500 posts and a long, long list

I can't believe it - these last 100 posts have FLOWN by.


And post 400 was only on 3 March!

When I was going through that electricity thing and I had that headache, I realised that things need to change around here.

1. We gave notice to the tenants so at least we'll know that any future electricity usage is all ours.

2. I'm going to stop worrying about my business - nothing has changed and I am still excellent at what I do (I do know this deep down) even though my marketing is not yielding the results I want.

3. I also decided that I need to relax more so I've hired a new virtual assistant.

I've had two so far - first one was great but went through some personal stuff and as a result, wasn't doing my work on time, etc, etc. I technically am owed about 10 hours' work but I chose to just let it all go and close the loop. Keep the relationship and all that jazz.

Second one was okay, but worked much slower which is not good for me (I like things done yesterday!) and if he doesn't know what's going on, doesn't ask but avoids the conflict so I thought to give him one last chance.

I made a manual of how to do my weekly newsletter, emailed him and asked him if he could commit to do this piece of work on a weekly basis with a 24 - 36-hour turnaround.

No answer in 2 days so I decided that was that.

I put out my work on a freelance site and was INUNDATED with job applicants. Took some time last week filtering through the responses but decided on 3 people. 1 of those didn't get back to me within 48 hours so again is out (I have to be tough because otherwise it's not helping me as the task falls right back to me again) and so I am testing the other two.

One has direct experience with the system I use so she will do this week's one. I've given the other one another boring task and I'll use those to check their attention to detail, speed, accuracy and learning curve.

It's been a big investment in time doing the manual, finding suitable candidates, etc. but I know it will free up lots of time in the weeks and months to come.

Strange or not-so-strange thing - the minute I decided that I need to stop worrying about all this and that I am still fabulous (!), I got an email booking me for an event on Wed and a meeting request to discuss a joint venture - both for SPEAKING.

Did I not say that I wanted to speak more this year???

I am very, very excited about Wednesday's talk.

It's going to be a busy, busy week - we celebrate Youth Day on Wednesday so it's a public holiday.
This week's must do items

1. Go to gym twice (skipped one last week because of Sex and the City)
2. Phone exterminator (I have crawling insects in my kitchen and I've tried everything to get rid of them but nothing's working so even though I hate "wasting" money, these suckers must die!)
3. Dental appointment on Tuesday *gulp* (hate the dentist - it's that needle thing)
4. Write newsletter and send to VA
5. Finalise talk for Wed (it's 80% done)
   
6. Prepare personal development items for work
   
7. Write copy for new website - more on this later...

What's on your must-do list this week?

P.S. I decided on the birthday theme. It's kind of a secret for now (I need to see whether things are easy to get or not) but hopefully, we are good to go.

P.P.S. That is the colour of my bedroom wall. Now you can see why I had to take the red bags and stash them out of sight. What colour would you say it is?