Social Hit’s Post

Since the pandemic, my hubs & I have worked remotely together at least two days a week. Tuesdays and Thursday we sit in our individual home offices (located directly next to each other), battling over who’s the louder talker on our conference calls. (It’s me, I’m always the louder one 😬) And throughout the day my husband will randomly pop over to my office - even if the door is shut - to come say hi and give me a kiss on the forehead. I know some of you are reading this going “aww that’s so cute.” But honestly, it’s actually kind of annoying. It feels like an interruption. I always lose focus on whatever I’m working on. And then I feel guilty I’m not thinking it’s adorable. But as this scenario played out yesterday (as it was a Thursday and we were both home), I decided to anticipate his office visit. So this time, when he popped over, I was present and ready to say hello vs. dramatically typing on my keyboard. And a scenario I previously found annoying, really did turn into the cutest thing ever. The point of this personal story is that we always have the ability to see things differently by picking our heads up & being more present. 〰️Maybe that daily standup you’re always eye rolling at attending is actually a great touchpoint with your team. 〰️Maybe that monthly report out your responsible for isn’t such a waste of time after all. 〰️And maybe just maybe, the office visit and kiss on your forehead from your husband is your very favorite part of your day. What can you rethink today? How can you see a situation differently? Happy Friday!

I've reinstated my self-imposed policy of No-Meeting Fridays. And it's been a game-changer. Meetings are a reality in my role and organization. They are not going away. And I have a lot of them every week. I drive value by improving the product and elevating the individuals on our team. To make these improvements I need time for deep work. To do deep work, I need long blocks of uninterrupted time. Short breaks between meetings is not enough time for me to do the deep work required to be successful in my role. Enter: No-Meeting Fridays. Today alone, I was able to dig through insights about our customers and build three different product pitches. I also put critical thought into improving our team culture. The absence of meetings was not only valuable for my mental state but also improved our product. The best part - I've not missed anything! Meetings can be moved to other days. Or I can catch up on meetings in alternate ways. No-Meeting Fridays is not a novel concept. But is one I highly recommend. If you work with me and read this, don't you dare schedule time with me on a Friday! 😜

We implemented low meeting Fridays. I've dreamt of a 4 day work week - but had a lot of pushback. This is where we ended up. We all have customers, and they don't work 4 days a week. This gives our team space to do deep work (the only kind of work that is truly transformational). For those of you looking to do the same here's the comms we sent out: CREDIT: Kyle Lacy ----- We need to meet frequently. Internally. Externally. via Zoom. In-person. We meet a lot. We also need time to focus. And we need time to focus in large enough blocs to do deep, meaningful work. 📅 We’ve implemented Low Meetings Fridays to create more focus time for everyone. What are Low Meeting Fridays? Low Meeting Fridays are exactly what they sound like: a day (Friday, duh) where we have few to no meetings. This doesn’t mean we can’t meet on Fridays. We recognize that may be impossible. But as a team, we’re asking everyone to do what you can to curb meeting on Fridays. I’m in. How can I help? Schedule meetings for every other day of the week. You have 4 other really fab days to choose from. If possible, leverage Async tools like: Loom Notion Docs & Comments Gong If you need to meet on Fridays, be flexible. They’re Low Meeting days, not No Meeting days. If you find Mon-Thurs is becoming MEETING PACKED, flag it and let’s see if we can incorporate more Async communication tools or consolidate meetings to help create focus time throughout the week.

💼 Week 2 Day1 : Let's Talk About the Power of Organization in Virtual Assistance! 📅 Happy Monday, LinkedIn family! As we kick off the second week of posting every weekday on here, I want to dive into a topic that's crucial for every VA: ORGANIZATION. Why is organization important for virtual assistants? Keeping tasks, deadlines, and client information organized can make or break your efficiency. Here’s why: 🔹Enhanced Efficiency: Organized workflows reduce time wasted on finding information or switching between tasks, allowing you to focus on high-value activities. 🔹Meeting Deadlines: Structured schedules and reminders ensure you never miss a deadline, maintaining your reputation for reliability. 🔹Better Client Relationships: Keeping track of client preferences and needs helps in providing personalized and attentive service, fostering stronger client relationships. 🔹Reduced Stress: Knowing everything is in its place and accounted for can significantly reduce stress, making your workday smoother and more enjoyable. 🔹Improved Quality of Work: An organized approach allows for better planning and execution, leading to higher-quality outputs 🔸 Here are my Top 3 Organization Tools: Trello: Perfect for visualizing tasks and workflows. Google Calendar: Essential for scheduling and reminders. Evernote: Great for note-taking and keeping track of ideas. Question for You: 💬 What’s your go-to tool or method for staying organized as a VA or in your job? Share your tips with the community! Your suggestions might be just what someone needs to boost their productivity😉.

