A lot of people don’t realize I have a full-time job in Corporate America on top of running The Fashion Hour and being a mom. And the ones that do often ask me how the heck I juggle it all! The short answer is, not very well… but I have been working hard to “balance” as much as I can. It’s not easy and some days are more overwhelming than others, but I thought it could be fun to show you a peek into what a day in my life looks like!
Keep in mind every day is pretty different for me. I am a Sales Executive and only have to be in the office for two half-days a week and the rest of the time I am either in my territory (Dallas) running meetings or working from home. I’ve done this job since I graduated college (over 8 years!) and with the growth of the blog sometimes I still can’t believe I’m juggling both. If you’ve ever worked in sales you know it’s not easy and every week is a new week and number to hit. While I have been very successful in this job over the years, it is still demanding and can be very stressful at times.
A Day in My Life
For the sake of this post I will share what a typical Monday looks like for me…
6:15 Wake up. Get ready. Drink all the coffee.
7:00 Mila wakes up. I give her a kiss then head out the door to the office.
7:30 Sales team meeting in the office to go over numbers.
8:15-12:00 Phone block, train, answer emails, etc.
12:00 Go home for lunch/spend time with Mila (sometimes I leave work a little early so I have more time with Mila!
We started taking Mila to my parents house Monday and Wednesday afternoons so we could get more work done. It’s been a big help in balancing both me and Ita’s workloads. Ita usually takes her to my mom around noon.
12:15 Check blog emails, respond to campaign opportunities, review schedule and ongoing campaigns to ensure I’m on track to meet deadlines. I try to take any conference calls I may need to do with a brand during lunch as well.
1:00 Check in with assistant to give list of to-do’s for the week (I just hired someone last week!)
1:15-4:00 Back to the work laptop: sales job emails, phone calls, writing up contracts, possibly go run meeting in Dallas.
**Meet with photographer to take photos for blog. I don’t have a set schedule for shoots so the day and time varies and I usually just have to squeeze it in wherever I can!
5:00 Start working on blog post for the day if I didn’t write it the night before… write content, link items, edit photos, etc.
6:00 Mila gets home! Feed her dinner if she didn’t eat at my mom’s, play, give her a bath, watch her little videos.
7:00 Put Mila to sleep
**If I have an event to attend I’ll head out after she goes to sleep. I try to say no to a lot of events because honestly it gets overwhelming and I don’t want to be away from Mila if I don’t have to. We also live in Las Colinas so it’s not like I can hop down the street to an event and be back within an hour. I probably attend one event a week but there are times when it seems like there’s one every night. Again, I say no to most but go to the ones I’m excited about or feel could lead to an opportunity in the future.
7:15 Back to working on the blog and figuring out something for dinner. If Ita isn’t home I probably have The Real Housewives or The Bachelor on in the background and may or may not have poured a glass of wine…
8:00 Hopefully have blog post published and post photo to Instagram.
8:15 Upload stories to Instagram of either pieces I’m shopping or a try-on session I recorded after linking items and creating page on my blog to shop.
*eat dinner some time between 7:30 and 9:00
8:30 Scroll Instagram for a bit, respond to comments, answer DM’s (I try to do this randomly throughout the day too – if you’ve ever messaged me on Instagram and I didn’t respond it was an accident! I try really hard to respond to everyone but sometimes DM’s get lost so always feel free to send a follow up message or just email me!).
9:00 Check emails again. Shop for upcoming shoots/sales I may want to share. Open any boxes I received from brands. Plan content.
9:30 Jump in the shower then do nighttime skincare routine (I’ve been trying to be really good about it!)
10:15 It’s not uncommon for me to get back on my laptop and stay up working on the blog until midnight. I’m trying to be better about shutting down at a reasonable hour and spending quality time with Ita. He works pretty nonstop too. If I don’t have a deadline we’ll usually get in bed at this time and watch a show together.
11:30 I have a hard time falling asleep but am usually in bed by midnight!
Then wake up and do some version of it all over again the next day! Some days I have nonstop work, some days I spend more time with Mila, some days I have a lot of blog to-do’s… and some days I hit a wall or get overwhelmed and just have to take a break.
This may have seemed like a lot to you or maybe doesn’t seem like much at all. I’ve had moments where it was too much and too hard to handle. Things fell through the cracks at work or I missed a blog campaign opportunity because I overlooked the email. It’s really easy for these things to happen when you’re juggling three jobs. I’ll most likely need to make a change one of these days but for now I’m still trying to make it all work.
I have a plan to make small changes each week to help me be more organized and better with time management. I don’t feel like I have the whole balancing act down which is the main reason I haven’t written about it despite being asked to on more than one occasion… I know there are little changes I can make and things I can do to be more prepared for the week and ultimately less stressed. I’ll keep you posted on how they go and will be sure to share what was successful and what I still struggle with.
I hope this post gave you a better idea of what a day in my life looks like! Please let me know if you have any questions at all and feel free to share tips on having a more organized day/week in the comments! I need all the help I can get… 🙂
Thanks for reading!
