HISMD: Chief of Staff, Tech Company

Partner. 1 kid (1yo). Hybrid. Breastfeeding/Pumping.

This "How I Structure My Day" series started with an Instagram post I made about my own life, which prompted a woman to ask if it would be possible to see how women working a more traditional, full-time 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 Snapshot

• Partner: Yes

• Children: Yes – 1yo

• Hybrid (3d/w in office; 2d/w at home)

Typical Day

• 6:20am alarm

• 6:30am start getting ready: brush teeth, wash face, hair/makeup, turn on water boiler for tea

• 7:00am wake up baby and breastfeed

• 7:25am hand off baby to my partner for a diaper change and to get her dressed

• 7:30am finish getting ready, get dressed

• 7:40am put final items in my bag, say goodbye to partner and baby

• 7:45am walk to the bus (in office days) or head downstairs to my office (wfh days)

Morning "Make Life Easier" Hacks

• A wake-up lamp: it starts slowly lighting up 30 minutes before the alarm goes off

• Put a protein shake in the refrigerator the night before

• Fill the water boiler the night before

• Pack my bag the night before.

• I recently bought all new work clothes after years of working mostly from home and not really dressing up when I did go into an office, but I started a new job and wanted to up my game. I now have a capsule wardrobe of 3 pairs of nice pants, various button-down shirts (silk, linen, cotton), and 3 nice pairs of flats.

  • Sidenote: the clothes are all from Quince, which I recently discovered and am very happy with and their prices are very reasonable.

  • Shoes are all Rothy's.

  • They almost all go together so I just grab one shirt, one pair of pants and one pair of shoes each morning and don't put a lot of thought into it. With nice shoes, some earrings, and doing my hair a little, it is a reasonably polished and easy look.

Transition into Work Mode

• When I go into the office, I walk to and from the bus, which can be a nice transition.

• On days I work from home, it is much more abrupt. I get more time to either work or spend with my family, but I could definitely use more of a ritual.

What my work day looks like

• Lots of meetings

• I track all follow-ups on my calendar as events and color code them: light green for things I need to work on, dark green for things I need to work on in a specific window (as in I will get something from meeting 1 and need to turn it around quickly before meeting 2), gray for items that are pending follow up from other people, and red for things I really can't forget.

Lunch/Snacks

• I try to block a window on my calendar depending on how meetings shake out, but really block it so I don't look free.

Breaks

• I don’t schedule breaks unless I see a bunch of back-to-back meetings stacking up

• Needing to pump has forced me to get better at this.

Leaving work

• 4:20pm on days I go into the office because I need to catch the bus home

• 5pm on days I am home because my partner is getting home from daycare pick up at that time.

• Probably 2x a week I get back online after dinner to keep working for 1-2 hours

Transition out of work mode

• Abruptly, then am still checking my phone. Do not recommend :)

After work hours

• Baby play time

• Feeding her in the high chair

• Eating dinner (my partner preps while I am breastfeeding)

• Cleaning up

• After baby is asleep:

  • Usually 1-2 of these each night depending on what is most pressing: more work, tidying around the house, personal admin, exercise, watching TV

Nightime non-negotiables

• Dishes and dishwasher

• Pack bag for the next day if going into the office

• Put protein shake in refrigerator

• Fill water boiler

• If I have the energy: exercise (I do virtual bar method classes; recently I have been doing more of this, but it is realistically 2-3 times a week.)

Outsourcing

• We have a cleaning service come every two weeks

• Would love to do more but balancing with budget realities for now

Anything extra the share-er wants to share

• Making commitments/appointments helps a lot with my follow through. I just started swim lessons with my one-year-old and while it is a little silly, I knew I would not make the same commitment to go to a community pool with her every week at 8:30am on a Saturday. But I paid money, so I show up.

That’s a wrap for this one!

Thank you so much to this woman for generously sharing.

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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