Day in the Life... with Liv

So my day at the moment typically starts at about 5am when my 18 month old Jacob has decided it is a reasonable time to wake up…. the only day he normally decides to sleep in is Thursday’s when I work in London for the day, I swear he does this to taunt me. Anyway, the Jacob o clock starts the day and me and my husband normally play the game of lying in bed pretending to be asleep until the other one cracks and gets up with him and normally by then Isla who has inevitably woken up to Jacob yelling ‘yaya’ (his name for her) at the top of his voice. Who needs to spend money on an alarm clock?

Since I have started to work from home more frequently I have become quite strict with going to the gym in the morning, after a broken night's sleep (at 1 and 3 my children are still the biggest sleep thieves) I have found the best way for me to mentally start the day is with a gym class. The classes vary from HIIT to circuit training, but I love having 45 minutes to just switch off, kickstart my endorphins and get set up for the day.

When I get home my husband has normally dealt with the kids breakfast and dressed them (I realise I am incredibly lucky!) I then normally have 30 minutes with them playing or having cuddles whilst watching Bluey … if you know you know… then it’s out the door and they are off to nursery.

Then it’s back, coffee made and I am ready to start the day. I have found myself working on the breakfast bar at the moment as my office has turned into a dumping ground for the pushchair, various kids toys, the bikes, the scooter… it’s on my list to clear it out but that’s for a different day. 

I normally start my day going through my to-do list from the day before, tackling anything urgent, having a quick browse through LinkedIn and then it’s time for our 9am kick off call when we catch up and run through what we have on for the day. 

I’ll be honest, no day is the same at Goho but I love that. 

Today, I am working on a detailed marketing plan for one of our clients. Before I came back from maternity leave, Stacey organised a Kai Flow course for me. One of the things the course taught me was learning to switch off from the noise and immerse myself into a particular activity. I have found this is an incredibly important tool to help me focus. It’s so easy in today’s world to be distracted by everything and doing a lot but not actually finishing anything, so after a quick immersion and solid focus for an hour. I grab my 2nd coffee for the day, respond to any emails, see how the team is getting on then it’s time for a kick off call with a new client. During the kick off calls, we spend time finding out exactly what they want to achieve from their partnership with Goho, who their target audience is and we spend time exploring all aspects of their business to ensure we can represent them in the best possible way. Following the call it’s time for a team meeting where we each run through all of the clients we are working on. We use this time to share ideas and make sure all our clients are hitting their objectives. 

Then before I know it’s 1pm. 

Lunchtime, I have tried to be quite strict with myself and even if I don’t go for a walk I at least try to sit in the garden to eat. I will be honest I am someone that struggles to stop when I am at home but I am trying to be better. 

After a quick lunch I spend time responding to emails again, chasing a few PR requests, proofreading a couple of press releases and pulling everything together following the kick off call. 

3pm hits… and at this point I curse my healthier head for not having any biscuits in the house and I normally raid the kids snack cupboard for a quick sugar fix… (don’t judge.)

The afternoon flows by with a couple of quick calls with our lovely clients, some analysis of one of the accounts we are working on to see how we can optimise it, responding to emails and supporting the team to ensure everything is in hand. 

I finish the day by doing one last check of emails, see if anyone needs any help and write my to-do list for the next day. 

Then 5pm comes round and it’s time to go and pick up Isla and Jacob, so armed with snacks I head to get them. How they can be hungry when they have had 3 meals at nursery I am never sure but anything for an easier journey home.

We have half an hour of ‘wind down’ time…when they tell me about their day (Isla), Jacob normally just says ‘baa baa’ his new favourite phrase. I find out what they have been up to at nursery. Today it was yoga, making cakes and colouring… I mean the life of a 3 year old these days is pretty good. 

It’s then bath time, teeth negotiating time, wrestling into pjs, story time and bedtime.

I’d love to share that I do something really exciting in the evening but we typically make dinner, watch something on TV and then head to bed to read…if we are really wild we might sit in the garden for a bit. I know so rock and roll… we do make it out some nights however the days where I was out every night are long gone. But to be honest, right now I do love getting stuck into a good book and switching off from everything. I could pretend I am reading something high brow but I will admit I do love a good old crime novel or a literary fiction. 

I am not going to sit here and write and say some days aren’t a juggle but I also feel incredibly lucky that I get to work and also put my kids to bed most nights. I do miss going into the office every day, so I now go in at least once a week which I look forward to. I also have Wednesday’s at home with them both so I am very fortunate to have such a great balance.