A Day in the Life...

A Day in the Life...
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As I'm sure is the case with many entrepreneurs, bloggers, or anyone who doesn't have the typical 9-5, I often get asked what the heck I do all day long. "OMG you must get so bored! Are you lonely? How do you work by yourself? You're so lucky...you get to sleep in every morning! Oh, that's cute...you made a cake! I'm sure you'll have time to call since you don't have anything to do all day. Hey, you should posts pictures of my food, too!", and so on and so forth. But what I really want you to understand is..."I'm a hustler, baby! I just want you to know!". Ok, ok, Jay Z lyrics aside, the flat out truth is, I'm never not working. I'm constantly chasing dreams, getting it done, making stuff happen. Do I maybe get to have lunch on rooftops, or go to fancy events, or count eating and shopping as part of my job description? Every once in a while, absolutely! But on the other side, that vacation in Mexico last week? I spent every morning before the pool/beach working, and every night I was right back on my computer. The last weekend I didn't have to work? I don't remember. The amount of times I've gotten more than 7 hours of sleep in the last I-can't-remember-when? Zero. How many times I turn down hanging out with friends? At least once a week. My work is my life and my life is my work. I designed it to be that way and I couldn't be happier about it. But as they say, hustlin' ain't easy. For this reason, vitaminwater created a crowd funding-inspired program, #ProjectHustle, to "hydrate the hustle" of aspiring entrepreneurs, dreamers and doers. By using codes on participating vitaminwater caps, people have the power to allocate virtual funds to one of the 10 finalists' projects and help them make their dreams a reality. You can get the full deets over on projecthustle.com. And if you want to see how I "hydrate my hustle" (aka what I do every day to keep the Runway Chef brand going), keep on scrolling for a day in my life...

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7:00-8:30am || Rise and shine! I aim to wake up as early as possible, but it all depends on how late I worked until the night before. As soon as I wake up, I briefly check my phone (email and social channels). I try to spend no more than 10 minutes on my phone at this time and then completely shut off from it again until my full morning routine is done. After my quick phone check-in, I head to the kitchen to make some warm lemon water. Water in hand, I head back to bed for about 30 minutes to complete morning prayers and reflections.

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8:30-9:15am || Time to hit the gym, er should I say my living room floor or the pavement?! I love all of the great workout videos available on Youtube, and switch up my morning workout to do everything from kickboxing to yoga to pilates to dancing to taking a walk.

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9:15-9:45am || Put on a relaxing playlist; Shower & Get ready for the day; Take my vitamins; Make the bed

9:45-10:00am || Make my morning smoothie and sip on it (along with more water/lemon water/tea/other hydrating beverages, like vitaminwater), while browsing a few of my favorite sites & blogs

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10:00am-10:30am || Make the day's "Hustle List" (aka To-Do list); Check & respond to emails & comments; Set up social media for the day's post

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10:30am-12:30pm || This varies from day-to-day...typically I spend Mondays and Tuesdays writing, Wednesdays running to appointments, Thursdays testing recipes and planning for upcoming posts, and Fridays working on finances or any catch-up work, but some days I have coffee meetings, stops at showrooms to preview upcoming clothing collections, or client work that I'm focusing on....today, for example, I have a 10am meeting to go to. For productivity and focus reasons, I keep my email shut off and only check it at certain points throughout the day...this would be one of those points.

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12:30-1:30pm || I try to give myself a full lunch break to enjoy my food....sometimes I sit out in our backyard, other times I read, sometimes I listen to podcasts, and, when I really need to zone out, I'll put on one of my favorite tv shows; I'll also spend some of this time on social media, particularly Instagram. Right before I finish my lunch, I'll check my email once again and respond to any that need my immediate attention.

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1:30-3:00PM || Werk, werk, werk....As with the morning, this varies from day-to-day. Depending on the day, the week or my current projects, I could be at my desk, running around town, photographing a story, styling food photos, brainstorming on future collaborations, pulling pieces for upcoming outfit shoots, on a phone call, or taking meetings.

3:00pm || If I am working from home, I try to take a break around 3pm (after checking my email again) to spend some time perusing Pinterest or magazines for inspiration, or to take a few minutes journaling or drawing. Other days, like today, I'll be heading back out the door at 2pm for a 3pm meeting.

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5:00pm || I try (emphasis on try, because it rarely happens) to end my work day around the time that Mr. RC gets home. When I don't have a dinner or evening event to attend, we like to go for walks around our neighborhood and then cook dinner together.

8:00pm || Sometimes we head out for a drink or dessert, sometimes we meet up with friends, sometimes we go to a movie, but more often then not, we get back to work. Mr.RC is heavily involved with the business so we often have several things to strategize, discuss or collaborate on.

11:00pm-12:00am || I try (again, emphasis on try, because it rarely happens), to shut off, get ready for bed and spend some time reading. I'm a insomniac and will spend all night dreaming up ideas and to-do lists if I don't turn my mind off with some reading. Then it's some shut-eye (fingers crossed) before starting it all over again the next day.

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 Whether you hustle for yourself or someone else, I'd love to know, how do you get your hustle on each day? Do you have any productivity tips? A certain daily routine? Morning rituals? Spill the deets, peeps! 

 

This post was sponsored by vitaminwater. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.