Summer has officially started, so it has to be sushi for lunch for Alfred co-founder Gemma Pears

My day

5.45am: The first of my alarms go off. I have to set three, just to be on the safe side, and ensure I’m definitely out of bed by 6.00am. Shower and a quick run down of the news on my phone, before getting my little boy out of bed and up and dressed for the day.

7.00am: Breakfast and a mad half hour trying to leave the house (convincing a spirited one-year-old he really does need to put clothes on before shoes!), before jumping in the car for the nursery drop.

7.50am: Just make the train to Farringdon as it’s running a few minutes late, get a seat and catch up on emails.

8.45am: After a nice stroll from the station to our office in Shoreditch, I arrive and run through my to-do list for the day and week ahead. Reply to a further flurry of early morning emails before sitting down with the team for papers and a round-up of the days news and biggest stories … over tea and more breakfast of course.

9.30am: It’s a final team run through for this afternoon’s new business pitch. We’re all very excited about the ideas and the pitch team present back to the rest of the agency for final thoughts, builds and amends. It gets a great response and we make a few finishing touches before it goes to print.

10.45am: We’re fast approaching the PR awards season, so today we’re running through the team’s submissions, some final amends and time to submit. It’s really exciting to see everything laid out, showcasing what we’ve been up too in the last 12 months, and indeed in the two years since Alfred began.

11.30am: A quick dash across the road to Hoxton Grill for a meeting with an old acquaintance who has an interesting business proposition he wants to run by Dan (Alfred co-founder) and me. Even if this one isn’t quite right, it’s always exciting to be talking about long term plans for the agency and exploring the many options available.

12.30pm: Back to the office via Itsu, where I predictably bump into most of the team. We spend much of the morning debating what we fancy for lunch, before largely settling on the same thing. You just can’t beat sushi, especially when the sun is shining as hot as it is today.

1.00pm: This week we’re celebrating the agency’s milestone second birthday, so on to some final planning for team celebrations later in the week.

2.00pm: I have a call with Silverstone about some exciting activity we’re working on for one of our clients. The partnership has been a long time in the making and we’re just nailing the last detail, so it’s great to see it all come together.

3.00pm: And we’re off to the pitch. It’s a bit of an awkward route so we take an Uber and spend the next 20 minutes talking about our favourite ideas and how much we want to win!

3.30pm: Pitch time! It goes well, lots of debate and enthusiasm on the prospective clients’ behalf and they announce they outright LOVE two of the ideas, which gives us a good feeling. We’re up against three other agencies so although we leave with a definite spring in our step from the great energy and feedback, we descend out of the building nervously crossing our fingers and wishing away the next few days until we find out the result.

5.15pm: Decide to walk back to St Pancras to catch the train and have a call with an edit team we’ve been working with. I feedback some amends on a piece of content we’ve created for a client launch. It was two days in production and shooting last week, and it’s our first project for an amazing new business win, so happy the amends are minimal and the client is very pleased with the result.

6.30pm: Back home to a fun hour with my little boy, consisting of running around the garden, taking turns going down the slide (101 times!), and being shown lots of pictures he’s very proud of painting today. Then it’s bath, story and bedtime for him.

8.00pm: Since summer is officially here, sit down to a BBQ dinner in the garden thanks to my husband. Afterwards I log back on and check final emails for the day. I also make tweaks to tomorrow’s client presentation on a launch for the lead up to Christmas – googling pictures of snow and Santa when it’s a balmy June evening is very odd.

9.30pm: Manage an episode of my newest TV obsession, Scandal, before setting my three alarms again, and getting to bed before 11pm.

Written by Gemma Pears, co-founder of Shoreditch-based PR consultancy Alfred