In 2017 Ivy married her soldier and shortly thereafter graduated from college. Proud to start her shiny new office job right out of school, her husband promptly deployed on just her third day of employment. Ivy quickly faced career conflicts most 22-year-olds don’t have to worry about. Needing time off from work during orientation to take her husband to the airport and leaving business meetings to answer phone calls from a spouse you haven’t heard from in days were just the beginning. She quickly realized a virtual position was necessary if she wanted to have a successful career, marriage, and family life.
Ivy found VAUSA in 2019 and hasn’t looked back since. What follows is a day in the life of a VAUSA Virtual Assistant, in her own words.
5:30 AM
The morning power-hour. As the mother of a toddler I find it most productive to get going before my day “really” starts, which is when she wakes up! I roll out of bed and quietly step into my home office. First thing I tackle is emails. I’ll go through my client’s email followed by my own and create my to-do list as I open each one. I create my client’s to-do list in Google Tasks and mine the old-school way, on a blank sheet of paper. Something about holding that list in my hands helps keep me focused on my own priorities. Once I’ve accomplished that I’ll go grab a bowl of oatmeal and a coffee from my beloved Nespresso, and let the caffeine take its course as I crush as much work as possible before Julia wakes up.
7:30 AM
Breakfast. Julia is by now wide awake, and it’s go-time. I whip up some breakfast to get her started and clean the kitchen up quickly. After breakfast we’ll have reading or playtime until the beloved sitter arrives.
9:00 AM
Working session. This is the bulk of my workday. I login and open up all my daily programs: Dubsado (CRM), Gmail, ClickUp (Project Management), and Google Voice (my “work phone”).
Part of my role on our operations team is to manage all of our incoming leads. I do this using Dubsado. Dubsado manages both our internal and client databases all in one place. It’s been a great CRM for our growing business and is a simple, easy-to-use application for any small business.
Our team uses G-Suite for a plethora of reasons, but mostly for its simplicity and fluidity. We use so many programs within the system including Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Voice, Tasks, Forms and more. We find it’s extremely easy to learn and very teachable, and it also integrates seamlessly with so many other programs we use daily.
ClickUp is our preferred project management program. It organizes literally everything we do. Every project, task, idea, etc. is put into ClickUp. We run meetings out of this software as well, using it as a guide for our agenda. ClickUp integrates with various other programs I use daily such as G-Suite, Zapier, Slack, Zoom, Calendly, and more.
12:00 PM
30-minute break. My sitter leaves at this time so I take a break to put my daughter down for her nap. I then grab a quick lunch and head back to work.
1:30 PM
Tying up the loose ends. My daughter usually naps until around 2 PM, so I’ll use this last half hour to send any daily wrap emails, check my client’s email, update any logs with client communication from the day, and finalize any remaining tasks.
2:00 PM
Mommy-mode. This is the time of day when I’m focusing mostly on my sweet girl. My husband is a state trooper so some nights we can expect him home around dinner, and some nights he works. He’s also an Army guardsman, so he’s deployed for extended periods of time as well. Like just about all of my colleagues, my day’s activities change depending on my family’s needs. Even so I also understand that it’s still working hours for many of our leads and my team members, and I try to stay flexible.
5:30 PM
The wind-down. My daughter and I will make dinner together and do any nightly chores to get the house ready for the morning before she heads to bed.
7:00 PM
Last check-in. Thanks to the welcome flexibility this career offers I’m able to clock out earlier than many people in a more traditional office setting. I’ll usually check back in with my client’s email to make sure any important correspondence has been addressed before settling down with a glass of wine and a little mind-numbing TV before turning in for the night.
