early April Fool’s day joke.

I know I want to ‘get back to work’ as I really do love what I do, and to be quite honest if I had to spend 24/7 focused on my girls I would probably go a little batty. The ole brain needs something other than Elmo and perpetual breastfeeding to keep it going.

Part of what is really cool right now is that I have some ’space’ in my working calendar. Having finished up with one client earlier this year and also potentially letting go of another project that i’ve been working on for years leaves me with alot of ‘hmmmm’ potential right now. Which I really love… I’ve been in this ‘what’s next?’ space a few times in life and it always opens up some cool new doors. I know some people would be a bit freaked out by this as I really don’t have a clue where the money will come from, but I do know that it will come from somewhere as there is loads of work out there.

What I want (need?) to do different this time is be really conscious of what I say yes too. As I no longer have the freedom to dive wholeheartedly into projects without considering how it will affect my time and energy… family comes first and I want to be sure to find that balance between work and life. Don’t we all? The never-ending challenge of any working parent.

PLUS this time around I need to carve out some space for writing my book… this one is a toughie for me as it requires me to setup a creative environment for myself. I’m really good at finding the time/energy to ‘get stuff done’ on the working side, but the quiet/creative space is going to be a challenge for me I know that already.

Needless to say, I don’t have the answers here. I’m just ready to plug back into the game next week and see where it takes me.