Each Thursday, the “How I Structure My Day” series features women from different industries, with and without kids, with and without partners, with family living with/near them and not, wfh to 1+ hour commutes, etc. While some shares are clients of mine, most shares are not – we have a variety of how people manage their time, which I love as there’s no one right or wrong way. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do!
Please note that I won’t publish one next week, but we’ll be back on August 27th!
Before we get to the good stuff…
My 10-week Bright Method program is now open for enrollment if you want to kick things off on September 9 or October 1! To learn all about it and jump in, visit this page. Hope to see you in there, and here if you have any questions (email me at kelly@kellynolan.com)!
Okay, on to today’s share!
The Snapshot
Profession: Director of Sales Engineering & Business Development
WFH + travels a lot
Partner: Yes (WFH)
Children: Yes – 2 kids (5yo & 1.5yo)
Charlotte, NC area
38
Typical Morning:
I WFH every day but I travel a lot for work. My typical day starts with waking at 6:30 with an alarm and getting my Kindergartener up and dressed. Then I get my 1.5 year old up and dressed. I have not gotten dressed yet myself. My husband is usually in the shower at this time.
We all head down to feed the kids a snack before he takes them to school and daycare. They both get breakfast at their schools, but they are always hungry so we feed them something before they leave.
I then unload the dishwasher from the night before and take my vitamins. I drink homemade bone broth in the mornings and warm that up.
Then I go back upstairs to start my face morning routine of creams and get dressed, usually for the gym or a walk. If it is a particularly busy work week, I will go straight to my office to answer my team's emails/questions around 7:30 before most of them are at their own desks.
Morning "Make Life Easier" Hacks
We have all of our backpacks and water bottles ready to go in the designated drawer (off the counter!) the night before.
If I really want a smooth morning, I will have my own outfits picked out. While I work from home, I end up with lots of meetings in person locally, or a have to get on a plane to go to a conference. I love to plan out my outfits a week at a time. It really helps.
Transition Into Work Mode
Getting dressed and going into my office is my transition.
What My Work Day Looks Like
I have days I WFH where I am either working on a project, managing my team, or planning our upcoming workloads. I do have to go to represent my company at a lot of technical conferences, so I am frequently coordinating schedules and travel.
I try really hard to time limit my email time to the morning, afternoon, and end of the day. This way I can stay focused on my to dos. I do a lot of work with others, part of engineering is working well on a team, and make frequent teams calls.
If I am traveling, I usually am to the airport in the morning before noon, so I help with all of the kids getting out of the door and then get myself ready and packed. I am usually stepping off a plane directly into networking or booths to talk to people, so I have to look the part. It will be usually 3 days of intense networking and connections, so I make sure I am mentally prepared to talk to that many people.
Lunch/Snacks
I try to intermittent fast (it just works for me) and usually eat my first meal around 10:30 or 11. I pre-prepare lunch, usually the Jennifer Anniston salad, and that is good for the week. Otherwise, I just eat leftovers from dinner.
Breaks
Walking during lunch if the weather is nice.
Leaving Work
I do one more email cleanup around 4:30 and stop working around 5. We split who is going to cook dinner and who will pickup the kids.
Transition Out of Work Mode
I close my office door.
After Work/Evening Hours
They are hungry kids and want to eat as soon as they get home! So we have dinner around 5:15-5:45 that I prepare.
Everyone kind of plays/watches TV until 6:30 while dinner is being cleaned up. My husband or I clean it and we try to go in the backyard when it is nice.
6:30 starts bathtime for both of them, and I usually do it. We brush teeth in the bath too. Then it is pajama time for the kids and books and lights out at 7:30 for the little one and 8 for the bigger one.
I take showers at night, so I go do that while my husband watches TV or does something in his office for work, and then around 8:30/8:45 we watch a show together.
We do go to bed by 10 or earlier, as often as we can. I finally feel like I've made up some of the time from true baby time, but I do feel better when I get more sleep.
Dinner Time/Meal Tips
I meal plan weekly and pickup the groceries on Monday, usually when I take my lunch break. I love the Aldi pickup and then get the rest from either a local organic store, or another pickup at the bigger grocery store near me.
I have a binder of meals my family likes, including the 5 year old, and just rotate through them basically every 3 weeks.
We try to eat out on the weekend only, either takeout or a restaurant so we don't have so much cleanup from 3 meals on the weekend.
