So I thought I would share a typical, early in the year, completely manic, not enough hours in the day, day in the life post.
7am - Alarm goes off. I promptly hit snooze.
7.10 - Alarm goes off for a second time and I remind myself that I really really really should get out of bed and go to my hospital appointment.
7.35am - Dressed (sort of) and with the animals all fed I head off for my first stop of the day, the JR hospital. I drop Brandy off at my parents and with a quick kiss goodbye I go on to sample the joys of Oxford rush hour in the rain.
8.30am - I eventually arrive at hospital and get a space, my appointment isn't till 9 but I have carefully worked out that if you get there before 8.45 you get a space, any later and you don't. So I shall hang around for a bit.
8.40-9.40 - I'm seen early which is great! Appointment lasts an hour, next appointment booked and I'm ready to head off to Abingdon to see my boss.
10.20 - I arrive in Abingdon, all I need to do is sort some stuff off at work and I can go to the Coop next door and get a nice yummy hot chocolate. I still haven't had any coffee though...
11.20ish - I'm out of work and head over to the next door Coop. I get a very healthy breakfast of some chicken, juice, hot chocolate, crisps and a pretzel. Yea so this diet isn't going well so far!
12.00 - I arrive home ready to spend the next three hours on Chestnut Ridge based items! But first I put the kettle on for that much needed coffee. Half my day is already gone and I feel like I haven't done much at all....
12.09-12.33 - PARCELS! It's everyone's favourite time of the day! I get all the orders placed yesterday and this morning packed up ready to head off to the post office. I engage in some suitable ranting with a friend over Facebook (because we all need some therapy and she clearly needs to vent) #multitasking
12.33 - 12.54 - Post Office time. Not many parcels today but a ridiculously long queue and people with complicated angry issues to deal with. Only takes a couple of minutes to actually do my parcels.
12.55 - 13.03 - Admin. With another coffee in hand I start getting some boring admin done. Mark all the order as dispatched, answer a few emails and organise a meeting for BETA. All in less than 10 minutes. GO SUPER ME!
13.09 - 13.16 - Now it's time to get some marketing and other stuff done. I start off with a bit of social media work, do a couple of posts on Facebook and Instagram and schedule one more for later.
13.23 - 13.32 - I start writing this Blog! I need to do yesterday's as well because it hasn't been done yet but I'll do that later.
13.32 - 13.34 - A quick bit of answering messages and organising dinner (that's relevant to work because today is National Spaghetti day), btw my weird idea of taking model horse photographs for every 'day' of the year is getting a little out of hand.
13.38 - 14.06 - One of the major things on my ToDo list is writing up results. I blitz out a good half an hour and get all of the ones from Dartmoor Live written up. Just Halloweenies and Lah Di Dah to go and I'll be up to date!
14.09 - 14.37 - After a quick coffee break I start work on January's email newsletter. This does take a bit of time to do but it is an important thing to do at the beginning of every month. It allows me to touch base with our customers and for many it might be the only information they get about new products and competitions, that they of course will want to know about!
14.37-14.55 - I have a bit of time before I need to leave for work (the school I'm teaching at on Thursdays is only 5 minutes down the road which is GREAT) so I quickly write up Halloweenies results, these are the bottom thing on my ToDo list (newest things are at the top) so glad to get those done!
14.55-15.00 - I do a quick check of stuff for work, make sure I've got everything I need (DBS check etc) and then head off to go and do some teaching!
15.00-16.55 - Gosh it's so nice not having a massive drive to and from work! I'm home in plenty of time to get lots of other stuff done which is wonderful :)
17.00 - 17.16 - I spend 15 minutes setting up a paid Facebook promotion for January. This is quite an important part of our advertising budget at the beginning of the year and does generate clicks and revenue, so worth doing. Apologies to those who get our adverts all the time and find them a bit annoying....
17.16 - 17.23 - I realise I never did a Daily Deal today (what's new there....) so I do one. The wisdom of Random.org has chosen August's magazine to reduce by 20% today.
17.23-17.51 - Right next on my ToDo list is a little Stablemate Cleveland Bay. He is nearly done just needs his points and details doing. He's currently drying ready for his final seal upstairs. Feels good to have him nearly done as he's been sat there for waaaay too long!
17.51-17.58 - Book keeping. It's really boring but if you don't do your admin everyday you are going to get yourself in a bit of a pickle!
17.58-18.04 - One of the other things I do every month is order a new promotional item to go in the parcels. This month we are going to try chocolates! Five minutes later and 100 personalised chocolates have been ordered and personalised. I went for plain milk instead of mint milk.
18.04-18.07 - I seal the little Cleveland Bay custom. I then make sure to shut the study door, TIGHT, so that Caesar doesn't go in and knock him over. He's asleep right now but I can't trust him. Also he can open the door which doesn't help.
18.07-19.02 - Dinner time! Celebrating National Spaghetti Day with some spag bol. Whilst it's cooking I use the opportunity to get some housework done and also put clear gloss onto the Cleveland Bay to finish him off.
19.05-20.05 - Now it's time to sort out Popular Votes Photoshows. As well as setting up the new show and announcing the champion from the last one I also enter it. I try to enter as soon as I do the show because that is the best way I have of monitoring if anyone is breaking the rules and liking photos before judging opens.
20.05-20.27 - I now spend some time updating the website, mainly product descriptions and images. Such as this in the box image of Zena
20.27-20.39 - I'm still catching up on random things but I don't want to leave my comfy warm spot on the sofa so it's all online based for now! First up is the model of the day. As well as doing the Facebook and Blog post I also answer a customer query and deal with that half way through.
20.39-20.50 - I didn't do a Blog post yesterday (or maybe I did I don't remember) so I get an extra one done today. I'm supposed to do one a day, but I'm not very good at keeping on top of these things when I've done a 10 hour shift at the yard. In the rain. And the wind.
20.50-21.08 - Time for some hot chocolate and to do a bit more Instagram and Facebook stuffs. Including the 30 Day Photo Challenge, one of the ones I did for today was the beautiful Leandro
I also do a bit of website admin...
21.08-21.37 - I need something I can do whilst watching Death in Paradise so I update all the Schleich listings on the website and do a Blog post with the new Schleich web specials
21.37-21.42 - I do a bit of admin including responding to eBay offers (yea I know I shouldn't be working so late but my hospital appointment this morning means that I haven't go enough work done today)!
21.42-22.00 - I finish up my work day with a bit more admin, answer a few emails and catch up on some of the accounts and spreadsheets. Pretty boring stuff really.
Now it's time for bed. Brendon is staying up to watch Hunted so I shall give Beor his medication and go to sleep, I'll leave the rest of the animals for him to do!
