Awhile back when I conducted my reader survey, a few of you suggested that you wanted to know more about my “real life” regarding my day-to-day schedule. Now, I almost consider this to be flattering since I think my life is relatively mundane….but you asked, so now you shall get! 🙂
Here’s the kicker—not a single one of my work days are the same. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are relatively similar but those can change too. For example, we had rogue snowstorm blow through yesterday that rapidly changed my work schedule for the day! As much as I would love to detail yesterday (i.e. working from home on my living room floor all day), I decided I couldn’t bore you to tears that much. Instead, I’ve put together a general summation of what my days typically look like. Here we go!
5:45: Alarm clock goes off, and I roll over to see Tally staring at me. I swear, that dog’s tail begins wagging as soon as my eyelids open up! I stumble to my coffee maker immediately because I know shortly…..
6:00-6:30: Typically, I deal with some type of work-related conversation, right out of the blocks. This is often a chat with one of my parents regarding the day’s schedule, weather cancellations, etc. Yesterday involved texting all of our employees to tell them the work day had been canceled due to snow. Fun stuff to talk to me that early. I’m a real treat! I usually mash breakfast into this time slot because I’m not sure where else it would fit! I always have the TV running during this time because I like the background noise. It absolutely doesn’t matter what’s on – TBS often airs Fresh Prince of Belaire – I just like the noise!
6:30-7:00: Tals gets her morning walks. In the summer, I don’t mind this as much because it’s warmer out, but they kinda suck when it’s 2 degrees. Luckily, we usually get to see a stunning sunrise, so we’ve learned to love them.
(And no, there really isn’t a “get ready for work” time allowance because it doesn’t matter what I look like! In landscaping, I can wear whatever I want, and it usually centers on jeans and workout clothes!)
7:00-7:30: Morning commute. Blah blah blah.
7:30-8:00: I prep for the day at our office. I arrive earlier than our staff just to get my brain sorted and their schedules situated for the day. There are usually lots of questions involved, so I like to have a little quiet time beforehand so that I can *hopefully* provide them with useful responses and answers.
8:00-4:00: This is the part of my work day that varies a ton! Depending on the season, I may interviewing potential employees or communicating with clients about specific details for an install or design idea. This time of year, a lot of my day has been spent prepping us for annual season. Annual season (the month of May) is out-and-out insane but it’s the time of year where our company makes the majority of our annual income. In short, May pays our bills 🙂 Our company specializes in annual designs and installations, and we are very good at them. In fact, we’ve won a handful of awards for our designs and were even featured in a national magazine last spring! Our designs require lots of thought regarding environmental parameters, current conditions (Denver’s watering restrictions), client wishes, color preferences with their home and surrounding environment, and availability of the plants. Our clients spend a lot of money on these designs and installs, so it’s very important to our company that we do it right.
Other times, my parents and I go out in the field together. Sometimes this is for estimates on potential projects or clients, but other times, it is just to “quality control” our existing client based. Once our crew leaves the office, we typically don’t see them for the rest of the day so we like to keep tabs on our clients and our work. My mom has her B.S. and M.S. in Botany and Plant Pathology, so she truly knows more about horticulture than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. It ruined hikes for us as kids (they became nature walks!), but I appreciate it enormously the older I get. It sounds crazy, but she literally knows everything!
The last part of my job often includes paperwork…. lots and lots of paperwork! My dad is the accountant for our company, but he has spent the last few years teaching me the ropes since it will be my company in the not-so-distant future. My current paperwork duties always include billing and payroll, but we also work together on a lot of our retail taxes, workman’s comp, etc. Glamorous, isn’t it?!
Oh, and my phone rings a lot during the day…..like a lot. If I had to estimate, I would guess that my work phone goes off at least 30-50 times every day, between crew questions, client concerns, parent questions, and vendor phone calls. I sometimes refer to myself as an “air traffic controller” because I often feel like one!
4:30-5:30: Although I seriously prefer morning workouts, this has become my time slot as of late….at least till busy season is over! This is usually when I head to CrossFit or squeeze in a run with Tals. It’s so much easier now that it’s light outside!
