Life as a Virtual Assistant : Automating Things

For days (actually months), I’ve been answering emails as part of my tasks as a virtual assistant. As a virtual assistant, I’m handling three events, two this August and one in September. This keeps me busy for the past couple of days.

Sometimes boredom kicks in while doing things repeatedly (take note that I’m receiving and sending out emails to 100+ people). So it forced me to look for better ways to manage this kind of task efficiently.

I found a way how to automate things. I researched. I adjusted some settings in the email account. I tried sending sample email to myself to see if it works. After successful attempts, I let it go.

What software did I use?

It’s just Microsoft Office.

I am using Microsoft Word to generate a unique message together with Microsoft Excel for my email database. Then once the message is ready, it will be transferred to Microsoft Outlook that will send the unique messages to the recipients. The 100+ emails will be finished in less than five minutes. However, doing it manually, would take about 30 minutes to one hour.

Imagine that saved time. In one hour, you can read 8-15 blog posts (try reading Seth Godin, Bo Sanchez, Janmck Hilado, 43 Folders, Edel Ramilo etc). You can read 30+ status messages and comment in some of them. You can watch three to four 15-minute inspirational YouTube videos (or from TED.com). You can create a post for your blog. Or you can sleep early.

Here’s what I learned. Setting up an automatic machine would require us a lot of time. It will take hours, days, or even weeks depending on the complexity of the process before we can create one. But if we manage to create one, we can enjoy our time more in doing things we really, really love.

I know that you can do it too. Automate a repetitive task that bores you to focus more on the things you love doing.

eLviN

PS. Want to become a virtual assistant as well? You too can learn how to work from home as a virtual assistant. Email me at elvinperia@yahoo.com for more details.

PS1. While enjoying the comforts of your home doing your tasks as a virtual assistant, it will now be easier to fill the love tanks of people you love. Bo Sanchez' latest online club Family Reborn offers a great way to restore broken relationship or strengthen strong relationships. For seven months, Family Reborn subscribers will receive ten blessings that will definitely improve your relationships. To know more about Family Reborn check out this link. www.familyreborn.com.

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My first Virtual Assistant (VA) Experience

My first official VA job requires me to answer emails for various events. At first it was strolling in the park. Then after the promotion that they did, I started receiving more than 70 emails per day. Take note, this requires me to answer them all at once. This could be done easily but since I have so many things to do (day job, gimmick, attend financial seminars etc) this is damn hard.

Also, having this number of emails in one day requires me to stay up late. And based on my experience it is not right for us to sacrifice our sleep just to get things done. I learned that human beings have our own sets of limitations. One of those limitations is time (I created a post related to this please feel free to check it out : Duplication).We can only work at the maximum of 16 hours a day to have good enough sleep. We need those 8 hours of sleep to have a healthy body and a refreshed mind. (Additional note : Drinking of energy drinks or overdosing of caffeine is not a permanent solution for this. Take note, NOT THE PERMANENT SOLUTION because I know that there are very hardworking people out there who drinks a lot of energy drinks or coffee just to stay awake. This is very, very unhealthy).

By being a virtual assistant and an employee at the same time allows me to learn an important trait. This trait is called discipline. Balancing my time is really, really a challenge for me. But by becoming a VA, I learned how to balance my time at the same time I learned how to discipline myself. Again, it’s hard but it’s worth it.

***BONUS***

Five things I have to change to be a VA 

1. Less time with television, social media sites and computer games (Btw, I still have time to blog www.elvinperia.com)
2. Reduce OT hours from the office
3. Proper time management
4. I open my VA's gmail account instead of my own account (i used different internet browsers to have two accounts at the same time)
5. Instead of reading I listened to books.

