For our Day in the Life series, we look at the daily work habits, schedules and routines from people in a variety of roles and careers around the world.
Looking for your dream start-up role? Sign up for the latest career opportunities with The Nudge Group!
Chase Warrington, Head of Business Development at Doist
Chase Warrington is the Head of Business Development at Doist, where he is focused on strategic partnerships, revenue generation, and sponsorships.
I have my alarm set for 7:15am, but generally I wake up before this, around 6:30am. My goal is to get started with work by 8:00am, and so depending on how much time I have, I plan the next hour or so accordingly.
I used to rush to get to work right away, but I’ve found that by taking the time to enjoy a few things in the morning, I start the day much more motivated.
I call these my non-negotiables, and they are: (truly) enjoy a cup of coffee, listen to or read something for pleasure (usually a podcast or book on Audible), and take my dog (Koda) out. Koda is happy and so am I, so I start work around 8:00am ready to go!
I work in time blocks from 8:00am to 12:00pm, alternating between tackling high-priority tasks, like communication around projects I’m managing, and lower priority tasks, like checking my email. I set a timer for these tasks Pomodoro style, and usually give myself 30-60 minutes for each task.
By the end of the morning I always make sure I’ve completed my top priority task for the day, as well as cleared out my email and Twist messages. Ideally I will have tackled my priority 2 task as well, but this is not always the case. Also, two days per week I rush my morning a bit more to make room for a 1-hour virtual Spanish class.
At noon, I take a break, grab a snack and get some exercise. During quarantine I’m virtually attending CrossFit classes with people from my gym from 12:30-1:30pm. Afterwards I stretch, have lunch, and shower.
Generally I am back to work by 3:00pm, give or take 30 minutes. This adds up to a three hour break in the middle of my day, and serves as an amazing way to give my mind a break, truly enjoy getting some exercise and my lunch, perhaps even have some chit chat with my wife, and then returning to work with plenty of energy for the second half of the day.
From 3:00pm – 7:00pm I open the calendar up for meetings, and usually I’ve got 1-3 hours of these with 3rd party partners, customers, and teammates.
I enjoy saving these for the afternoon because socialization comes naturally and can even energize me, so even if I’m tired at this point, it will not “cost” me much. I normally still have 3-4 smaller tasks to tackle during this time as well, so I squeeze that work in as I can.
At 7:00pm I am finished, and will then usually take my dog for a long walk and listen to something or call a friend/family member. I cherish this time to wind down and clear my head.
In “normal times” sometimes I will meet my wife or a few friends for some tapas and a beer. Around 8:00pm my wife and I start to make dinner together (we’ve fully adjusted to the Spanish times, if you can’t tell!), something we genuinely enjoy doing, and by 11:00pm, I’m in bed.
Eliza Cracknell, Business Development Manager at News Corp Australia
Eliza Cracknell is the Business Development Manager at News Corp Australia, where she is working across News Corp’s News Women’s Network.
When I’m working from the office I’ll normally get up around 5.30am do a quick workout then get to my desk around 7am. Most of the time I’ll eat breakfast and lunch at my desk.
Days vary, some days I’m mainly focused on interviews and content writing, others reporting and jam packed with meetings. We also have a team stand up at 11am which is a great way to see what everyone else is up to that day. I like the varied work and the ability to think strategically but to also be creative.
I normally leave the office around 4pm and go pick up my two boys from daycare. Then it’s dinner and bedtime routines, followed by a wine!
Suresh Raj, Chief Business Development Officer at Vision7 Communications
Suresh Raj is the Chief Business Development Officer at Vision7 Communications, a fully integrated marketing communications company headquartered in Toronto.
A ‘work day’ in the COVID-19 reality is very different to a ‘work day’ pre-COVID-19. So I’ll tackle both.
What has remained pre and post COVID-19 is some element of routine. It has helped keep me on track in terms of management professional and personal commitment.
As is my routine, my day starts at 5am with an intense workout – in a gym pre COVID-19, and at home during and post COVID-19 – which meant investing in a number of home gym equipment.
