A Day in the Life…by Imogen Bowen

Hello and Welcome to my World (or at least a snapshot of it).
This is my Life in a Day as a VA.

Tea: Check. Biscuits: Check. And we’re off!

6:15am
My mornings can be hectic so I often start early and reply to any urgent emails from clients in different time zones before everyone wakes up.

7:00am
The laptop is safely out of reach and it’s time to focus on spelling tests, breakfast and reminding 3 year old that pants are indeed essential attire for nursery. Then it’s keys, bikes and the school run is good to go.

9:00am
The next few hours are my favourite part of the day: a morning of peace to focus on work and get as much done in the time available.

I’m a big believer in the saying “never get out more than you can put away in an hour” so I try to work methodically through my ‘to do’ list rather than flitting from one task to the next.

Say “No” to boring plants!

A lot of my day is taken up with project management for a company who reversion TV promos into different languages. Everyone works remotely so we stay in touch via Chat, Skype and pretty much every other form of communication you can think of.

I deal with a lot of studios across Eastern Europe. They are all super efficient and happy to share their knowledge. It’s really interesting work and requires a lot of skill to make sure you phrase things on email in way which non-native speakers will understand. There’s no margin for error so everything has to be right first time!

Depending on what stage my projects are at, I could be checking scripts have been translated and approved, making sure the audio was recorded correctly or updating our shared control sheets so everyone can see instantly what stage I’m up to.

Then it’s a ten-minute sprint to nursery and back for lunch, checking to see that things are running smoothly from my trusty laptop.

Household notes filed in a mailbox from China

Afternoons
During lunch, I switch off from work and focus on my daughter. We hang out for a bit before she nods off (brilliant!) and I get a couple more hours done before school’s out.

During this time, I catch up on work from other clients who need help with diary management and responding to appointment requests as well as keeping an eye on my projects to make sure things are ticking over.

I also use the time to check my accounts are up to date and sort out any household admin. Not very glamorous but that dishwasher ain’t gonna empty itself!

3:00pm
After school, it’s game over unless there’s something really urgent, then the kids are banished to play upstairs while I crack on with the emails. It’s great to be able to use this time to take my children swimming or go to the park which is something I could never have done in my previous job. I really value this and it makes all the stressy days worth it.

5:30pm
Time to feed everyone, check homework’s been done and get ready for bed.

Slight notebook obsession!

8:00pm
During the evenings I spend an hour preparing emails for the next day, trying to write something vaguely interesting on Twitter or improving the SEO to my new website.

Then it’s off to bed for a well-earned rest dreaming in Russian with a smattering of Hungarian:”Édes Álmoka”* everyone!

*”Sweet Dreams” in Hungarian.