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Andrew Szwajkowski, account director, creative, at consumer consultancy JCPR, discusses his day and why he will never have a paperless office

My Day:7.11am: I don’t think I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but I do have an aversion to setting my alarm on even numbers or those ending with ‘5’, so 7:11 it is. Shaun Keaveny on BBC 6Music wakes me from my slumber with a mix of playground humour, low (or no) brow chat and good music. I like mornings so I tend to wake at this time even at the weekends – my stomach also works as a back-up alarm clock letting me know it needs feeding. It sounds incredibly pretentious, awfully civilised and oh-so continental, but after showering and
getting changed I make a cappuccino with the strength to wake a comatosed rhino before relaxing in front of the TV with fruit and yoghurt to watch BBC Breakfast and get my mind kick-started (although my girlfriend is more GMTV and I’m worryingly warming toward Richard Arnold).

8.30am: Arrive in the office. Time to go through e-mails and the morning papers on the hunt for good ideas and inspiration. Le Cool, Urban Junkies, Flavorpill and Cool Hunting are good resources for this. Most of the accounts I’m working on at the moment are in development – or imminently about to announce things – so I’m always on the lookout for interesting and unusual ways to get them coverage. My desk is an absolute mess of pages torn from newspapers, printed articles from websites and miscellaneous bits and bobs that provide ‘inspiration’. The paperless office is not for me.

Noon: I leave the office to have a quick meeting about an imminent announcement for one of my clients. It’s all very top-secret stuff so even telling people where I’m going would cost me my job. So I’m not going to.

2.30pm: Meeting and venue recce complete, I return to the office. As well as eating healthily I’m also trying to economise so I bring packed lunches to work (when I remember). Today it’s cauliflower cheese so at least I ticked the ‘packed lunch’ box. Lunch is typically al desko but I try and encourage everyone to spend time out the office – ideas aren’t always free flowing when you sit staring at your monitor all day. I’ll read a few stories on The Onion and Guardian Unlimited and then I’ll do the G2 crossword – badly – before returning to work.

3.00pm: One of the clients I work on is PUMA and it’s our weekly conference call with the HQ in Boston today. This tends to be at 3pm once they’ve settled into the day. It’s a good call with some interesting stuff for us to plan for in the coming months and into 2010. Again, all very hush-hush – you never know who’s reading this – so I’ll have to remain tight-lipped on this one too. A few brainstorms to set up for me though. Today it’s all about back-to-back conference calls so it’s straight into another one until 6pm.

6.00pm: Finally get the chance to do my day-to-day job, but have only got half an hour to do it before I meet a friend to watch Arsenal at the Emirates tonight. Looks like an early start for me in the morning…

7.30pm: Chicken Balti pie and beans for me, a final check of the Blackberry for urgent e-mails before switching off and enjoying the game – for 45 mins at least.

8.30pm: Total Arsenal domination against Olympiacos who seem happy to get ten men behind the ball at all times. Still 0-0 and getting a bit nervous. A glass of red at half-time and another check of the Blackberry. Sadly this is not an uncommon sight at Arsenal these days. How the game has changed…

10.15pm: Back home on a high after a great 2-0 win. I sit down and watch the news before picking up a few of the supplements from the weekend. A few articles catch my eye so I e-mail myself some reminders for when I get back into the office tomorrow morning. I also tear a few more articles out too, stuff ‘em in my bag and do a final check of the Blackberry before heading to bed.

11.59pm: Alarm set for 7.11am and ready to get some sleep before it all starts again…
 

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