6:50 a.m.: I wake up before my alarm today. The one good thing about the fall time change: mornings are much easier! (I still hate it, though. Darkness at 5:30pm is not my favorite!) I’m not ready to get up, though, so I play Happy Color on my phone and then read some election coverage. Some good news, but also lots of bad news. Bleh.

7:30 a.m.: I finally get up, pee, brush my hair, and then sit down at the kitchen table to eat breakfast and read blogs. I also finish up yesterday’s post and publish it.

8:10 a.m.: I make myself an iced coffee, get dressed, and then prep my apartment to get Roomba’d. It’s a process, which is why I don’t run my Roomba as much as I should.

8:30 a.m.: I start the Roomba and then start my workday. I answer a few emails, set up my task list for the day, and complete my first task of the day, which is reviewing website content that was posted to make sure it’s formatted and linked out correctly. The Roomba decides it’s done after 30 minutes, which IT IS NOT, so I make it restart. Silly Roomba! I also do a little bit of meeting prep and accept some blog submissions that were sent over by contractors. Crossing off tasks left and right this morning!

10:00 a.m.: Roomba is finished (yes, I run it for 90 minutes; she’s not as efficient as I expected!) and I put my apartment back together and also do something I’ve never done this early: I pull out my Christmas decorations! I like to slowly decorate my apartment with decors, such as a Vintage Rebel USA Flag, adding just a few things every day, so my apartment won’t be fully decked out until after Thanksgiving (and I’m not putting up my tree until I come back from my cruise), but it’s fun to get the containers out.

10:30 a.m.: Back to work! I start a big task, publishing content on a client’s website. Their website has a funky setup, so it takes a bit longer to post content than other websites. For Website Creation Services, you may consider getting expert help from professional services like Affordi-Build. But I can listen to my audiobook while I do this task, which is great. I take a break at 11:30 for my weekly managers meeting, which is pretty easy-breezy. Afterward, I have a nice little venting chat session with a coworker. I hope everyone has a coworker they can vent to about work stuff.

12:20 p.m.: I start looking over my health insurance options as it’s time to select my plan for 2023. I am weighing the pros and cons of a PPO plan ($70 per paycheck with a $1,000 deductible) and an HSA High plan ($60 per paycheck with a $2,000 deductible). I don’t know which one to pick! In 2022, I’ve been on an HSA Low plan ($31 per paycheck with a $3,000 deductible) and I don’t like it at all. Meeting a $3,000 deductible is not an easy feat for me (something I am very grateful for!) so I’m leaning towards the PPO plan. It’s a little higher per paycheck, but it would mean paying less money overall for therapy/doctor’s appointments/etc. I call my mom to work through my options because I’m a 30-something who still needs my mom’s help with stuff like this.

1:00 p.m.: I need a break! I stop for lunch, which is leftovers from last night’s dinner. Yay! I read blogs while eating lunch and then lounge on the couch for a bit, reading The Smart One.

2:00 p.m.: I head outside for a walk. The weather is dreary thanks to the tropical storm that’s coming our way (doesn’t look like it will affect us too much!), but it’s also in the low 70s and breezy, which feels great. I wear a hat just in case it’s super windy (it’s not TOO windy, but I’m glad I had my hat).

2:30 p.m.: I’m back at my desk to tackle some more work. I’m feeling pretty unmotivated this afternoon, but try to knock out some tasks. I start with the website content posting I was doing before my meeting earlier today. Around 3:45, I huddle with my director on Slack. We have a standing meeting every Wednesday afternoon and I love having this time with her! She’s become such a great mentor to me, especially talking through issues I’ve come across as a manager and how to address them. Plus, we’re both readers so sometimes, if we don’t have much to talk about, we wind up talking about what we’ve been reading lately. This week’s meeting is pretty easy: I tell her about the issue I came across yesterday and the solution I implemented and then bring up an issue that one of my writers has talked to me about before that I wanted to get her feedback on. All in all, an easy meeting! Afterward, I take care of some follow-up tasks from that meeting and then decide I need a little break.

4:30 p.m.: I take a half-hour to myself to wrap Olive’s presents, tidy up the apartment, and make myself presentable for tonight. I also poke through my Christmas boxes and pick out a few things to put out. DON’T JUDGE ME.

5:00 p.m.: Back to work for a bit. I answer a few emails and Slack messages that have come through and then finish up the content posting task I had started so much earlier in the day. (I told you this one takes a long time to post!)

5:40 p.m.: I wrap up work for the day, shut down my laptop, and getting all of my stuff together to head over to Mikaela’s house for the night.

