I hope you’ve had the opportunity to follow along with our #BelleBirthdayBash themed posts this week. It’s been fun chatting it up with you on Twitter and reading your comments. There’s still time to enter our giveaway (which will be announced tomorrow) so be sure to join in before the fun ends tomorrow.
We’re also hosting our first LIVE Q&A session here on the blog (tomorrow), Friday, April 25th at Noon ET where our entire team will be here to hangout and answer your questions about being a virtual agency, entrepreneurship, PR in a digital world and — whatever else you’d like to ask. Read the bottom of this post for more details …
How I *Usually* Spend My Day (A Day in the Life of a Startup CEO)
So, being the CEO of a startup is kinda crazy. Although, I’m sure being a CEO in general is crazy. It’s hard to stay motivated consistently and challenge myself and my team to be our best selves. I do several things to keep the energy pumping and bring my ‘A Game’ daily. Of course, sometimes I have off days and most days don’t go as planned but overall, I try to keep things scheduled to keep the day from moving too quickly.
My friend Gini shared her schedule earlier this year and I loved that it was color-coded and time blocked. I was inspired to create my own and have re-worked it several times over the past six months. Here’s what my *ideal* schedule looks like:
(Click on the image below to make it bigger)
Before I reply to my emails, I do the following:
Then, I move on to emails, proofing projects from our team and back into emails:
At this point, I’ve already worked about 7 hours and there is NO EXCUSE not to exercise. Of course, that doesn’t mean I get out and exercise everyday BUT I should. (Again, this is my ideal schedule but not always the norm.)
Once I get back from my workout, I dive into meetings, emails and any follow-ups that need done. I prefer to have meetings in the afternoons whenever possible.
The final hours of my day are spent planning for the next day, checking in on social media and email and helping my team with any projects that need wrapped up.
Overall, I work anywhere from 9-11 hours a day. Some days it’s more like 6-8 hours depending on what’s happening and because we as a team can make our own schedules. I’m a morning person so I find that it’s best to get the majority of my work done before noon and save time for meetings later in the day. As an agency, we don’t have a traditional 8-5 schedule so some days I may work in the evening because I gifted myself the luxury of sleeping in or I spent time running errands. I love the ability to adjust my schedule to accommodate other aspects of my life.
So, there you have it! I hope this little peek into my daily routine is helpful to you. Now I have to wrap up projects and prep for my workout 😉 Don’t forget to bring your questions here tomorrow for our LIVE Q&A. See you then …
LiveFyre Q&A Chat with the Belle Team – (TOMORROW) Friday, April 25, 2014, noon – 1 pm ET
- You will need either a Livefyre account to participate (it takes about 2 minutes to set up), OR you can sign in with one of your social media logins.
- Set yourself a reminder for tomorrow at Noon ET.
- Start thinking of questions you’d like us to answer – on PR, social media, what we’ve learned about launching a startup, etc. You can even ask us more about our favorite things.
- To join the Q&A, come back here to our blog on Friday between noon-1 pm ET. The Q&A will take place in the Comments section of our Friday post.
- To ask a question, simply sign in with your Livefyre account and you can submit your question in the Comments. When you post your comment, we’ll see it and reply. You can also reply to other commenters.
- Hang out the whole time if you like, or stop by any time during the hour and we’ll be there to answer your questions.