On Monday, when you arrive at the office, your colleagues will ask how was your weekend? They do this because they probably didn’t have a great weekend and want to see if others did. When you say you did nothing special, they feel better knowing they’re not alone in having a less-than-exciting weekend. How was your weekend😂? #mondayblues #weekendvibes #officechatter #weekendupdate #colleaguequestions #workweekstart

Happy Monday! Kicked off the week with our virtual team catch-up. It's not your usual office meeting, but it's our way of staying connected. We've got our tasks lined up, our coffee cups filled, and our notes ready. It doesn't matter that we're all in different places; what matters is that we're all working towards the same goals. It's just us and our laptops, turning plans into action, one Monday at a time. Here’s to a week full of productivity and great teamwork! #MondayMotivation #Teamwork #Productivity

I’ll be honest… This week has been a quiet one… nothing really to write home about, no big exciting events… no day trips to London… But that is life isn't it? One week you're in London for design week, visiting clients, here there and everywhere and the next you are sitting at your desk every day writing notes in meetings, making sure Asana is up to date, trying to book meetings when you just know every day for the next two weeks is booked up. 👉 This week at Bobble was just that… BH Monday was my [not so] little brother's birthday - two birthday cakes [he's the favorite] and a family meal at the local curry house... Tuesday was WFH admin day. I think I broke my own record for number of emails, Asana and team messages sent in a day. Wednesday was a busy day for meetings and strategy reviews for clients… Thursday was the same but had the added bonus of Olivia Morley joining us for a co-working day which always makes the day better. Today? More strategy planning, client reviews for Q3 and Q4 and sorting out some internal comms and marketing for Bobble’s upcoming birthday 🥳 But as things go next week is a BUSY one… back to back meetings Monday and Tuesday followed by ClimbUK on Wednesday and Thursday and a Bobble Birthday celebration on Friday [More on that soon] Fair to say I will be sleeping all weekend… Happy Friday! #ThisWeek #DigitalMarketing #AccountManagement

BUSTED.. 🙃 I skipped this update-week's 3rd post. Had a good day with multiple meetings all around town, and didn't get to posting on LinkedIn. And to be honest, I expected that no one would notice 😅 . But actually, multiple people caught me in the act. Apparently LinkedIn works great as an accountability partner as well. I'll make up for it today. 3/5 Here are some insights from my new way of working: • Working alone from another country has all the obvious pros and cons: I have more focus , am more efficient, it's less fun, have more need for clear goals and daily intention setting, and it opens me up socially to making new connections. • We're making a lot of quick and short-term decisions every week. We're quick on our feet and don't have time to analyze it all, meaning the balance between ratio and emotions is leaning way more to the latter than in my regular activities. We have a system, but it's also simply a lot of gut feeling. • I split my week in Alone vs Available half-days, to keep focus. It is easy to get distracted by all that is going on in the Amsterdam office and team. But also, it's important to stay in touch and help my colleagues out. I only schedule internal meetings on specific hours every week, so keep my schedule clear the rest of the week for external meetings or Denmark-focussed deep work. This however doesn't mean I'm not communicating with the team during Alone periods, but it's more unilateral and all aimed at my own projects and goals. • We're focussing our marketing and sales efforts around the Flywheel effect for creating momentum (known mainly from Jim Collin's classic Good to Great). This deserves it's own post, will share more on this later. One other perk: my office becomes a place to visit for my colleagues! Yesterday, my colleague Arjuna Enait was in the office for 1 day.

Hey LinkedIn fam! 👋 It's time for a furry-fun break in the midst of our bustling workdays. Post a pic of your pet fish, pup, cat, or even your macaw, I'll go first! As much as I love diving into spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, let's take a moment to celebrate our unsung heroes of the home office - our beloved "work from home support animals" as I call them! 🐶💼 I don't know about you, but my days are infinitely brighter thanks to the paw-sitive vibes (i know...but I love dad jokes) of my own WFH companion, Petra. She's not just a pet; she's my partner in productivity, my morale booster, and the reason I haven't gone stir-crazy in this virtual jungle we call remote work. 🌟 If you'll allow me to share something personal for a moment, when the pandemic hit (and our world turned virtual), I felt the loneliness creep in. Being an extrovert who thrives in team meetings, at public speaking, and within event settings, I found the transition harder than I was willing to let my coworkers or even close friends know. That's when Petra strutted into our hearts, a mini husky with enough attitude to rival a CEO. Working side by side with Petra every day has been life-changing. She's not only mastered the art of virtual meetings (I swear she's gunning for my job!), but she's also a pro at clicking that trackpad (laptop mouse) with her paw and knows it causes fun flashy things on the display. This could be dangerous lol. So, here's the challenge, folks! Drop a pic of your own work-from-home support animal in the comments below. Let's flood this feed with some much-needed fluffiness and spread smiles across the virtual workspace. Trust me, it's the best way to boost morale and beat those midweek blues! Can't wait to meet all your adorable companions. Let the pet parade begin! 🎉📸 #WFHAnimals #PetPicsPlease #VirtualWorkBuddies