I urge you to become Optimist Prime. Say to yourself, “I can finish the VA Assignments!”

This is the truth: the assignment that Sir Jomar gave during his 15 September 2012 How to Become a Virtual Assistant Seminar was kind of overwhelming. 10 tutorials of websites of your choice, close to 100 slides, plus opening a Klout account and putting your score in your VA resume (in PDF) is no joke.

But here’s a fact: the assignment that he gave in his How to Become a Virtual Assistant Seminar two years ago was also overwhelming. He also instructed 10 tutorials of websites of your choice. Though the least number of slides is 30 and there’s no need to put a Klout score in your VA resume (there was no Klout two years ago).

I did it anyway.

Some VA participants in the seminar had this excitement of learning something that could change the way they live their lives. But upon hearing of the assignment, they had the same look on their faces: that’s just too many!

I tell you what: in our current office environment, we are asked to do reports and presentations. Some of them you may have brought home to make sure that no detail is left. I am not going to ask you anymore if you love doing that.

In the VA seminar, the tutorials that you are going to do are based on your CHOICE. You will choose what you want others to learn, and in return, you will get to learn, too.

Here’s my unsolicited advice to future co-VAs who are just about to give up in their minds when they have not even started. I am focusing on 10 tutorials preparation because I feel that’s what makes you palpitate (okay I’m kidding):

1. Stop thinking. Just do it. You want to fire your boss and not the way around, right? Breathe, it’s not a sign of the Mayan belief of the end of the world.

2. From the websites that Sir Jomar taught, choose 10. Just list your choice websites down in a paper.

3. Take in one a day. Day by day, watch a YouTube video tutorial about 1 website.

4. Prepare one tutorial a day or two days. As you go through the steps of your tutorial, do not forget that Print Screen is your friend. Press the Print Screen every step.

You may choose between MS Word and MS PowerPoint in doing the tutorials.

5. Don’t focus on the number of slides. You will freak out. Focus on how you’re making the slides. Are there only a most of 10 words per slide? Did you miss a step? A great question will be “will somebody else understand and follow my tutorial?”

Get this: if you watch one YouTube video tutorial and do the slides in one to two days, you will finish 10 tutorials in 20 days! Who says two months for the assignments is too short?

Got a day job? Then stop bringing work home and do the assignments at night. Staying awake in the wee hours of the night with what you love is just amazing.

By the way, why only two months to do everything? I have read in Tim Ferriss’ “The 4-Hour Work Week” that giving too much time to students to finish their assignments or tasks will make them say “I’ll do it later.” If one’s pressed for time, the brain functions actively. The results are masterpieces. Do you remember when you were still in school and you had to do a project with a tomorrow deadline?

So there you are. I hope this helps. I gotta stop now because I am about to do the assignments, too.