Sophie Rowe from Splendid Communications, describes how she achieves a perfect work-life balance in just one day

My day
7.00am: I wake up to digital sounds of birds tweeting. I’m a morning person so there’s no need to “snooze“. I’m up right away and ready to start the day.

8.00am: The sun is out so I decide to cycle to work. I put my helmet on and set off along Roman Road, through Bethnal Green and arrive at Splendid Communication’s office in Shoreditch.

8:30am: After I’ve taken a minute to recover, I get breakfast and a coffee from the kitchen. Depending how much effort I put into my ride I might cool down with a glass of water over ice.

9.00am: We start everyday with the morning news conference. Everyone sits down to read through the papers and catch up over some showbiz news. While this is happening, a member of the digital team circulates a summary of what’s trending on social. We then use this real world insight to inspire any reactive content for our clients.

9:30am: I use this time to check in on my emails and digest all the work that’s currently in action.

10:30am: I catch up with each team in person to get their updates. We’re a vocal agency so it’s good to talk. As project manager, it’s essential for me to work with all the teams at Splendid, from PR and digital to creative and events, and make sure the work we’re creating is fully integrated from start to finish.

11.00am: Meeting with a supplier to run through the contract and agree next steps for a summer brief.

12.00 noon: Intern interview. I started at Splendid as an intern and helped to develop the Splendid Futures programme, which aims to give new talent a taste of agency life. It’s so rewarding seeing someone you’ve trained go from intern to full-time employee.

12:30pm: We’ve been given a new brief so I set aside some time to plan, allocating responsibilities and booking in key collaboration time and sign-offs, to ensure we follow the Splendid creative process.

1.00pm: There’s so much choice in Shoreditch so I spend the first 15 minutes of my lunch break chatting about what I’m going to eat with my desk buddies, Lucinda and Chrissy.

2.00pm: Believe it or not, as project manager my time isn’t filled with to-do lists. Now I’ve got a creative review for an upcoming campaign. My role is to apply a “client head” to the work we’re producing, ensuring we’re really answering the brief and not just getting carried away with ideas we love, but that might not fit the strategy.

3:30pm: I use my afternoon to check that things are running to schedule, send emails and update documents.

5.00pm: Today hasn’t been full of meetings so I’m hoping to leave on time: Splendid encourages a good work-life balance so we always try to get out at a good time when possible. I cross off my to-do list and send any final emails. I also fill in my timesheets and check to see what I have on tomorrow.

5:30pm: Tonight my flat mate and I are heading to a basketball game at the Olympic park. It’s not far from our flat and Groupon was offering cheap tickets so we thought, “why not?” We’ll be cheering on the London Lions (whoever they are)

8.00pm: Dinner. Tonight we decide on Cow, a three-storey gastro pub just outside of Westfield, Stratford. It shows rugby games and does a great steak. Winner!

9:30pm: Arrive home, get into my PJs, take off my make up and watch some trashy TV. There’s no better feeling.

11.00pm: I take another look at my emails and scroll through photos on Facebook until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

'A Day in the life' of Sophie Rowe from Splendid Communications