Five benefits to me of being a VA

1. I learned how to balance my time (or should I say maximize)
2. I learned how to discipline myself
3. More sources of income (though active)
4. Enables me to learn new skills
5. Enables me to expand my network

Five bad things about being a VA

1. I’m still an employee
2. VA work is an active not passive source of income
3. Improper time management equals lack of sleep
4. Unscheduled brownouts, unscheduled activities and lack of internet connection can ruin the day especially if you have tons of emails to answer
5. Waking up early in the morning to maximize time is hard (really, really hard)

eLviN

PS. The purpose of finding another source of income for me is to achieve my financial freedom. I want to make sure that I invest the right amount so that in 18 years time I can have my money working for me. I learned this by attending Intenational Marketing Group's Wealth Academy Series which provides me ways on how to get out of the rat race. Wealth Academy offers (1) Financial Education, (2) Discipline and (3) Entrepreneurship. In case you're interested email me at ask@elvinperia.com for more details.

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Managing Spare Time : Virtual Assistant + Serving GOD + Financial Education

I had a tremendous week.

My spare time is well spent. I can’t believe that I actually did those stuffs.

Anyway, let me share what happened to me this week.

I started my week with a bang. Just came from a blessed Easter Sunday. Edel and I celebrated the Easter Sunday attending the Grand Feast at SMX Convention Center in SM Mall of Asia. I’m so blessed to have almost all of my mentors in one place. I talked to our financial mentor Dr. Dada Rosanes of International Marketing Group with her kids. I discussed virtual assistant stuffs with my Internet Marketing mentor Jomar Hilario while waiting patiently for the food queuing area. I listened to Bo Sanchez’ awesome preach, the first part of the Overcome Series. There are various published articles online that discusses the things that happened during the Grand Easter Feast. 

Feel free to check them out.

Edel’s Choose to be Wealthy Article

Bo Sanchez’ blog post : Be a Sponge and Absorb God's Blessings

Later that afternoon, Edel and I had a great full body massage at Rafraf together with Marvin located in Halang Calamba Laguna. After that Marvin, Edel and I discussed our future plans regarding our business. We’re on the path in making this a reality. Soon you’ll find out. In case you’re interested to join feel free to email me at projects@elvinperia.com.

This fuels me to start my week right. I’m so fired up!

I went to the office. I had mountains of things to do to start my week. I need to prepare the Post Campaign Analysis for Malaysia, prepare the March Month End Excess Inventory Report, submit the daily inventory report and the weekly service reports, give an orientation about the service and inventory reporting plus other stuff and attend a lot of meetings.

Anyway, these tasks are the things I need to accomplish within the week. Sounds like an easy task but most of these reports require half to one day to finish.  Imagine that. 

This is the exciting part. Every after I finished my day job, I look forward to finishing my assignments as a virtual assistant. Having two jobs at the same time requires proper time management (which I'm currently learning). My tasks as a virtual assistant are just simple. It only requires me to answer emails, to save the inquiries in a template in Microsoft Excel and provide a daily update regarding the status of the project to my client. In fact, this week, as far as I know, I answered on an average, 50 emails in less than 1 hour. Cool right?

Also, this week, I re-started my passion. I joined Laguna Feast’s Music Ministry. In fact, I just got home from the band practice. Of course, I played the guitar. I learned 4 new songs. I met new people (people who are very passionate in serving God’s people thru their talents). Just in case you want to be part of Laguna Feast you may email them at LagunaFeast@gmail.com.

One more thing, of course, I attended Wealth Academy’s Series 10 entitled Distinctions in the mind of Poor, Middle class and Rich discussed by Wealth Academy’s proponent and CEO Noel Arandilla. On my next post I will be sharing the things I learned from this series.

Until my next post.

Ooops. Before I forgot. I'm posting this article using my email. I'm using a Blogger feature called Mail2Blogger. Mail2Blogger allows you to create blog posts using your email.

eLviN

PS. Rex Mendoza will be discussing the Entrepreneur’s Mindset this April 14 at the IMG Makati office. This talk is exclusively for IMG members. In case you want to attend seminars like this, please contact me at ask@elvinperia.com.

PS1. Do you want to serve? Laguna Feast will be conducting a Basic Communication Skills Training on April 11 and April 18. This will be for those who wants to be part of the Feast’s Servants.

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