A Day in the Life

A couple of months ago I had another blogger reach out to me regarding writing a post about me and my usual day. Right, usual day? As you may be able to see from my Instagram feed and from my lack of posts over here these last two weeks, there is not really a usual day in my life right now. Wedding planning for our big day less then two months away, travelling, a new job, a new business on the horizon, event planning, exercising, the list goes on! However, I try to keep a bit of consistency to my life and thought I would share a little bit about a half way "normal" day in my life. I get a lot of questions quite often, "How do you do it all?" Well I don't, but I try, and I'm exhausted, but hey, this is my life!

5:30am – Alarm goes off. Hit snooze for a few minutes. Sometimes check twitter, emails, Instagram on my phone in bed. I think {I know!} it is a BAD habit, but I think often it is natural, I want to see what my US friends were doing when I was asleep!

5:40am – Up and dressed quickly for the gym. Sir Oliver, our puppy, runs in bed and takes my place!

5:50am – Walk to the the gym before the sun rises 

 6:00am – Work out. I prefer to work out first thing in the morning. I know, I am beyond crazy, but I like getting it over and done with, being able to run home and shower and still get to work on time. Working out early allows me to have my nights at home and be productive. Exercise is super important to me, if I am busy and can’t make a work out, I start to get moody. I have been going 3-4 times a week to my fabulous one hour ALL OUT workout at David Lloyd Orange Theory Studio for about seven months. It is a GREAT workout and even better if you are short on time.

7:15am – Home. Shower. Figure out what to wear for the day, makeup, dry my hair. If I’m in a rush…dry shampoo and up in a big bun! I love fashion and trends so I feel like my closet and style are always changing. I start thinking about what to wear during my time at the gym. If I have a client meeting, a little more business, if I am going to drinks with friends that night, a fun big necklace that can be work and play.

8:00am – Breakfast. My Beau and I try to eat breakfast together at the table. I do not know a lot of people that sit down for breakfast, but I grew up doing it, even if its for 10 minutes. We get to chat about the day ahead, and if I don’t eat breakfast at home I end up grabbing something not healthy on the go. I have been making a lot of frittatas early on in the week to reheat for a few days. I also try and take a few minutes to check Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest and post any of my posts from the night before that have been published and add the links to sites. Being an expat I often have emails from friends in the States in the morning, I will try to respond quickly so when they wake up my email is in their inbox.

8:15am – On the tube. I squeeze my way into the train and like to respond to emails on my phone during the commute. I have about a 30 minute tube ride so it is a nice time to catch up on wedding planning emails or emails to friends. 

9:00am – At the office, I get a large skinny latte or cappuccino and start checking emails. The "office" can vary. I may have an early event at wok {view of event space above, not bad!} on one side of the city or if I am going to be at my desk in the office all day, I am on the other side of the of the city, so it varies where the day begins. 

12:30am – Lunch! I eat lunch usually in my office building. While I can get lunch from my employee cafe, I prefer to bring it on my own so I know what is in the ingredients and it makes me feel healthier. Lunch is often a huge salad. 

1:15pm – Work continues at my desk, proposal, site visits, etc. If I have an afternoon meeting at Tate Modern, I have to jump on the boat and go back across the city, which is the view below, not bad. 

3:00pm – Coffee break! I always need a little pick me up. I drink lots of water through out the day but a tea or coffee and a little piece of dark chocolate or an apple is much needed in the afternoon! The rest of the afternoon varies, there is no "normal" day. I could be in the office ALL day or in and out of meetings with client, the chefs, vendor meetings, the list goes on. 

5:30pm – Out of the office. I run to the tube to get home as quickly as possible. I bring our wonderful puppy Sir Oliver out for a walk and make dinner. Nights really vary. About 2 nights a week I usually have dinner plans with Beau, meeting for drinks with a girlfriend or networking and having drinks with an industry friend or attending an event in the wedding business. Even though at the moment my full time job is more corporate business related, I still make time for the wedding industry. I try to coordinate my nights out with Beau’s nights out so when we are home, we can have some time together. Recently with our own wedding planning, I've been trying to stay home at night more often to check off or to do list. 

7:00pm – Dinner. We love cooking but it really varies on time and what we eat. Right now we are planning our wedding, both working, socializing, I’m blogging and we have lots of projects going on. Dinner can vary from Soup from Waitrose to Roasted Chicken to Steak and potatoes, you never know with us. I love making dinner on the weekend and planning our meals out so that at night when we get home from work it will just need to be warmed up. Sometimes I cook, sometimes Beau cooks. I like to make my lunch for the next day when we cook dinner and put it in the fridge. 

8:30pm – Sit at my computer and start working. blogging, there is ALWAYS something on my to do list! Whether it is getting back to my family/friends from the States throughout the day, researching and writing a blog post,  researching a wedding vendor, checking off our wedding list, putting together a DIY project, the list goes on! We rarely sit and watch TV on the week days. Both Beau and I usually have work stuff and projects to do, honestly, it can be exhausted. I often long for nights of laying on the couch with a magazine in hand and watching TV but for now, this is my life. Last night I was on my computer until 11:30pm and I still didn't cross off the to do list for the day, but it is what it is. 

10:30pm – We walk Oliver on a quick spin around our park.

11:00pm – Bed. I often browse around on Pinterest & Bloglovin  and then fall asleep at 11:30ish. Day, done.

The days vary but when I look at my "usual day", this is it. I love reading other bloggers thoughts on this because it is usually the same; we are all trying to get it all done! I try to catch up on US phone calls when I'm walking home, via Skype or when I’m cooking dinner. When its 9:00pm here, it is only 4:00pm there, so keeping in touch on the week days is hard. I try to stick to a blog post schedule but often ideas come to me last minute and it changes the idea for the day.  I think balancing will always be hard, keeping in touch with everyone, networking, working full time, being a good fiance/wife/friend/sister, cooking, cleaning, exercising, but what I’ve learned is; if you really want it, it will take a lot of time and effort, but you can get it done. It will get done at the day of the day. Often do I want to get home at 7:00pm and eat dinner on the couch, cuddle up with a movie and call it a day, yes, but does that happen, no. We cherish the weekends and take time then for a break. For now, this is my life, 24 hours, in the life of Urban Flip Flops. 

xoxo - Becca

{All Images from my Instagram feed. Follow along!}