Evening Non-Negotiables
Clean up the kitchen, wipe down the counters, run the dishwasher. I'd love to say we cleanup the toys and mop the floor, but I gave up on this cleanliness standard nightly. For me, I've gotten to the point where the kitchen island is clear and clean, then I am okay. I'd love for everything to be put away, but I got tired of being the only one who cared.
Afternoon/Evening “Make Life Smoother” Tips
I try hard to stay off my phone and just look at it for 10 min before bed or if my husband is watching his show. The time I really spend on social media is when I am waiting at the airport.
Sharing the Load with a Partner
We were fighting a lot about stupid things for a while, so we started on Thursday afternoons having an airing of the grievances (like please re-program my garage door opener on my car visor because it went out and I can reach the button with the ladder) and it has really helped my husband when that is all on one day. I think of them every day, the little things we need to do and apparently that was stressing him out, so I just add them to a note in my phone and bring them up then. Then they get done.
He is great about doing almost all of the same things I do when I travel, except I definitely read to our kids more. One is learning how to read, so she will read to him, but he will just skip reading to the little one.
Things You Do For Fun/You During the Week
During the week, my neighborhood has mah jong from 7-9 on Mondays, so I occasionally go to that. To do that, I will do bathtime (like I almost always do) and then my husband will do bedtime.
I have also taken rotating dance lessons and pickleball lessons on Tuesday nights, depending on my travel schedule. When I do that, I will do the bath first, and then he does bedtime. Then I will alternate Wednesday and Thursday and do bathtime AND bedtime, so he can do something fun, or more often than not, watch TV by himself. I like the alternating schedule and it gives us both a break.
I also take tennis lessons and/or play on Thursday mornings at 7:30 am for 45 min.
I love my neighborhood and this house was expensive but the proximity to all of these activities is what really made me want it.
I also go to dinner with girlfriends groups (2 different ones) each once a month. That is usually on a Friday night, occasionally a Thursday. I only do a weeknight if I have not traveled that week.
We will plan some date nights, but mostly we do bigger stuff like events. With those, we have rotating sitters we use. I feel like I train a new sitter all the time. I do find them on my neighborhood FB babysitting page.
I love to do my nightly routine, red light mask, face mask, etc. at night while we watch a show. I started putting all of it in a bag in my drawer in the bathroom, and it makes it so easy to do from my bed.
Exercise/Body Movement
I try to go to 45 min classes on Mondays and Fridays in the mornings, barre and bodypump. I am usually home those days and the YMCA is in my neighborhood.
I also walk as often as I can during lunch.
Outsourcing
House cleaning - only once a month (I wish we could afford more but we have other priorities for money right now).
Anything Else the Sharer Wants to Share
The alternating of days during the week to take on the kids has been really good for each of us to get a break, even if our breaks look different. I have to get out of the house for mine, and he likes to veg out for his. Either way, we both get a "kid night free", without dealing with the logistics of a sitter. That being said, we are quick to hire a sitter when we need one and if we feel like we haven't had a break from the kids.
I am also very thankful for my job and the flexibility I have when working from home. I travel 8-10 nights a month, so I am really "on" when I do. I do not feel guilty for traveling for work because I love it and I do not feel guilty for playing tennis or working out in the mornings while at home because I know I can get my workload done and the mental break actually lets me think. My favorite thing to do is walk without a book or podcast at least 2 days a week so I remember all of the random work things I want to do.
That’s a wrap for this one!
Thank you so much to this woman for generously sharing. These publish every Thursday!
A reminder of the ground rules to ensure women continue wanting to share about their days and feel safe doing so.
Encouraging comments always welcome!
If you have questions or even hang-ups about what someone shared, you are welcome to ask a question for the sharer in the same kind, genuinely curious way you would if you were looking at that woman in her eyes. She might respond through me.
If comments are judge-y or mean-spirited, I reserve the right to delete comments. I can handle being criticized about my own work here (and even still, to a degree – I’m also a person), but I go into full mama bear mode when people come after my people – including women who are being vulnerable and sharing in the first place.
Thanks to the vast majority of people who are so kind!
New here? Welcome!
I’m Kelly Nolan, an attorney-turned-time management strategist and mom of two. After experiencing overwhelm as a young patent litigator in Boston, I figured out a time management system to help me show up in the ways that I wanted to at work and at home – without requiring my brain to somehow magically remember it all. I now teach other professional working women how to manage their personal, family, and career roles with less stress and more calm clarity using realistic time management strategies. My system, the Bright Method, has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, and my work has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Business Insider, and more.
→ Learn more on my website, come learn bite-sized strategies with me on Instagram, or jump into my free 3-day program.
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