HISMD: Business Owner (Kelly Nolan)
Partner. 2 kids (7yo & 3.5yo). WFH. MN.
This "How I Structure My Day" Series started from an Instagram post I did about my own life (replicated here!), under which a woman asked if it would be possible to see how women working a more full-time, traditional job did it. I asked women to share, and, man, have people responded. The goal is to show how women from different industries, with and without kids, with and without partners, with family living with/near them and not, wfh to 1+ hour commutes, etc. structure their day. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do!
The Context:
Part of what I love about my job is that I get to hear from hundreds of other women about how they make their lives work.
We’re all different, so some things that work for them wouldn’t work for me and vice-versa.
But it’s still fun to hear how others do it, so here’s mine – feel free to comment below with yours!
Morning
The dream is waking up before the kids & getting 30-60 min to myself. That said, my kids often wake up around 5:30/6am, so it only happens about 1/2 the time in this phase of life.
I also prioritize sleep over early morning time to myself (a hard call!), so I only wake up before them if I do it naturally. If I do, I like working on creative things. My "just in case" alarm is set for 6:20am, but it usually goes off when I’m elbows-deep in breakfast prep.
When I do go downstairs in the morning, I:
Hit the coffee button (set up the night before - grateful to Past Me or my husband on this front. every. single. morning.)
Feed Olive. Feed the girls. Unload the dishwasher. If time, feed me (if not, I eat when I get home).
To make this happen, my Apple Watch alarm goes off at 6:55 (finalize packing of backpacks), 7:15 (kids: shoes + bathroom) & 7:25 (head to car) to help. Pull out at 7:30am.
Get the kids out the door – bus stop and preschool drop-off. If my husband is home and awake (sometimes he’s sleeping after a night shift), he takes the youngest to preschool.
All of this is in the calendar, too, but alarms help us stay on track when everyone is moving in different directions (as is my attention)!
Next up:
Walk Olive (my black lab): This helps me transition into me/work mode and out of mom mode. I listen to business podcasts to get me in the zone, call a friend if I'd rather do that, and sometimes just walk in silence. Depends on what I feel like doing.
8:30am-3pm
General work hours in my home office. The type of work varies on whether I'm running a program (client-centered work, like responding to client emails) or not (marketing-centered work, like pitching myself to podcasts or publications).
It also depends on whether my husband is home to play kid backup (when I schedule hard-to-cancel meetings) or not (more heads-down work).
All that said, I also run a lot of my personal errands, hold personal appointments (e.g., derm, haircut), and occasionally meet up with friends (e.g., coffee, lunch) during work hours. It’s so m
Lunchtime
I typically eat lunch around 10:30/11 because of those early wake-ups and eating forever ago by then.
I’ll work out right before lunch or wait until 1pm-ish when I’m not so full. This helps with my natural energy slump around this time of day. Love at-home workouts that last 15-20 min (thank you, MommaStrong). Then, shower.
The only time I shift this is if I have a "face on" meeting earlier in the day, in which case I'll workout and shower earlier in the day – usually right after I walk Olive.
3pm
Walk Olive again. It helps me transition out of work mode. I listen to a fun audiobook or podcast to help my brain shift, call a friend or sister, or again, just walk in silence watching Olive contagiously love life.
3:30-7/8pm
Mom-mode. We don't do after-school activities right now (1st grader and 3yo) – it's just too much for us, although I think that’ll change in January.
We go to a playground in warmer months, play at home or outside, watch tv, or run maybe one errand. The kids are tired – and so am I – so we just follow our energy (or lack thereof). Then, bath (~every other night during non-summer months) and bedtime. I’m usually out of their rooms by 7/7:30pm.
7/8pm
Clean up the kitchen. Run the dishwasher. Set up the coffee for tomorrow. If I feel up for it, fold laundry or clean other parts of the house with a fun audiobook. Opal locks me out of Instagram at 8pm, which helps a lot here, too.
If my husband is home, he does all of this while I do bedtime with the kids, so I have more time to relax!
I don’t tend to work a ton in the evenings, but if I did more personal things than normal during the day (e.g., lunch with a friend), if I feel a bit behind in getting back to people or meeting a deadline, I’ll work some.
Otherwise, I’ll read a book, scroll (let’s be honest...), watch a show (currently into the Lincoln Lawyer), or talk to my husband.
9pm
Aim to be in bed reading a book and not my phone. This can be hard (especially on days I didn't have childcare / time to myself), but as Julie Morgenstern says, "your mornings begin the night before." That’s annoyingly true, so I try to live consistently with that. Try.
That’s pretty much it! Nothing too exciting, but I love my little life.
That’s a wrap for this one!
Hope you liked reading mine, the original one that kicked off this series!
A reminder of the ground rules to ensure women continue wanting to share about their days and feel safe doing so.
Encouraging comments always welcome!
If you have questions or even hang-ups about what someone shared, you are welcome to ask a question for the sharer in the same kind, genuinely curious way you would if you were looking at that woman in her eyes. She might respond through me.
If comments are judge-y or mean-spirited, I reserve the right to delete comments. I can handle being criticized about my own work here (and even still, to a degree – I’m also a person), but I go into full mama bear mode when people come after my people – including women who are being vulnerable and sharing in the first place.
Thanks to the vast majority of people who are so kind!
New here? Welcome!
I’m Kelly Nolan, an attorney-turned-time management strategist and mom of two. I teach the Bright Method, a realistic time management system designed for professional working women. In addition to this fun new series, I share bite-sized time management strategies on Instagram. Thanks for being here!
After experiencing overwhelm as a young patent litigator in Boston, I figured out a time management system to help me show up in the ways that I wanted to at work and at home – without requiring my brain to somehow magically remember it all. I now teach other professional working women how to manage their personal, family, and career roles with less stress and more calm clarity using realistic time management strategies. My system, the Bright Method, has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, and my work has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Business Insider, and more. Learn more on my website, come learn bite-sized strategies with me on Instagram, or jump into my free 5-day program.
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