The workout is not just about health – that’s a positive byproduct – but it is my ‘me time’. A time for me to switch off from the world and just connect with my mind and my soul. My form of mindfulness so to say. This time is particularly important for me as it helps me set the day ahead in a very positive way.
A good workout is followed by an excellent breakfast. I have an incredibly high metabolism so am constantly hungry, so breakfast is often boiled eggs, a lot of fruit, cereal or toast with peanut butter (or both!), juice and coffee. Post-breakfast and a refreshing shower, it’s work time.
My detailed weekly to do list keeps me on track of expectations and deliverables. Multiple meetings a day takes up most of the work day, but I have actively built in time in the diary to ensure time to actually ‘do’ work – to ensure deliverables actually meet deadlines.
In truth, I am currently having Zoom fatigue, because I am very much a people-person and I do miss the in person interaction, but for now, work is dominated by video conference calls and digital platforms of engagement e.g. google drives, slack channels etc.
Because my role is global, I am required to work across multiple time zones – North America, Europe and Asia primarily, so the work day often ends late or starts very early. But I’ve been in a global role for many years now, I’m quite used to juggling the demands of multiple time zones.
On that note, pre COVID-19, I spent a considerable amount of time traveling to key offices around the world to work directly on the ground with our teams and prospects. I really enjoyed this aspect of my job and somewhat miss this.
But the travels did in fact impact the home life so we ensured that we managed expectations at home, on the relationship and life in general. Ultimately, it’s about balance and expectations and we managed it in that way.
Amanda Grainger, Business Development Director at Kate & Co. Publicity and Events
Amanda Grainger is a Business Development Director at Kate & Co Publicity and Events, an independent public relations and creative ideas agency.
A typical workday for me is very varied – it ranges from meetings with prospective new clients, to reviewing briefs and tenders, developing strategies and proposals, developing client budgets and contracts, working with the Kate & Co. team on client brainstorms to come up with creative concepts, pitching for new business, proactively following up my network of contacts for new opportunities, attending team meetings and events.
Sage Ray, Business Development Representative at Slack
Sage Ray is the Business Development Representative at Slack, a collaboration software company providing the business technology stack that brings together people, data, and applications.
I wake up at 5:30am every morning, meet a friend at the gym and run through an hour session together.
Get into the office around 8, make my favourite breakfast, which current people love to make fun of haha (oats, egg white, almond milk, banana and protein powder) if you are looking for a breakfast to keep you going all day 100% recommend!
After 9am I am typically all caught up on all my notifications, from there I block out my work day around my meetings, write my to-do list something a pen and paper crossing out tasks is still very rewarding.
Yesterday, I had three internal meetings, with our accounts executives and marketing team, a chance to sync with the team on messaging, campaigns and outreach.
One customer meeting about improving internal collaboration and integrating existing technology.
In between the meetings, were my block out times, they were dedicated to outreach, follow-ups, campaigns and industry research.
Rhys Furner, Head of Partnerships & Sales Development (APAC) at Shopify Plus
Rhys Furner is the Head of Partnerships & Sales Development at Shopify Plus, where he leads the Partnership and Sales team across the Asia-Pacific region.
Every day really is pretty different but if I had to sum up an average day it is really centred around people, product and process (apologies for the cliche). Everyday I have 1:1s with people from my teams, other leads within the business, key stakeholders, partners, etc.
I’m also working on the strategic execution with my teams on our goals, market expansion strategies into certain regions within APAC and helping our teams pitch and win some of the most recognisable brands in the region.
I also overlap heavily with our teams in North America and Europe, so it can throw the calendar into a bit of chaos but it’s great seeing what teams are doing around the globe and how we may be able to learn and adopt certain approaches.
A good example of a recent day was starting early to sync with other Partnership executives in North America to discuss program wide initiatives being rolled out. This was followed by 1:1s with people in my team to discuss their progress, challenges, thoughts, etc.
I then moved into an APAC leadership discussion where we were working on our plans to expand into key markets in our region. My day then finished with an onboarding session with new team members to get them ramped up on the partnerships side of the business.
Learn how the most successful leaders, artists, founders, executives, writers and athletes structure and manage their days. Sign up and stay up to date!