6:20 p.m.: I arrive at Mikaela’s house and her daughter, Olive, is excited to see me. Since there are some new people reading my blog, a little background on Olive: When she was 14 months old, she was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of liver cancer. Only a few people in the entire world have ever had this cancer, and none as young as Olive. She was given a 9% chance of survival. She needed surgery to remove the tumor in her liver but most pediatric surgeons weren’t comfortable doing the surgery. However, thanks to a family friend (actually, the woman Mikaela’s father dated before marrying her mom!), they found a surgeon in Boston who was confident he could do the surgery and it would be a success. And it was! She got through the surgery and many rounds of chemotherapy afterward and is a true warrior baby. She finished treatment in July 2021 and has had clean scans ever since, and she gets to have her port removed next week. Today is her third birthday and it’s just such a miracle that she is celebrating her birthday when we didn’t know if she’d be here. And not only is she here, but her cancer treatment didn’t slow her down at all. She’s above average developmentally and might be the smartest 3-year-old I’ve met.

Anyway, it was fun to see Olive and surprise her with some birthday gifts. I haven’t seen her in a while so I was worried she’d be shy around me, but this kid is the opposite of shy. She was bubbly and fun and gave me a big hug when I arrived. She was so cute opening her presents, gasping with pleasure and saying “Thank you, Aunty Steph!” after each one. We had dinner together, I gave Eleni a bottle while Olive took a bath, and then we read from the book I got her before it was time for bed. It was such a lovely little night!

7:50 p.m.: I leave Mikaela’s house so that she can get the kiddos to bed and drive home. And here’s some real talk for you: I had a lot of anxiety after leaving Mikaela’s. I’m a naturally quiet and reserved person, and sometimes I feel like that leads to being boring when I’m with other people. I started getting into my head that I wasn’t as bubbly and fun as I wanted to be, which lead me down a spiral that I’m just not a fun person to be around. All lies, I know! But I think it’s helpful for others to know that if you also spiral after fun nights like this, you’re not alone!

8:15 p.m.: I get home and the girls are snuggled together on the couch! I nearly die from the cute, as my cats aren’t big cuddlers together. But sometimes they surprise me! I start a bubble bath after giving them a treat and play games on my phone, which feels very relaxing to me.

8:45 p.m.: I work on this post for a bit and then it’s time for The Amazing Race! It’s a very good episode and I’m thrilled with the team that got first place this episode. Yay! I eat some ice cream while I watch and do a little tidying up, but mostly, I lay on the couch.

10:00 p.m.: I Facetime my mom to discuss our thoughts on The Amazing Race (we both watch), but she’s not answering. Annnnd here is the second anxiety spiral of today, wheeee. She should have answered the call but she doesn’t, so I figure: maybe she’s putting the dogs to bed or is in the bathroom or something. But when she hasn’t returned my call after 5 minutes, I try her again. No answer. So I send her a text, but it doesn’t deliver correctly so I figure something must be up with my phone. I restart it, call her again (we’re now 9 minutes into the spiral). Nothing. She FINALLY calls me back at 10:10 and asks why I haven’t called her. ACK. Phones, man. AND BRAINS. Why does my brain automatically shift into fight-or-flight mode when I don’t hear from my mom immediately? Why can’t it be normal?! Argh. Anyway, we have a very good conversation about the show and Olive and our days.

10:35 p.m.: I continue to work on this post, edit some pictures, and insert them into the post. I decide I’m going to be very lazy and not tidy up my whole apartment before I go to bed. I brush my teeth, but skip my skincare routine.

11:10 p.m.: I get into bed with my book (The Bodyguard, tonight) but I’m very tired so I only read a chapter before turning on Youtube to watch ASMR videos.

11:30 p.m.: Lights out!

Have you put any Christmas decorations out yet?

wednesday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

6:50 a.m.: My gentle alarm begins waking me up. I was having a bad dream, so it was good to be pulled out of it. Lila is lying next to me so I snuggle with her for a bit.

7:15 a.m.: I meant to get up around 7, but Lila was being so snuggly and sweet. I told her she was making it very hard for me to get up, but I don’t think she cared much. Cats, man! I finally get up, pee, and eat breakfast while finishing up yesterday’s blog post.

7:50 a.m.: I throw on some clothes and lace up my sneakers to take my daily walk. It is another gorgeous day. We’re finally hitting the stretch of months where living in Florida is a DREAM and not a hellscape of heat and humidity. I start this week’s episode of The Friendship Paradox on my walk.

