We’ve noticed over the past few years that our general studio manager, who plays a very varied role in our company, from being a director, through to getting his hands dirty in all types of web development, seems to have a fairly robust and rigid daily routine. Noticing this we decided to task Alex with tracking an average day and reporting back to us, here it is:
Alex had this to say:
Over the last few years I’ve developed the same rough routine, not necessarily in the same order or even the same day, but I segment each task into a separate repeatable routine, that way no matter where I need to do that task I can carry it out in the same modularised way.
The thinking behind this was you can save minutes on each task just by being efficient, and over the course of your life these saved minutes quickly add up to months, even years. For example, I never wait for anything… boiling the kettle? Do something else whilst it does so (in my case morning squats).. waiting for a download? Don’t just sit there, do something else at the same time. This may all sound very full on and hard work, but I believe in a rough mantra of: “Work thoroughly, relax hard”, if you work solidly for each task and just get it done, the minutes you save can then be put towards real solid relaxation that actually pays off.
7:30 Wake Up
Check for any critical/important emails then briefly scan all notifications on phone.
7:40 Breakfast
50 squats and stretches whilst kettle is boiling.
Cereal with milk and Black Coffee, always.
7:55 Further check of phone/social media
8:20 Ride bike to work
I don’t always ride my bike to work, but in the summer I try to as often as possible. It takes me 21 minutes to ride my bicycle to work (tracked with Strava!) or 25 minutes to drive due to the traffic in Cardiff
My bike rides are tracked with Strava to monitor efficiency and the overall ups and downs in travel time. (Bit of a data nerd).
8:43 Arrive at work
9:00 – 10:00 Go through all work emails
I try to only check emails in bulk, constantly checking emails multiple times an hour is so ineffective, so much time is wasted opening the browser/mail app, refreshing, checking, waiting, scanning, replying, I find it best to save all those variables for designated checks and get it all done in one bulk go, much more efficient.
10:00 Team planning meeting, briefly discuss what’s on the agenda for the day
10:30 – 11:00 Social Networking
I have a list of web blogs in a bookmark folder that I can open all in one go, I scan through all of these every day to check out the latest tech and web news, anything from the latest web design tools through to SEO news
11:00 – 11:05 – Snack and Coffee
In this case it was a MyProtein cookie, banana was saved for just before my ride home.
11:05 – 12:30 – Project Work
Clients projects, websites, blog posts.
12:30 – 13:00 – “Website once overs”
Health checks of sites, hosting, blog performance and updating of software.
13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch
Usually soup or salad brought from home, in one of our MOBO chill out areas.
I’m finding it increasingly more important to get an hour away from the office chair/screen, I spend the majority of my life in the same position and staring at the same bright iMac – it’s vital to get some time away and let your body and eyes chill out.
14:00 – 14:45 – Client emails and Client Catch Ups via phone/email
14:45 – 17:00 – Web Development and Coding of new/existing projects
17:00 – 17:30 – Final project tidy ups, check Google Analytics / Webmasters for key client sites
17:35 – 17:55 – Bike ride home!
18:00 – 23:00 – Home
Dinner, video games, further checks of work emails every now and then throughout the evening, prepare clothes/lunch and lay out breakfast for the next day.
No TV? Yeah I don’t watch TV, if I do I will watch episodes of TV shows directly online (Netflix, on Demand etc), with no adverts. So much time is wasted on adverts if you watch TV. If you spend 4 hours a night watching traditional TV, 1 hour of that on average will just be adverts.
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