Behind the Screen: A Day in the Life of a Virtual Assistant

Ctrl + Alt + Assist – When things crash, we reboot your workflow.

There’s a strange misconception about Virtual Assistants.That we spend our days scheduling social media posts and answering emails in our pyjamas. That our role is simple. Transactional. Disposable.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

A great VA is a chameleon. A bridge. A second brain. We’re not just “assistants”—we’re co-pilots, problem solvers, and pressure valves for people spinning ten plates and trying not to drop any of them.

Here’s a look at what a typical day looks like behind the Ctrl + Alt + Assist screen.

8:40am — Deep breath. Systems open. Time to recalibrate.

The school run’s done. Coffee’s brewing. I sit down, glance at my to-do list and client dashboards, and immediately spot what needs to shift.

Someone’s inbox has gone quiet. Another’s onboarding process needs a nudge. One client has a big pitch coming up—time to double check they’re not forgetting the follow-ups that’ll matter after the meeting.

It’s not about checking boxes. It’s about noticing what’s not being said, not being done, and quietly making sure it gets handled.

Mid-morning — The moving parts moment

This is where the tabs multiply. Google Docs. Notion. WhatsApp. Trello. Emails from five different businesses, each with its own voice, pace, and pressure points.

There’s something oddly satisfying about getting a process to run smoother than it did yesterday.

Maybe it’s reviewing someone’s onboarding journey and turning it into a clear, automated sequence. Or untangling a bloated calendar and making space for the actual work that matters.

Either way—it’s progress, and you can feel the client breathe out, even if they never say it.

Early afternoon — Focused sprints

Admin isn’t the enemy. Bad admin is.

The kind that piles up in the background and makes people feel like they’re behind before they’ve even begun. That’s what I remove.

So I take an hour to clean up someone’s CRM, rewrite a clunky process doc, and schedule two weeks of client comms they can stop worrying about.

I do it efficiently, because I know where to look. I do it calmly, because I’ve done it a hundred times before. That’s the difference between help and support.

2:30pm — Clock out, knowing they’re covered

When my working day wraps up, the inboxes are clear, the systems are set, and the tasks have moved forward—quietly, without a fuss.

I don’t chase praise. I chase peace. That moment when a client messages just to say:

"Thank you. I feel less stressed already."That’s the real reward.

What you don’t see on paper

A VA like me doesn’t just help you do more. We help you think better. Feel lighter. Build a business that doesn’t fall apart when life happens.

And that’s the kind of support that lasts.

If you’re holding everything together with duct tape and Post-its, let’s change that.

hello@ctrlaltassist.co.uk | ctrlaltassist.co.uk