A Day In the Life of Me

The sun beats down on me and I am surrounded by trees, plants and the sounds of nature. A cool breeze touches my face. I spot a bluebird out of the corner of my eye and see a chipmunk quickly scurry away. I take a sip of my hot tea (a touch of milk and a bit of honey) and take a deep breath, then sigh. This is the life...

Then I hear the all familiar sound of my laptop buzzing to life. I swivel in my office chair towards my desk and away from my own personal real life painting of nature (my backyard). Oh yes, this is the life. The day in the life of a Virtual Assistant...me!

First thing on the do list is check my email, which on some days can be a dauntless task. As I wait for my email to load I watch as my co-workers (after eating their morning breakfast) saunter into the office. My Office Manager, Jet, who never seems to miss an opportunity to manage a print job and my own personal therapist, Max, settle down for a day's worth of work. Well, that is after they lick and sniff each other and themselves; they are a cat (the aforementioned Office Manager) and dog (my personal pet therapist always there when I need to take a break for some hugs) after all!

I filter through my email, determine what my tasks will be for the day and get to work! My morning is full of website maintenance, human resource management, customer service and everything else in between! Depending on the day, I could also be preparing for a podcast interview later that afternoon. Before I know it, morning turns into afternoon.

Noon time, just about time to take a break. I take a quick look at my email and task list, think that perhaps I should get one last thing done before I take a break and then my stomach growls. I cannot deny hunger! Most days, my Office Manager and therapist rarely accompany me for lunch. This day is no different. They are "workaholics" and stay in the office. I guess they like to bask in the sun while they "work." I am sure you have guessed by now, their workday consists of managing one simple letter of the English alphabet and that is the letter Zzzzzzzzz.

Rather than prepare lunch; I decide to get some air and run some errands instead. I grab my car keys, my purse and out the door I go. A quick stop at the post office, the supermarket and sometimes Dunkin Donuts (for an afternoon French Vanilla Coffee pick-me-up) and back to the office I go. I settle back into my desk with a tall glass of water, some fruit and graham crackers. Still taking a break, I read some posts at Virtual Assistant Forums and see what is going on at twitter.com. Once lunch is done, I get back to work. And yes, my co-workers have not budged!

The afternoon is filled with more work and the time goes by so very very fast. Before I know it, shadows start to creep along my desk; as the sun fades into the horizon. I look at the clock, it is 3:30pm. I never liked 3:30pm, even when I worked outside of the home; because that meant I only had an hour and a half left to get things done! I still do not like 3:30pm. By this time of the day, I begin to feel tired and somewhat antsy; I still have 2-3 things to get done and very little time to get it done! I take a moment or two to re-group, check out twitter.com once again and then decide it is time for the home stretch. I turn the music I have been listening to (usually on pandora.com or a playlist on my iPod) WAY up. Time to make the last hour count!

Soon enough my office is dark and the only light I see is the soft glow coming from my computer screen. I switch on my desk lamp and begin to finish up for the day. All of a sudden my Office Manager and therapist spring to life! That could only mean one thing...my husband is home! The work day is officially over...I look at my email one last time and longingly think to myself, I wish I had time to get one last thing done. I hear my husband greet my cat and my dog. He will soon peak his head into my office to say "Hello" to me too. This is when I know the one last thing can wait until tomorrow. I turn off my computer, turn off the desk lamp, stand up and push my desk chair under my desk.

I walk into the kitchen and my husband asks "Did Jet work today?" I look at my cat and then at my dog..smile and say "Yes, Jet and Max worked ALLL day".