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I had an amazing conversation with some of my Instagram peeps last week about what they struggle with the most when thinking about becoming a virtual assistant. Many of you said that it was a struggle to deal with the uncertainty that comes along with chronic illness. Finding a routine is difficult (and keeping it up during a flare is harder). Dealing with cognitive issues like brain fog feels impossible at times.
Like a lot of you, I deal with all of this daily. The only thing that keeps me making forward progress is that I’ve gotten super clear on how to set realistic goals for my day. Instead of thinking that my life needs to look like the ideal that a lot of self-help books preach, I’ve gotten real about what I’m capable of (and what I’m not) each day.
Here are my three go-to strategies for setting realistic goals for my day:
Create a daily top 3 list.
Prioritizing how I spend my time was a game changer for me. Every spooniepreneur I know struggles with how to get in a good routine so it’s possible to work most days. Learning how to budget your energy so you don’t crash is a skill that takes a lot of time. (I’ll be honest when I say it’s still a work in progress for me.) So getting intentional about what MUST be done that day was powerful.
I spend 10 minutes at the end of the day going over the client projects I have on my plate, reviewing deadlines, and figuring out what comes next. This means that by the end of my workday, I have decided what 3 things will get my attention first the next day.
Every morning, I revisit this list and revise it if needed based on how I’m feeling. There are days when more difficult tasks are substituted with simple things like doing the laundry or getting a shower. My only rule is that I must get these things done by the time I go to bed so I’ve learned to be realistic.
If want to steal my system for organizing my day, week, and month, click here to snag the Spooniepreneur Planner for free.
Don’t rely on a notebook or paper planner.
Y’all, this is HARD. It took me a long time to get rid of my paper planner and post-it notes. But when I got sick, it took a lot of spoons to walk into the other room to grab the planner when I needed to write something down. I would lose the sticky notes and then forget important things. That’s when I broke down and starting using Google Calendar and Trello to organize my life.
I use my Trello board as a virtual bulletin board to help me when setting realistic goals for my day. That’s where all my “sticky notes” go and where I map out what my top 3 goals are for the day. I absolutely love using Trello because there’s an app for my phone, which allows me to make notes as soon as I think of something. If I need to set a reminder for something happening in the future, I will create an event in my Google Calendar so I’ll see the reminder that day.
Automate as much as you can.
The simple definition of automation is to create a system so you don’t have to think about it. If there are tasks that you do over and over again in your business, automating as much as you can decreases the chance that you’ll mess something up if you don’t feel well or are in a hurry. While you can do this the old fashioned way by creating a checklist, there’s also a lot of programs out there to help as well.
For example, I use Dubsado as my Customer Relationship Management program (or CRM). It’s an all-in-one solution for delivering proposals, signing contracts, invoicing clients and getting paid, and scheduling calls. Honestly, if you make one investment initially this is my recommendation. I have canned emails, templated forms, and workflows in place so all I have to do is push a button and the client receives a proposal, invoice, and contract.
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The key to setting realistic goals for my day is being consistent and mindful. While the systems and strategies you’ll use will need personalized for your needs, you won’t get too far unless you make a commitment to showing up every day and being flexible when you’re not feeling well.
