HISMD: Senior Account Manager at a Marketing and Advertising Agency
Partner. Kid-Free. North Carolina. Hybrid. 29.
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 (in the office 8-5, M-F with a 45min commute)
Children: No
North Carolina
Hybrid. We’re on a four day work week and do one day in the office each week. Commute is an hour and ten minutes. I also occasionally travel onsite with clients and do overnight travel several times a year
29
Typical Morning:
WFH days
6am: I wake up to the dulcet tones of my alarm at 6 and do whatever workout I’m planning, whether it’s just a walk or walk/30 minutes of strength training. I try to move for at least 45minutes if possible, even if I’m grumpy about it.
At 7, I shower and then make breakfast (let’s be real, this is usually a protein shake and toast) and then do some brain puzzles (mini crosswords or the ones on LinkedIn) and my morning devotion.
Then I start a load of laundry.
At 8, I slide into my penguin slippers and head to my home office to start the work day.
When I go to the office, I do almost everything the same except for exercise and slippers. The exercise is just a 15-20 minute stroll on my walking pad.
On my commute to work, I listen to recordings of sermons and hymns which helps me stay grounded during a pretty brutal (hour and ten minute) commute.
Morning "Make Life Easier" Hacks
I set clothes out the night before for both exercise and work.
I also try to prep my breakfast by putting the bread beside the toaster and the drinking glass/protein powder beside the blender.
My hubby puts the penguin slippers in the doorway to the office so I can just walk in to them on my way in to the office.
If I’m going to the office the next day, I go ahead and pack my work bag with everything I will need and put it by the door.
What my work day looks like
I use an AI tool, Reclaim.ai, to automatically block my calendar for three hours out of the day (one in the morning, one in the middle, and one at the end of the day) to do emails, work on client projects, put out fires, do action items from meetings, and check in on status updates with my team.
I also have a 3 hour calendar block once a week to do deeper focus work. Outside of that, I have zoom meetings with clients or my team about projects.
I’m typically pretty intentional about batching similar work to the same day, so I do most client meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays and most internal meetings on Tuesday or Thursday.
A bit more about Reclaim.ai
I use the free version, which calendars my lunch, travel time for non-Zoom meetings, a decompress window after Zoom calls, and two focus blocks each day. You can also pay for a premium version with tons of other features, but I find this is all I need.
It integrates with my Google calendar seamlessly, and I know it does other calendars, too.
If someone requests a time that’s already blocked, it sends an email back requesting they pick another time. You can customize that email, but I find what they put to be fine.
You can also set preferences for the windows of time the focus blocks and lunch are scheduled, and preferences for how long they should be. The tool automatically calendars if for what fits in your day between other meetings.
Another cool thing is that you can set how diligently the tool protects your time. I set it to decline anything that comes over a scheduled block so I can fiercely protect it, but you can also set it to allow an override if that’s better for you. Very cool tool!
Lunch/Snacks
I use Reclaim.ai to automate my lunch schedule. It fits it in between 11-2 depending on client meetings. I have it set to 45minutes to an hour, and it just goes where it fits around meetings.
Breaks
Yes! Reclaim.ai automatically schedules a 15 minute decompression after each Zoom call. I use 5-10 to wrap up notes from the call to be handled in a time block later, then use what’s left for staring blankly out the window or a movement snack
Leaving work
On WFH days, I stop when my husband gets home around 6.
If I’m coming back from the office, I leave around 4:30
Transition out of work mode
I write down anything on my task list that still needs to get done, then shut my computer LOL. As long as I have a list for the next day I feel ready, and that feels like flipping a switch in my brain.
If it’s a WFH day, I honestly use my husband getting home as my sign to stop working. He and I will cook dinner together and talk about our day and that’s a good transition for me.
If I’m coming back from the office that is always significantly more stressful and draining, so I recharge by listening to audiobooks.
After work/evening hours
My husband and I cook dinner and eat together, then set a timer for thirty minutes and clean something in the house for that amount of time.
When the timer goes off, we have “free time” that can be a couple different things. Sometimes we play a game together, sometimes he paints or plays video games while I write or read, sometimes we go for a long walk around the neighborhood. There’s not really a set plan.
After that we typically watch one episode of a show together.
Around 8:30, we pivot to “no technology time” so we can start winding down for the evening. I’ll go do my skincare routine and then we’ll fold laundry together.
After that, sometimes I’ll read a book out loud to him while he draws, or I’ll read while he paints. We try to be in bed by 10.
We do biweekly finance check-ins where we treat our household like a business.
Outside of that, we use the evening to keep the house clean, spend time on our hobbies, and periodically socialize with friends (biweekly game nights with the guys for him and monthly book club for me). We typically use the weekend for socializing, so the evenings are more for us doing individual recharge or spending time together.
Evening Non-Negotiables
We always start the dishwasher and we always fold and put away one load of laundry.
I'm also very diligent with my reading time!
Afternoon/evening “make life smoother” tips
Find what works and stick to it. When we implemented the thirty minute cleaning timer it made a huge difference for us. We both hate cleaning with every fiber of our being, but we like things to be clean. Your stereotypical having the cake and eating it too situation. Knowing we’re just going to spend thirty minutes which isn’t a lot of time makes it feel easy. Doing that every day makes sure we never have to spend more time than that on it. Routine is really the best thing for us!
Sharing the load with a partner
Huge focus on communication. We operate with an “assume ignorance rather than malice” mindset, and we focus on being on the same team.
We tend to do most things together, but we also divide where it makes sense. On those things we set clear guidelines for what it looks like for the job to be done. For example, trash doesn’t mean just taking it out, it means bringing the can back in after it’s been taken out, replacing the garbage bag, and adding garbage bags to the list when we run out.
We overcommunicate everything, and we are vocal about it if we feel like something is off or unequal. Then we talk about it, but we always make sure it's under the understanding that it's us against the problem versus us against each other which can so often feel like the case when dividing labor.
I am also open when I feel like he's beginning to put too much of the mental load on me. Speak up EARLY and often!
Things you do for fun/you during the week
I read a LOT.
I also truly enjoy spending time with my husband. He's an emotional battery for me lol
Exercise/Body Movement
Daily walks and three strength training days a week
Outsourcing
We used to have a biweekly cleaning service, but we recently moved and haven't found a good one to replace it with yet
That’s a wrap for this one!
Thank you so much to this woman for generously sharing. These publish every Thursday!
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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