This “How I Structure My Day” Series started from a post I did on the topic in my own life, under which a woman asked if it would be possible to see how a woman working a more full time job did it. I asked women to share, and here are their responses! If you would like to contribute, you can here. All responses are shared anonymously here and on Instagram. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do!
The Woman:
- Partner: Yes (he’s WFH, owns his schedule a bit more, but works longer hours overall & travels ~1/month.)
- Children: Yes – 4 & 2
- Hybrid. I am in the office 3-4 days a week.
- Washington, D.C.
Typical Morning:
- When we are both in town, my husband and I try to divide our mornings (one person gets 6-7 off and the other gets 7-8 off), a tip I got from the Day in Her Life podcast. Sometimes, if you have 7-8 off you get lucky and the kids sleep until 7!
- I wake naturally around 6-6:30, but if I have 6-7 off, then I try to wake at 6 to workout and get ready for the day. I have been using a combination of Future workouts and Peloton, then I get ready *very* fast. I take a few minute shower (I don’t always wash my hair) and have a 2-minute makeup routine.
- I get dressed and run downstairs to take over the morning shift. I pack lunches two days at a time, which is a huge time saver, and I make the kids breakfast.
- I help to get the kids out the door around 8/8:15, but my husband normally brings them to school since I have a commute.
- Then I drive downtown (anywhere from 15-40 minutes) to my office!
- On WFH days, I bring the kids to school – their school is a 10-min walk, though we occasionally take the city bus because the kids *love* it and it gets them out the door quicker!
Morning “Make Life Easier” Hacks:
- Like I said, we split mornings which has made things a lot easier.
- I make lunches two days at a time.
- The kids have the same breakfast for a few days in a row so that’s easier and less of a fight to get out the door.
Transition into Work-Mode:
- Transitions feel like a bit of a luxury to me that I have had to let drop. I normally have to dive right in, though I do try to triage my inbox first and make a list of high priority things to get done first.
What my work day looks like:
- While I do work in “Big Law”, it is worth noting I am on an 80% schedule — which means billing (roughly) 32 client hours a week. [Side note from Kelly: Attorneys often work more hours than they bill because some things you have to do for work can’t be billed to a specific client.]
- My schedule varies a lot through the year so it is never consistently 32 hours; for example, last year I was billing 50 hours a week for a couple months then down to 20 the next. I find this works for me, though the busy months are incredibly draining.
- On a daily basis, working in Big Law and client services in general means you do not have a lot of control over your day. I tend to get to the office around 9 (or start working at home around 830). I don’t have a ton of meetings (because we bill by the hour, meetings are minimized & kept short), so I normally only have a few a day.
- The rest of my day is spent doing “heads down” work like drafting pleadings or reviewing associate work.
- Each week, I try to take a woman associate out to coffee – I have found this grounds me a bit and we (and Big Law in general) have a problem retaining women and I am trying hard to figure out if there is anything I can do. I am also involved in a number of other talent initiatives, and it is worth noting none of this is billable (sigh).
Lunch/Snacks
- I eat lunch around 12, almost always at my desk.
Breaks
- The one thing my 80% schedule allows is the ability to be a *bit* more flexible. If I am WFH, then I try to take a break midday to go for a walk with a friend or workout, or run a quick errands. At the office, I don’t have a lot of breaks.
Leaving work
- I leave the office between 3-4 to beat traffic, though I work again when I get home and often again after the kids go down.
Transition out of work mode
- See above! Transitions are a luxury I don’t have at the moment.
After work hours:
- We split who picks up the kids, though my husband does it more, and I work on dinner while he goes to get them around 5-5:15.
- We try to eat dinner every night as a family, then the kids play while we clean up.
- They don’t have a bath every night in winter (though in summer they come home disgusting and need one), so they are normally doing various projects or building towers until 6:50 or so when we go up for the bedtime routine, and they are hopefully down by 7:15/30.
- My husband almost always has a bit more work to do, and I sometimes need to log back on.
- Otherwise, we watch TV, do chores, and read until going to bed around 10-11.
Post kid-bedtime hours:
- My husband does the dishes and runs the dishwasher every night.
- I need at least 30 minutes to just relax/watch tv/read to unwind, then I do my skincare routine and get to bed.
Nighttime Non-Negotiables:
- We do a lot of “previewing” what comes next for our kids – e.g., “10 minutes until wash hands”, “5 minutes until clean up”, etc. They like to know what comes next.
- For my skincare routine, I keep my moisturizer by the bed so I at least have that on before bed – but hopefully I have done retinol, etc. and have given it a few minutes to sink in before finishing off with moisturizer.
Sharing the Load with your Partner:
- We somewhat do the Fair Play method, which has worked well for us. I find it to be a bit more difficult in busier seasons or when one of us is traveling (which is not infrequent), so as with all things, we have to make it our own and be a bit more flexible.
Outsourcing:
- We have a cleaner who comes every other week
- We almost always order grocery delivery or pickup.
- Our kids’ school is full day care (8-6) and we often use a babysitter/our old nanny for additional help on weekends. We have occasionally booked a nanny for Saturday mornings to be able to get larger house admin chores done.
Exercise:
- I have been doing Future workouts for 3 months, so I have been doing 3 days of strength exercise.
- I also take a weekly tennis lesson scheduled on a day a WFH.
- Then I try to do a walk or Peloton another day.
That’s a wrap for this one!
Thank you so much to this woman for generously sharing. This is part of a series, so stayed tuned for more each Thursday here and on Instagram. The goal is to show how 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. structure their day. Enjoy!
And if you would like to contribute (all posts are published anonymously to allow you to share the nitty gritty details without concern), you can by filling out this form. Thank you!
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. I teach the Bright Method, a realistic time management system designed for professional working women. In addition to this fun new series, I share bite-sized time management strategies here and on Instagram. Thanks for being here!
