Start the day greeting the sun
I try (but don’t always succeed) to practice a few minutes of yoga as soon as I wake up, to get the day off to the best possible start. That moment of peace to put aside the mental to-do list is essential for me. I’m not particularly good at it (yoga), but that’s another thing that frequent and consistent practice has taught me, that it doesn’t matter at all; what matters are the feeling, the experience and the dedication.
After yoga, I check my Bullet Journal for a moment and go out with my dog, Taco, for a long walk (45-60 minutes), preferably in a green area. During the walk, I try not to be on my phone or listening to anything – I like to be present and connected to my surroundings.
When I get back, I make a big cup of matcha tea and a thermos of coffee while listening to a podcast(I highly recommend The Guardian – they make the commute to the office on public transportfly by). If I’m working from home, I try to work standing up for a few hours a day, as I have a height-adjustable desk.
The key tools for work/life balance
For me, the fundamental tools I use to organise, focus and enjoy my day are:
- Bullet Journal: I love the ‘BuJo’ method. I read the book by its creator, Ryder Carroll, and although I don’t share 100% of the ideas and methodology, it does help me to organise my ideas, tasks (both work and personal) and projects.
- A good pen: I’m a pen person (the KawecoSport one, to be precise) and I love the feeling of writing, although I confess I like the feeling of crossing one thing off the list of to dos even more. The Apple Pen has also been a real discovery for me, it’s really 100 pens, pencils, brushes and highlighters in one.
- A tablet: my iPad has become an indispensable tool. It is my personal PC, my work and master’s notebook (I am finishing an MBA now), where I read and highlight reports, my television…
- Teams: if used in moderation, it can really help you to have a more dynamic conversation with your team than by email, for example. In addition, video calls are a must to bridge physical distances.
- Music: to focus, I almost always put on some music. It almost doesn’t matter the genre, but something to disconnect me from the noise around me, although it’s true that some lively music is good when you’re already feeling a little low on fuel.
My best moment of the day
I’m more of a morning person, and I love my mornings, but… I love the end of the workday when it’s time to get back out the door again with Taco for our evening walk. Seeing the people on the terraces, the kids going to football, the people and their lives.
Tips for getting organised at work
These are some of the tips that I have acquired over these almost 12 years working at Telefónica and in different areas:
- Keep up to date with your diary, not only for today but also for the following weeks . Keeping your diary in order is essential (time is money) and changing meetings in advance – if necessary – saves a lot of time and stress for everyone.
- Write down at the end of the day all the tasks for the next day and review and prioritise them first thing the next day, so you make sure you don’t forget anything at the end of the day and before the day starts you already have clear priorities for the day.
- If I have nowhere to jot down an idea, a conversation, or a task, I usually pick up my mobile phone and send an email to myself.
- Save the documents that we are going to work on more than one in OneDrive. The era of sharing documents and versions by mail is over, and thank goodness! There is no need to reach version 24 of a document or lose anyone’s changes.
- Always make sure that the team knows what the priorities are for the week, so that you can help each other organise the issues together.
