A day in the life of Alexandra Lewis, a Virtalent VA

Alexandra Lewis has over 10 years’ experience working as a PA in the property industry. Alongside her full-time job, she started to branch out, offering her services to property clients who were looking to improve their business operations. Once she caught the VA bug, she quit her full-time job and never looked back. She is now one of 70 VAs working for Virtalent, a Virtual Assistant service with clients ranging from solo consultants and coaches, to rapidly-growing tech start-ups and innovative corporate teams.

Here’s what a day in the life of a Virtalent VA looks like.

6.30am

My day always kicks off with morning cuddles with my little boy. There is no such thing as a lie in when you have a 2-year-old! Coffee is a must and after sorting breakfast and glancing at my emails, it’s time for the school run. 

8.30am

To get me motivated, I HAVE to tidy the house and make sure my workspace is clear. All cleaning, washing and tidying is finished before I can settle down to work. 

9.00am

Now it’s time to get some work done. I tend to alternate between my office and the kitchen table to give myself some variation. Plus, the kitchen table is closer to the coffee machine, so this spot often wins!

Once I’ve checked and responded to all my emails, I jump onto Slack to check through the Virtalent team channel for any updates. Sam and Ellie, Virtalent’s Co-Founders, are in the process of launching an exciting new portal for us to better track our spent working time for clients, so I like to ensure I’m staying on top of any new developments.

Working remotely can get lonely at times but it’s great to have access to such a tight-knit community of fellow VAs at the touch of a button – whether someone needs a restaurant recommendation in Central London or simply wants to share a photo of their new puppy, it makes a real difference to my day being part of a team like this. We all have such a range of experience and expertise so if we ever need advice, this channel is our first port of call. 

This amazing support system was one of the big draws to me joining Virtalent over going it alone.

10.30am

No day is ever the same! One of my Virtalent clients receives over 100 important emails a day so part of my job is to monitor them and action each one. This means checking in on their inbox 3-4 times a day to ensure nothing gets missed. 

11.30am

For the past 3 months, for another client, I’ve been project managing a completely new home build. Trello is my friend here as I’ve had to deal with contractors, water suppliers, architects and gas engineers to name but a few!

Today I’m checking in with the stair manufacturer to ensure everything is on track for delivery. It’s been an intense project but insanely rewarding and it’s something that I’d love to pursue myself in the future. 

12.30pm

I don’t tend to give myself too much of a lunch break as I like to get my work completed so that I can go and collect my little boy. I grab a quick salad before finishing off emails. Being able to manage my own time and be a present mummy is a real perk to the job. 

2pm 

I spend the afternoon focusing on my nutritionist client. She needs some updates done to her website and has asked me to create some content on Canva for her social media channels. I also have a batch of patient records she needs me to archive. 

3pm 

It’s nursery pick-up time so I take a pause and head off to collect my son. The next few hours are fully focused on him and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

7pm

Once my son is asleep and dinner is sorted, I’m back on my laptop. I am officially a workaholic so if my to-do list isn’t complete – I’ll spend my evening focusing on getting it finished off. Fortunately, the work I do for many of my clients is very flexible – the benefit to them is that everything is done each day, even if a task comes in late!

If I’ve got a clear evening, it’s spent on the sofa watching Coronation Street or the latest reality show. 

10pm

I’m in bed by 10pm on weeknights. I always turn my phone off and really try and switch off and relax so that I can be up at the crack of dawn to start it all over again!