Whenever I meet people, they always seem curious how I function with running a company and being a mom. I think I just keep the trains moving by constantly working and keeping life simple. Here is a true look into a weekday in my life…..
7am…..
I do not start my morning meditating like many recommend. My morning begins with the alarm buzzing at 7am and me grabbing my iPhone which is sitting right next to my bed at night (I know, not a good habit). I quickly (like 3 minutes or less) get dressed in running clothes, brush my teeth, wash my face and put my hair in a ponytail. I grab my laptop, which sits next to my bed, and head downstairs for a cup of coffee from the Keurig. While drinking my coffee, I start catching up on everything that happened overnight and review the schedule for the day and then begin making pancakes (the frozen ones as doing it from scratch takes too long!) for my kids’ breakfast and packing their lunches.
7:30am….
I head upstairs to wake my kids which I usually do sweetly to start but, when no one responds, I follow by singing some crazy song and flicking the lights on and off. They get dressed and brush their teeth (usually) and head down for breakfast. They are in a daze and eat quickly and we head out to the bus. As we wait for the bus, we probably have the most quality time of the day as we talk about what is on the horizon for the day and week. After the bus comes, I head off for my daily run. I like to listen to books or podcasts on my runs. I listen to fiction and non-fiction, so my variety is all over the map.
9am….
Once back, I do a quick kitchen clean up and throw laundry in and set myself up at the desk for the day. Sometimes, I barely move from the time I get back from that run until I go get the kids off the bus. My day consists of tons of calls with businesses and my team and emails all day long. I am not a phone person so my team tends to instant message me a lot throughout the day which I find much faster to knock questions out unless they are complex. I tend to save any project work for the weekends when I have more uninterrupted time to put things together and concentrate (as I am writing now on a peaceful Sunday morning). I never really have “meals” during my day but typically grab one small thing after another (e.g., a banana and peanut butter, followed by an apple, and then a frozen cauliflower meal bowl; as you can see, I am a bit of a health freak!).
4:00pm…..
Before I blink, it is time to grab the kids from the bus. They usually come off the bus both trying to talk to me at the same time with stories of the latest drama at school from that day. So I have to snap from CEO to Mom immediately. I give them a snack and then get them ready for their afternoon sports or activities. If I have to drive a carload of kids, which I often do, I go pick everyone up and bring my laptop. I sit and work while they are doing their activity. I then drop the kids off and either pick something up for us to eat for dinner or get home and make something quick and easy from, e.g., Trader Joe’s (no time to be Martha Stewart – sorry family!). The kids might then do some homework or read, and then take a shower. Brian finally gets home from work around this wind-down time as well. Of course, this is when they tend to get wound up from having not seen him and wanting him to do stuff with them. I am the bad guy as I am yelling at them to go to bed and trying to get them to chill.
9pm…..
I am dressed in my PJs and tucked into bed. I will pull the laptop out and sit in bed the rest of the night doing work and watching television with Brian. We are huge TV junkies! I make sure to look over the calendar for the next day so I get myself organized and make sure I have responded to every single email that came in that day. I work until I literally can’t any longer and put everything to the side and pass out.
That is the exciting, or NOT so exciting, life of a CEO Mom!
