‘My daily life at Telefónica’, by Sara Frieben

All my mornings start with a good dose of furry cuddles. As an animal lover, I have two dogs: Lima and Limón. They are my personal alarm clocks, filling my mornings with energy and getting me out of bed for a long walk. However, don't think that everything is idyllic; often those walks are accompanied by rain, wind, heat or cold. Still, I wouldn't trade that fresh air for anything.

Find out more about everyday life at Telefónica from Sara Frieben. Find out her tips.

Sara Frieben Follow

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First fresh air and then my day begins

After that breath of air, my next stop is a good breakfast, accompanied by a podcast or an interesting newsletter about digital marketing, ecommerce, CRO, SEO or artificial intelligence. This routine helps me to learn about new trends and keep abreast of the latest in the sector. Also, listening to the experiences of other professionals always gives me new ideas and serves as a source of inspiration.

I haven’t said it before, but for me, a good breakfast includes a delicious fruit juice, and not a drop of coffee! Yes, I am part of that small percentage of the population that doesn’t need coffee for energy. Although I will admit, I love the smell.

After breakfast and my information pill, I log into Teams to check what the day has in store for me. First, I look at my scheduled meetings to organise my diary, and then I check my mail in Outlook to identify urgent messages. I strive to keep my inbox organised, marking each email to make it easier to find relevant threads or information based on the topic or project – don’t be afraid to delete messages and always check your SPAM folder!

Finally, I check Asana, our agile methodology tool, to manage and organise tasks. Here, I check the day’s deliverables and the status of tasks in progress, to detect if there are any that might be stuck. These three tools are my great allies!

Data floods my morning

Once I’ve reviewed the tools, I dive into the data. First thing in the morning, before the daily meetings, I like to analyse the previous day’s closing data and key KPIs to understand what’s going on and anticipate potential problems. To do this, I use the data visualisation tool Looker, where I consult customised reports generated from data sources such as Google Analytics 4, Shopify, Klaviyo, Metricool and others.

Then it’s time for the ‘daily’, our daily 15-minute team meeting that helps us understand what tasks we are going to tackle that day. Throughout the day, I alternate meetings with spaces to make progress on my tasks. In our team, we use the agile methodology, which helps us prioritise the tasks of the quarter through sprints, planning development times.

Tips to be more productive

For me, the most important thing is to set aside spaces in the day that allow you to perform tasks without interruptions. For example, you can reserve slots in your calendar and minimise the famous ‘time thieves’, such as meetings. Who hasn’t had a day full of meetings and felt frustrated for not being productive? It is essential to limit and limit meetings, scheduling them from Monday to Thursday mornings, so that later, you have time to move forward with your work.

Another key aspect is to anticipate. Planning properly and using tools such as Asana, which allow you to visualise your tasks in the short and long term, is essential. In addition to planning, automation is essential to free yourself from routine, time-consuming tasks.

If your problem is procrastination and you never see the time to tackle big tasks due to lack of time, there are several time management techniques that can help you. Like the Pomodoro technique. You simply set a timer to divide your work into intervals of 25 minutes to work and 5 minutes to rest. You repeat this exercise four times and in the fourth session, you take a 20-minute break. This technique is very useful when you need to concentrate.

Finally, before the end of the day, I find it very helpful to organise my pending work so that I know exactly where to start the next morning. This tip is essential for Mondays!

Rest, sport and fresh air at the end of the day

At the end of the day, it’s time to dedicate time to the body as well. In my case, the gym and going for a run are excellent ways to release tension. I also find yoga a great way to relax and reduce the stress of everyday life.

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