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!

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.

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!

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?