Scheduling is hugely important when you're dealing with business. If this is a hobby, then it isn't that important, if you lose clients or not. 

But trust us when we say, if this is a business, you'll want to make sure your time is organized and planned. Does this mean, you can't make changes or be fluid when a day arrives and the kiddoes are sick or there's an emergency? Not at all! 

 What this means is if you have a list of tasks that need to be done, and that list is prioritized, you'll be far more successful than if you fly by the seat of your sweats. Successful bloggers and authors have schedules. As their Virtual Assistant, you should, too! 

Mandie's scheduling process: 

Every morning I make a list of what needs to be done that day. I have some tasks that I do daily, for example I run a few Facebook pages for clients and I know that I need to post every day Monday – Friday and I know how much time to allot. 

Other tasks I only do as needed, I do ask my clients send them over in a timely manner and not at midnight the night before. 

I VA for several authors and they have release days every month. I make sure to schedule lighter for my other clients that day. I look at the weekly calendar and see what I can put in where. I choose to work half days so being organized and working with my schedule is very important for my business. 

Let’s say author A has a new release on Monday, that means I will put in a couple of hours working on her plan so I schedule in author B’s work the next day. If I have a website design coming up I know that it will take several hours so I look at my week’s schedule and decide when I can fit it in. This helps me stay organized and get everything completed in a timely manner. Sometimes I must move things around while other times I can hop on work early. It is an advantage of being in control of your own schedule. 

Bonnie's scheduling process: 

 I'm a list maker - similar to how Mandie does her list making - I have a running To-Do list that gets crossed off as I'm working and then I rewrite the list when I have five or more things accomplished. This is because 1. my handwriting is close to that of a toddler learning how to write and 2. I like my lists feeling fresh.

 I also number the tasks or clients that I'm focusing on during that round of tasks. Once they're done, I can then recreate the list with blank spots for those clients until I fill things back in. You can see in the task list shown that I have a couple things signed off and other things blank. This is a huge "teller" for me on where to focus and where I can relax on for a moment. 

 Since I do newsletters for a majority of my clients, I like to make sure I have the dates of send as well as drafts listed and then note the scheduled date. That's for my own peace of mind since newsletters have their own timeline. 

 For the bloggers I work for, I like to focus on utilizing the editorial calendar in their sites and making a list of things that need to be done beforehand - drafting the posts, site maintenance, and more.