5:30-8:00: This time of the year, I have to pop back into work mode after I exercise, just to finish a few things up. I often get employee calls in the evening (after they’ve finished their days), which I try to answer, unless I’m totally fried. This is also when I mash together dinner and deal with my blog stuff and side freelance work. Since we are in busy season now, I’ve turned down a lot of freelance work because I can’t handle the additional stress—I’ve learned my lesson on that one in the past! This will be my first busy season in a long time where I am not in grad school, so that is helping out a ton. I used to come home from work and immediately sit down to study, which totally sucked. I was always tired, and it was so hard to switch my brain from work to school to freelance!
8:00-10:30: If I watch TV or something, this is when I squeeze it in. I typically have one show that becomes my thing and these days, it’s The Voice. Anyone else watch it?! I kinda love it! Anyway, I usually crawl into bed around 9:30ish because I have to read before I fall asleep. Like, literally—if I don’t read, I don’t sleep!
This is also when Will and I check in on our days and have our nightly conversations. Since it’s been awhile between visits this time around, our conversations have been epically long—like 1-2 hours, every night! There are a lot of things that we’ve been talking about lately, and these conversations are not short! Luckily for him, he is on West Coast time so we usually cap the chat when I can’t keep my eyes open anymore. On the bright side, it’s a good way to fall asleep 🙂
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Learn anything new about me?
YOU should do a day-in-the-life post! I love reading them, so if you do, let me know!
18 Comments
It sounds like you have really busy work days. My schedule is similar in that it’s normally never the same from day to day. Some days I work 12 hours and other days I work none. I love that you mentioned Tals wagging her tail as soon as you open your eyes. Lucky does the same thing. In his world awake means play time!
I’m similar to you in that it depends– during busy season, there is ALWAYS something going on. In the summer, like July and August, we slow down a lot!
I guess I didn’t know what you did before now – very cool that you’re in the landscaping business. My cousin (in Atlanta) is a landscape architect and she & her hubby own a landscape design & maintenance business too. 🙂
Sounds like their company is identical to ours!
I feel for you on the long-distance relationship. When my husband and I were first dating, we spent a year doing the the long-distance thing. We would talk every night for hours on end. It was wonderful and we learned so much about each other, but it was definitely exhausting! As a result, now when we’re apart our phone conversations last a matter of minutes!
Ugh, yeah, definitely over the long distance thing, but what can you do? At least we know we can communicate REALLY WELL!
It’s always interesting to see how other people spend their day. I have absolutely no routine. Like ever!
That’s because your work schedule isn’t routine like a lot of people have 🙂
I LOVE The Voice! It’s def my favorite show (well, the only show) I watch on TV these days. Blake cracks me up, but I’d pick Team Adam any day. Thanks for sharing a ‘day in the life’ with us!
I’d probably go with Adam too, although I love Blake. Good thing singing is, quite literally, one of the things that I am the absolute worst at in this world 🙂
This is really fun! Thanks for sharing your life.
What’s your MS in?
Also, gardening is so wonderful. I know your job is stressful, but can also be so cathartic as well. Lucky to be outside making things so beautiful for so many people!
My mom has her M.S in Plant Pathology, although I have my M.Ed in Special Ed with an emphasis on outdoor ed for special needs kiddos 🙂
This was so fun to read! I minored in horticulture, so I love what you do. I’m working at a desk now (my major was agricultural journalism), but I dream of working outside. I have to go to Casa Bonita every time I’m in Denver. Love it!
Glad you enjoyed it! My undergrad is in journalism too, but I never realized that ag journalism was a degree! How cool!!
Sounds like a jam-packed day! I used to love having the TV on in the background, too. Just some filler noise is nice sometimes! Now, without cable, I listen to Pandora instead.
Thanks for sharing!
PS – I love that you took Will to Casa Bonita – I take my friends there too (if they’re here long enough). Most don’t believe it’s a real place and just somewhere South Park created!
I am SUCH a creepster because I loved reading this. I’ve never worked in an office or any type of job beyond customer service/teaching so hearing what people in other careers do is fascinating to me. I guess my food post was sort of day in the life but now I kind of want to do a real one, I just get anxious saying anything about work, even if it’s vague. I hear you on the struggling to do grad work after work – it’s the worst! Good for you that you’ll be done – I’ll be joining you on the other side eventually!
Maybe this is why you were laughing hysterically at Casa Bonita? http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s07e11-casa-bonita
I was actually driving to Colorado Springs to see my sister when that giant monster of a blizzard took over your state and forced me to re-route to Albuquerque. Looks like next time I get out there, Colorado will be blenketed in purple instead of white thanks to y’all! How cool that your job is to LITERALLY make the world more beautiful!
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