How to Stay Organized as a Virtual Assistant

It can be difficult or overwhelming to try to stay organized as a virtual assistant when you are first getting started!

Each new client brings their own way of handling business. They add a new layer of complexity to your organization creating new demands on your schedule. Below I’ve created a list of the three best ways to keep organized as a virtual assistant!

Find a great project management tool and stick with it.

There are a ton of options out there for project management. Each has its own quirks and benefits. A big favorite in the virtual assistant world is Trello because it provides a visual timeline of the process that each task is going through.

Another tool that is popular is Asana which is one of my personal favorites. I like the way that it organizes the tasks into projects and then provides you with one unified task list to work from on a daily basis. The downfall of Asana doesn’t appear until your team begins to grow. The free version doesn’t allow projects to only be assigned to certain people.

Recently, in my quest for the perfect project management tool, I discovered ClickUp. ClickUp is very similar to Asana but provides many of their paid features in the free version! When I found this tool I was sold. I can add clients to their projects without allowing them to see anything for other clients. This was a HUGE benefit. I can also have multiple team members assigned to various projects allowing them to enjoy a workspace that isn’t cluttered with tasks and projects that don’t apply to them.

Finding a great project management tool might be the most important thing to help you stay organized as a virtual assistant.

Choose 1 place to communicate with your team.

I see many teams out there who end up using a variety of ways to communicate and it just causes problems. When conversations happen in multiple channels (i.e slack, email, text, discord, etc) things can get lost, information can be missed, and most important tasks can go unfinished.

A great thing to look for in your communication tool is the option to integrate it with other software you are using. For example on our team, we use ClickUp as mentioned above for project management and we use slack for team communication. If a task comes up in slack, it’s as simple as clicking a button to create that task in ClickUp. This way tasks aren’t being missed and communication is kept together.

Communication is a key factor to stay organized as a virtual assistant.

Find a booking/calendar management system

An essential part of staying organized involves knowing who you need to talk to and when, while still making sure you have the time dedicated to your projects.

Creating a booking system and using it diligently is a great way to ensure you won’t have last minute meeting requests or time conflicts with other work.

There are a ton of different options out there for the calendar management, all of them with their own set of features to help you stay organized as a virtual assistant.

Bonus Tip: Set working hours with clients.

You’re likely asking “how can this help me stay organized as a virtual assistant?” Setting your working hours sets realistic expectations of when work will be completed.

No one is really at their best when they are working until midnight every night. Or when they are then getting back up at 4 am to work again. It happens to all of us once in a while, but working like this too often will wreak havoc on your organization system.

Originally published at webscientists.net on August 31, 2018.