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.
Kate Browne, Managing Editor at Finder
Kate Browne is Managing Editor at Finder, an award-winning fintech company, helping people around the world make better financial decisions and improve their lives.
I tend to start at 9.30am in time for our daily stand up meeting.
I’m very lucky to be able to work flexible hours as I have two young daughters who are school age and as most parents would know school hours are not very work friendly so the later start means I can take my girls to school and then head into the office.
Most days I start by checking the news and my messages on my way into the office, which is important as this might dictate what we put on the homepage, promote on social and do media on.
After my first meeting of the day I will most likely have media releases and commentary to work on, I could be editing content for our site, working with the writers and meeting with my colleagues. Most recently I’ve been involved in working on scripts for our video content and working with our video production team.
Lunchtime is a highlight in the office as we are very lucky to have lunch provided, and we all down tools at the same time to grab lunch and eat together.
l love this not only because lunch is usually delicious and it’s different every day (Mexican, Italian, poke bowls) but also because I have a terrible habit of not eating properly if left to my own devices, and in former jobs I tended to scrounge lunch out of the vending machine which is never ends well unless you like living on salt and vinegar chips every day.
Because I start a bit later, I tend to work back a little later and finish up at about 6.30pm which I enjoy as that last hour is quiet and I can get a lot done at my desk. My husband starts his job early so he can pick up the girls from after school care in the early evening and get dinner on.
Having two kids and two parents who both have full time in full on jobs means that both of us have to pull our weight evenly when it comes to looking after our kids and I think we do a pretty good job of that.
Neal Freyman, Managing Editor at Morning Brew
Neal Freyman is the Managing Editor at Morning Brew, a daily email newsletter that gives readers a quick and conversational round up of all things business.
In the morning I’ll have a few Zoom meetings (we’re fully remote for the time being) with my writing team or with various colleagues across the company to discuss new projects. I’ll also be scanning the news for interesting stories to include in the newsletter.
At 1pm, the writing team decides on stories to scope out and write for the next day’s newsletter. Our entire afternoon is dedicated to writing and editing the newsletter that’s sent out at 6am the next day.
Alison Fraser, Managing Editor at Book Therapy
Alison Fraser is the Managing Editor at Book Therapy, a business she founded in 2018, where she guides and assists authors through the publishing process.
A normal work day starts at 9.00am, answering urgent emails. Then I turn to my highest priority project for the day, usually around 10.00am.
Today, that was reading the final chapters of an emerging writer’s novel and beginning work on her manuscript assessment. Then I had a (Zoom) meeting with an author and a designer to assess first cover concepts.
A regular mentoring meeting with another author followed, before returning to emails and finishing my day around 6.00pm.
Donna-Claire Chesman, Managing Editor of DJBooth
Donna-Claire Chesman is the Managing Editor of DJBooth, a digital music magazine focused on highlighting the best new music, both from mainstream and independent artists.
As Managing Editor, I do a lot of writing, business calls, meetings, pitch calls, and, of course, editing.
Somewhere in that mix I have to find time to pitch and write my own ideas. It gets pretty tricky, because I could spend two straight weeks on branded content and working with others, and it throws off my ability to write for myself.
To strike a balance in that department, between branded content, editing, and writing, I’d say is still a work in progress. But I’m trying!
A typical day for me starts around 6:30AM with coffee and general check-ins with my people.
I think it’s incredibly important to keep a close circle of people you love and extend yourself to them a few times a day.
You have to be present in the lives of the people that matter to you. It’s all about reciprocity. So, from coffee and check-in time, I dive into emails.
I don’t have nearly as many emails as my EIC, but I get a good amount and my first order of business is to get back to everyone that needs my attention.
From there, I dive into editing everything that I either didn’t get to the previous night, or things that were sent in the morning hours.
By that time, my EIC usually gets online and we go over getting everything live for the day and its accompanying Twitter copy. And then, anything can happen!
I could be writing news blurbs all day, I could be pitching and writing a piece or two. I could have one, two, or three interviews in a day.
I could have a call with my dearest Senior Writer, Yoh, one of the greatest minds currently working. I could have a branded content meeting.
No two days are alike, which sounds trite, but is very true. It keeps things exciting but also exhausting.
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