A Day in the Life of my Design Business
photo of Christy’s actual home office space
One of the benefits of owning my own business is that I make my own schedule. Deadlines, client calls and other obligations help determine my day-to-day, but I don’t have any clocks to punch, anyone checking to see if I’m at my desk, anyone I have to call if I need to take a sick day.
This is also a challenge. With no one looking over my shoulder, it’s up to me to make sure things get done. Striking a balance between organized — to stay on task — and flexible — to allow for clients to adjust their needs (reasonably, please!) and to take care of my own health — is key. I don’t have a set-in-stone daily schedule, and I like the variety — it keeps things interesting.
One thing that’s been helpful is to focus on my challenging tasks early in the day. That’s when I have the most energy and focus. Someone else might hit their stride at 2 p.m., or 2 a.m., but I know my best hours are from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Having that awareness helps me prioritize and give my clients my best energy. Being crystal clear about my priorities is also key to managing my health. Keeping track of what MUST be done and what needs to wait takes away any confusion or decision fatigue if I’m not feeling well.
Here are a few examples of what my day might look like:
Very Busy Day
9 a.m. — Coffee and breakfast (eggs and toast to give me some good fuel) at home while listening to a podcast. Right now I’m loving Office Ladies!
9:30 a.m. — Fill out a spread in my Best Self journal. I take time to pause and write down what I’m grateful for as well as my to-do list.
10 a.m. — Call with Client A to review mood boards for their project (learn more about mood boards in my Five Questions About Mood Boards post). I usually try to max out at 2–3 client calls in a given day. I use Calendly to schedule calls.
11 a.m. — Check and respond to emails. I usually check them about once an hour and reply to most in a batch at the beginning of the day and a batch at the end of the day. My weekday “online hours” are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and I don’t check or respond to work emails outside of those hours.
11:30 a.m. — Work on annual report design concepts for Client B (here’s an example of one of my favorite annual reports I designed for National Industries for the Blind). I always have multiple projects running concurrently.
1 p.m. — Lunch! On a busy day, I usually have something like chicken tenders with some veggie leftovers we have in the fridge (I call this my “child lunch.”) Even on a busy day, I take breaks to eat. It allows me to check in with myself — plus most of my design work requires two hands anyway!
1:30 p.m. — Implement revisions for an event program for Client C
3 p.m. — Intro call with a potential client to learn more about their project
3:30 p.m. — A short (10–15 min) yoga video to break up the afternoon
4 p.m. — Finalize annual report design concept for Client B
5 p.m. — Check and respond to emails. Then I sign off for the day. I love my work but I can still get burnt out really easily when there isn’t enough time to rest.
Lighter Client Work Day
9 a.m. — Coffee with Nate (my awesome husband!) at our favorite local spot, Vigilante, then make breakfast at home (eggs again!)
10 a.m. — Virtual therapy session (much-needed time to talk through past and present anxieties with a trusted professional)
11 a.m. — Journal to start my workday. I always write my plan for the day in pencil to remind myself that adjustments can be made if needed.
11:30 a.m. — Work on marketing and business development (like this blog!) or a passion project, such preparing an Eventbrite listing for the next SSLetters meeting or making lettering for my Human Plus Kind account. I prioritize my wellbeing, which means sometimes business development and marketing takes a back seat if I need to take that time to rest, but I’m okay with that.
1 p.m. — Lunch break with a sandwich or a smoothie made at home. I might sit outside and read or watch a favorite show.
2 p.m. — Call with Client A to present and discuss design concepts for their annual report (there are 2 rounds of revisions in our contract to finalize the design direction before I begin the full layout)
3 p.m. — Take a long walk with Nate. These have become pretty essential to get out of the house during the pandemic when our usual activities are limited.
4 p.m. — Work on mood board revisions for Client B.
5 p.m. — Yoga video to wrap up the day — working from home it helps to have an activity to make the end of the workday so I can turn my brain off. I don’t work at night. Instead, I use that time to recharge and get myself in a place where I can do it all again effectively the next day.
A Day When I Need to Take it Easy
10 a.m. — It’s harder to get out of bed on these days, so I start the day reading some things online to try and see if I can wake myself up more or if it’s gonna be ‘one of those days’. The coffee isn’t giving me the boost I’d hoped for.
11 a.m. — Admit defeat on trying to get some pep in my step. I might have an RX bar for breakfast and take some more coffee up to my office to start organizing my thoughts on how to approach my to-dos.
11:30 a.m. — Slash and burn the to-do list to the bare essentials. Mourn the lovely day I had planned and all the things I was going to do!
12 p.m. — Work on revisions for Client B if a deadline is coming up fast. Juggling multiple clients, I try and space things out in a way that avoids major crunches, though things are hard to completely control.
1 p.m. — Lunch break already? I know I’m not going to feel any better unless I eat, but I often don’t feel like cooking when I’m exhausted so I sometimes get some takeout and watch a comfort show like Parks & Rec or Brooklyn 99, or an art or design show if I’m in the mood for inspiration.
3 p.m. — Discovery call to kick off a new client project. On a rough day, it’s much more manageable to get through one or two necessary tasks than to try to accomplish an ideal schedule.
4 p.m. — Check emails and reply to any time-sensitive questions. Anything else can wait.
5 p.m. — Update my to-do lists for the next few days to note anything that must be done. Remove any ‘would like to do’ marketing or passion project tasks for now. The more rest I get, the sooner I can feel better and be at peak energy again.
CHANGE MAKER OF THE MONTH
For this month’s change maker of the month, I’m spotlighting and donating to the Baltimore Museum of Art, whose mission is to be the most relevant publicly engaged museum in the United States. I’ve been going there since I was a kid, but I was inspired to donate this month because I recently learned about their upcoming 2022 exhibition Guarding the Art, which is curated by the museum’s security officers. I love their commitment to representing new and different perspectives in the museum.