I Run Like A Girl

I’ve shared on this blog a lot about my travelling adventures as a consultant, but truth be told, 90% of the time I’m working remotely. I’m blessed to have a job where for the most part I can work from anywhere: the SF office, my apartment, my parents house…it gives me great flexibility but also was quite an adjustment when I first started to learn how to work independently and be accountable for myself.

Every consultant will say that there is no typical day, and that’s certainly true! But I still thought I’d share a “day in the life” post with y’all since I personally enjoy reading them from other bloggers. I also realized that I spend most of this blog talking about what I do on weekends, and that’s because my weekdays are typically a LOT less exciting; I tend to pack all my work/study/errands on weekdays so that weekends can be completely free (unless it’s closer to my exam…then I’m studying eight days a week 😉 ). Not sure how healthy that is to have such a contrast between my disciplined, routine weekdays and crazy no-sleep weekends, but it’s what I like best 🙂

5:30am-8:30am: Wake up + study. My mornings start bright and early and filled with studying at home first thing. It’s hard for me to study after work since my brain is usually fried. I’ll also make breakfast and do some stretching while hitting the books.

8:30am-9:00am: Sign on to work + morning break. I usually spend an hour or so catching up on emails since my inbox is usually filled first thing –> most of the people I work with are on the east coast, so I’m playing catch up with them. I’ll also read my favorites blogs, answer my phone (I try to keep my phone down during study time!), and eat a mid-morning snack to ramp up for the work day.

9:00am-12:00pm: Calls and meetings. There’s a small window in the day that my hours overlap with the east coast as well as India, and so mornings are usually used to regroup with my team with calls and meetings. In between calls, I’ll fit in some work.

12:00pm-1:00pm: Go for a run! If I’m working from home, I LOVE going on mid-day runs. Great way to break up the day, and my morning coffee is just starting to wear off so it’s the perfect energy level to get my workout on 🙂

1:00pm-1:30pm: Clean up + working lunch. I’m usually not too hungry after a run, and so I’ll just whip together whatever is in my fridge. Today I had eggs + hummus on toast and a green smoothie 🙂

1:30pm-5:30pm: Independent work. By this time of day, the rest of the team is signing off or working independently, and so I take advantage of the quietness to get my own work done. I love this part of the day: plug in the headphones and get some snacks and I’m good to go.

5:30pm-6:30pm: Other work. After my brain is fried with client work, I usually end the day working on some non-billable work such as the firm initiatives that I’m part of (proposals, planning events, recruiting, etc).

6:30pm-7:00pm: Take a walk. This may sound kind of weird, but I take a walk every day after work. I’m usually antsy to get out of my chair at this point, so a walk around the block is the perfect way to get moving. Ever since I was little living in upstate NY, I’ve always been a fan of walking as my main mode of transportation or just to relax my brain :). Sometimes I’ll multi-task this and buy groceries, run to Walgreens, call my mom…etc.

7:00pm-8:00pm Dinner. Weeknights I’ll either cook dinner or pick up something after my walk. If I’m cooking, I try to catch up on stretching/rolling too while waiting for the food to prepare. During dinner, I usually throw on some Netflix and completely turn off my brain.

8:00pm-10:00pm Me time. Sometimes I’ll keep on the Netflix, catch up with Michelle and friends, work on a blog post, scroll through Instagram, and just unwind before sleeping. If it’s closer to an exam I’ll study some more. I’m trying to get better at using this time to not be in front of my computer/phone, but quite honestly that’s usually what I’m doing. Around one day a week I’ll switch things up and see a friend or go to a concert by myself (I saw Asgeir at The Fillmore this past Monday, my favorite indie Icelandic artist!).

10:00pm Lights out!

All in all, my week days are long, structured, and pretty anti-social. There are definitely days at a time that I don’t see anyone except my roommate or other actuaries at the SF office. I think that’s why I pack approximately 800 activities into my weekends and try to see as many people as possible. Weekdays feel like a grind at times, but I know that I’m extremely blessed to have the life that I have, especially my flexible job that lets me live in SF.

So even though I try and highlight the more fun and exciting stuff here on my blog, I hope this gives you a glance at what the rest of the 75% of my week looks like 🙂