8:15 a.m.: I sit down at my computer to start work. I go through my emails, send a long email to a few writers who will be joining me on a project I’m leading, and then start working on my slides for today’s content team meeting. I’m about to huddle with another manager so we can collaborate on one of the slides when I realize I never made coffee! I do that and put away yesterday’s dishes while the coffee brews.

9:15 a.m.: I get on a huddle with my coworker and we work on the slide. Then, I draft an email to send to one of my contractors with all of the documents she needs to work on her November assignments. In the middle of that, I have to do a little assignment triage – removing one writer from an account because it doubled its page count this month, which puts her over capacity, and then figuring out who to assign those pages to. We work in Monday.com (which I will forever believe is the worst name ever for a project management system) and I spend so much of my time buried in our assignment boards, making sure everything looks right.

10:30 a.m.: It’s time for a break. I take a shower, blow dry my hair, put on real clothes, and do my makeup. Then, I make a quick lunch and eat it while reading blogs.

12:00 p.m.: I work through my emails for a bit and then notice a question from one of our account managers that reminds me of a problem I keep seeing on our Monday boards, so I decide to drop everything and investigate this issue. It’s one that could cause a LOT of problems down the road, so I need to figure it out before it spirals. Before I know it, I’m getting the alert for our monthly content team meeting. I have to present a few slides, but it’s a pretty easy meeting otherwise.

2:45 p.m.: My mom called me when I was in my meeting, so I call her back. We decide to book the Jim Gaffigan tickets today. For some reason, the website keeps declining my mom’s card because the address is incorrect, so I tried my card and it went through. Yay! We’re going to surprise my brother with the tickets on Christmas.

3:00 p.m.: Back to work for me. I throw myself back into the project I was working on before our content team meeting. I have finally figured out what’s going on, so I start an Excel spreadsheet to work out the solution.

4:00 p.m.: I’m hungry! I make popcorn and eat my snack while reading blogs. I’ll tell ya, keeping up with everyone doing NaBloPoMo this year is becoming a full-time job! It’s fun, but I’m sorry if I’m a late responder!

4:30 p.m.: Back to work! I finish up the project. I’ll bring it up during tomorrow’s managers meeting. For now, I draft an email to send to one of my contractors about her November assignments. (I manage the workloads for three different contractors.)

5:30 p.m.: I shut down my computer for the day. I have some fun evening plans that I’m excited to get to! I do a double-check to make sure the hair straightener I haven’t used since this afternoon is off (duh), the burners that I haven’t used since lunch are cold (duh), and other fire hazards have been checked. We’re good! I leave home and drive to Target. Only, at first, I drive to the Target nearest to me and I need to go to the one near the restaurant I’ll be meeting my mom and cousin tonight. I drove 5 minutes in the wrong direction. Argh!

6:00 p.m.: I finally arrive at Target and can’t help poking through the holiday goodies at the front. I pick up a $3 “merry” sign because I just can’t help myself. Then, I wind my way to the toys and games section, as I need to pick out a few gifts for Olive (our warrior girl is celebrating her third birthday on Thursday!). I also stop by the holiday section JUST TO LOOK OKAY. Don’t judge me. There’s a precious “Meowy Christmas” sign and I have to buy it. Like, it basically just jumped off the shelf and into my basket. My last order of business is finding a good-sized container where I can store my fall decorations (success!) and a round brush. I need a round brush to properly style my curtain bangs, so I found one for $4, which I’m happy about.

6:35 p.m.: I’m a little late to dinner, but it’s all good as the restaurant is packed tonight. It’s usually not very busy. But we get seated fairly quickly and dinner is a very, very good time. Mom and I catch up with Rachel about her life, talk about Thanksgiving plans, and enjoy our favorite dessert: pizookies! (A pizookie is a “pizza cookie.” It’s a cookie baked in a deep dish pan so it’s gooey and warm and delicious. It’s topped with ice cream.)

8:00 p.m.: Mom and I chat for a minute outside the restaurant after saying goodbye to Rachel and her daughter. Then I head home.

8:10 p.m.: I’m home in record time. I unpack my Target purchases (the girls are very unimpressed with my “Meowy Christmas” sign and it’s hurtful) and then work on this post a bit.

8:45 p.m.: I check the election updates and everything is terrible. DeSantis and Rubio win re-election. UGH. Be smarter, Florida! I start to fall into a pit of despair reading CNN so I decide to exit out of my browser. The reality can come tomorrow. I Facetime with my mom because I wanted to tell her about a podcast episode I just listened to. (These week-in-the-life recaps are really going to show you how many times my mom and I talk to each other throughout the day, lol.)

