...of Margaret!
5:01 am Monday through Friday, the gentle BzzBzz of my smartwatch forces me awake (chances are my husband came home from his night shift and I’ve been semi-conscious since between 4:15 - 4:35 am, thanks to the dog stampeding down the hallway to get prime real estate on the bed!!).
5:20 am Workout time! This is non-negotiable. I don’t consider myself a morning person but the silence at this time is pure gold. If I put off working out, it will not happen! A good 30 - 60 minutes on the Peloton platform always sets me up for a successful start.
6:30 am - 8:30 am This period of time is blocked in my calendar as ‘Morning Madness’! I have coffee while checking my Admin Slayer Slack for anything from the Slayers in Ontario and Atlantic Canada and have a post-workout snack. Once I’m showered/dressed, I make sure the kids are up or getting up (the teenage years are taking hold), take our labradoodle Bailey around the block, and then drive the kids to school.
8:30 am I’m usually only in the door for two minutes from school drop-off when I officially start my work day at 8:30, so I try not to book meetings at this time!
I take turns joining an 8:45 am PT Monday meeting with a co-slayer for Client A, and today is not my Monday to participate. I spend the next 30 minutes or so in the client’s admin Microsoft 365 account and Pipedrive to do email triage, confirm meetings, and address any urgent items that may have come up.
9:00 am Client B is three hours ahead so I make sure I get in there as soon as I can. The first thing I do is pull up the admin Gmail, the company Slack, and Asana for task management. There are follow-up emails to send and meetings to confirm. I also review Client B’s inbox and triage anything in the inbox to a folder system that works really well. If there is review time needed, I add that to the calendar, linked to the items.
10:30 am I pop back into Client A to catch anything new that needs to be addressed. I know that my co-slayer on the Monday meeting may still be in that meeting before she hustles to another client meeting so I try to keep my eyes on the inbox!
10:45 am If I haven’t done this on Friday, I go into QBTime to review my team’s timesheets from the previous week and check client weekly hours. This is important to make sure Slayer hours are in before Tracey sends out the weekly client timesheets on Tuesday. Also, reviewing weekly client hours helps us see patterns that may affect Slayer capacity and client needs.
11:00 am I’m probably rummaging through the kitchen for a snack and making tea about now.
11:15 am Client C and I have a Monday weekly meeting to check in and go over anything new. Client C has an extremely meeting-heavy calendar so even if we only have a few minutes, it’s nice to be face-to-face on Zoom to keep communication open.
12:30 pm Lunch time!
1:00 pm Client D is Atlantic Time and I’ve worked with them since my first few days as a Slayer in 2017! Fortunately, I have co-Slayers who catch the earlier part of the day. We book meetings in many different time zones, so even though it’s late in Client D’s afternoon, it can be prime time to correspond with the early risers in Australia!
2:45 pm Back to Client C for my daily work block. My co-Slayer typically has done a ton of meeting scheduling already and has updated Smartsheets or Asana with actions from the latest projects. I catch the late replies from the clients in ET and MT time zones and manage any new requests that come into the inbox.
4:00 pm This is my preferred time to be finished with work but I lose time between 2:40 pm - 3:30 pm when the kids get home and need my attention, so there is often catch-up to complete! I end the workday reviewing my calendar for the next day and writing out my ‘daily stand-up’ that the Leadership team shares daily. If it’s our Team Lead meeting on Tuesday (every 2nd week), I review the agenda and update any items that need my attention.
4:30 pm - 9:00 pm Depending on the time of year or day, this time period involves getting my daughter to dance (I’m very thankful for a carpool we have set up to take turns four days a week), and my son to football practice out of town. If I’m really organized and the weather is nice, I hike a local mountain while my son is at spring tackle football practice. Other times, I find myself finishing work on my laptop from my car!
Once we’re all home again, the dog gets his evening walk, and we wind down for the day. At some point during this time dinner happens... either it’s a “wing-it” meal, or I’ve actually prepped ahead of time.
9:30 pm - 10:30 pm I’m in bed with a book from the library.