Gina Lednyak is the Founder & CEO at L&A Social Media, an independent social media agency with offices in Sydney and Los Angeles.

Subscribe to Balance the Grind’s newsletter so you never miss one of our conversations about work, life & balance.

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

I am the founder and CEO of L&A Social, Australia’s leading independent social media agency. We partner with large consumer brands to develop their social media strategy and manage their end to end social media execution. Prior to this, I had several other businesses and also consulted in social media and positive psychology.

2) What does a typical day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

I normally wake up around 5, have a tea and do a meditation, followed by a workout or surf, and 1-2 hours of work. I then head into the office, and my day normally consists of a mix of work, team meetings, and client or new business meetings. I love the diversity of my days and our office environment is extremely energetic and fun.

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

It does to an extent, I love our office and often prefer to spend my days working in the office and spending time with our amazing team. If I ever need to do head-down work I will do this from home.

We have a monthly Friday where everyone works from anywhere they want (ROWE Friday’s), and in the summer time we have weekly ROWE Friday’s. L&A Social is a flexible workplace and we have a work remotely program.

4) Do you have any tips, tricks or shortcuts to help you manage your workload and schedule?

Don’t procrastinate. I find a lot of ‘busyness’ comes from putting things off and instead thinking about them, or distracting yourself by work that seems important but often isn’t.

One of L&A Social’s values is ‘Bias toward action’, personally this is a value I am very passionate about as well because if you have a bias toward action you don’t need to manage your time as much. I find doing what I need to do without fluffing around or getting distracted is my best shortcut!

My second tip/trick is being conscious of never wasting time, we all have the same time in a day, it is very easy to zone out and watch TV for an hour and that hour will pass, never to be seen again. I find our days are filled with little gaps of time when we can get tasks that we need to get done, done.

5) What does work life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

I don’t so much believe in work life balance, more in doing what you love and integrating what you are passionate about with your work. I love what I do, and I am happy to work early morning hours or late into the night if there is a goal I am working toward.

I also think it is important to feed your soul and do things outside of work that you love – for me that is spending time with people I love and anything in the ocean. This keeps you fresh and prevents burnout!

6) What do you think are some of the best habits you’ve developed over the years to help you strive for success and balance?

Meditation, reading, and making time in life for fun adventures with people who bring you joy.

7) Are there any books that have helped you improve over the years?

The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage by Ryan Holiday is one of my favourite books, it helped me look at challenges and obstacles in a different light.

8) What is the number one thing you do to make sure you get the most out of your day?

Meditation!