9:00 p.m.: Time to start my nighttime routine. Tonight, I have to clean out the litter boxes (I clean them out every other day; I used to do it daily, but I can stretch it a bit since the cats have multiple litter boxes). I also need to do my skincare routine, brush my teeth, clean the kitchen, and tidy up the apartment. I take breaks every 10 minutes or so to do some computer work (and that’s why my nighttime routine takes so damn long).

10:30 p.m.: It’s finally time to crawl into bed. I bring The Smart One into bed with me to read, play a few games of Candy Crush on my phone, and watch an ASMR video to lull me to sleep.

11:10 p.m.: Lights out!

What’s the weather like where you are? 

tuesday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014

7:15 a.m.: My gentle Sleep Cycle alarm starts going off. Lila is laying with me in bed, so I wrap an arm around her and snuggle her close to my chest. This is the only time she lets me snuggle her close like this, and I love it so much!

7:30 a.m.: I get up, pee, pull my messy hair back into a pony, and throw on a shirt and cotton shorts. Then, I eat a simple breakfast (string cheese and yogurt) while reading blogs. I start a load of laundry, feed the cats, and tidy up the kitchen.

8:30 a.m.: I sit down at my computer to start my workday. My morning is fairly uneventful. I answer emails, have a check-in via Slack with one of my writers, and spot-check a bunch of website pages that were posted to clients’ websites last week to make sure they’re formatted and linked out correctly.

10:15 a.m.: I take a break to do today’s Wordle (a hard one! It took me 5 tries), transfer the laundry from the washer to the dryer, do my morning skincare routine, and make my bed.

10:45 a.m.: Back to work. I answer a Facetime call from my mom at some point and we make plans for lunch, and also go off on a tangent of looking up tickets for Jim Gaffigan (he’s coming to Tampa in February!).

11:20 a.m.: I stop working, put on real-person clothes, and then pick up my mom for lunch. We have a short-and-sweet lunch date at Chick-Fil-A (our fave!) and I return home to see that my Book of the Month box arrived. Yay! Since it’s my birthday month, I got to pick out a free book and I chose Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

12:45 p.m.: Back to work! I answer more emails, handle some website posting, and take care of an assignment issue that cropped up (which entails playing around with a few of the writers’ assignments to make sure everything is even).

2:00 p.m.: I start feeling sleepy, so I decide to take a nap on the couch.

3:00 p.m.: Nap is over and I feel very refreshed! I pop a cookie in the microwave to warm it up (20 seconds turns any cookie soft and gooey and delicious!) and then return to my desk where I answer some emails (once I became a manager, keeping up with my inbox became a full-time job!) and continue publishing website content.

4:45 p.m.: I’m at a natural stopping point so I put on my sneakers and head outside for my daily walk. It is gorgeous outside. In the low 80s but with a really nice breeze. It felt divine! During the walk, I leave a video for Mikaela and pick up my mail (two political mailers, a credit card offer, and the weekly junk mailer, bleh).

5:15 p.m.: I need to log a bit more time of work, so I settle in to spend an hour or so working on one of my long-term projects (building out a content library for our writers). It’s one of those big projects that I have to work on in tiny bits, so I try to set aside an hour or two a day to work on it. However, when work gets busy, it’s the first thing to fall off my to-do list. Thankfully, I’m in a slower period of my month so it’s something I can easily tackle. Once I get to a stopping point (for today, at least) in that project, I start looking over the schedule for one of our contractors. I need to make sure she has everything she needs (client notes, content plans, etc.) for her November assignments. I make some notes of what I need to follow up on tomorrow, and then I’m done for the day.

6:40 p.m.: I take a hot bubble bath and it feels so good! I read my book and enjoy the bubbles.

7:00 p.m.: I preheat the oven and while it’s doing its thing, I read some blogs, work on this post, and fold laundry. Can you tell I’m a multitasker? Oops! I also pop my pizza in the oven.

7:30 p.m.: Pizza is done! It’s time to settle on the couch to watch an episode of Love Is Blind. Ooh, the men this season are driving me crazy. Almost all of them are just the epitome of toxic masculinity. Gross.

8:45 p.m.: I sit down to continue working on this post and reading blogs. I take breaks to start my nighttime routine: putting away my laundry, doing my skincare routine, cleaning up the kitchen, and brushing my teeth.

10:15 p.m.: Nighttime routine is done, so it’s finally time to get in bed with my book. While I read, the cats jump on the bed to snuggle with me. Eventually, I close my book and queue up an ASMR video to lull me to sleep.

11:10 p.m.: Lights out!

Are you a multitasker, or do you like doing just one thing at a time?

monday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015. and 2014