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?