Hi everyone, I’m Vivian, the Digital Marketing Coordinator here at WMDM. We are officially in our FIFTH week of quarantine amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and to be honest with you, I think I’ve begun to really nail down this whole “working from home” thing. After working remotely for 5 weeks, I’ve managed to carve out some sort of a routine—and sense of normalcy—as I go about my day. Every Wednesday we post a new Wingman blog, so this week, I thought I’d bring you along and walk you through my day working (remotely) at WMDM!
9:00 AM – Starting the Day
Every morning, after getting washed up and dressed for the day, I head downstairs to prepare my quarantine breakfast. Today, I had bacon, eggs, a raisin bun, and a hot cup of tea.
I then move to my home “office”, where I get settled in with my laptop, headphones, notebook, and water bottle. Firstly, I check my email inbox and Slack for any updates from the team or our clients. I open my gorgeous 2020 planner (thanks David!) and write out a To-Do list for the day. This is something I do every morning, to keep me focused and on-track with my duties.
Then, I get ready for our daily Wingman team meeting at 10:00 AM. I prepare notes that detail:
- The work I accomplished yesterday
- The tasks I have today
- Any deadlines or deliverables I need to communicate to the team
I find that the To-Do list and meeting notes help me ease into a “time to work” mentality for the day, as well as organize my thoughts so I’m not babbling in the meeting.
10:00 AM – 11:00AM – Daily Status Meeting
It’s time for the Wingman daily status meeting! I log onto Zoom, the software we use for our quarantine virtual meeting. Zoom was a new platform I had to get adjusted to when this all first started—but I’ve really been loving it. I think the screen sharing feature is FANTASTIC for showing websites or any other digital projects we’re working on with each other.
While I’m waiting for the rest of the team to join, I choose my background for the day. As an attempt to spice up these remote meetings, I change my Zoom virtual background every day to keep things interesting (definitely not to hide any mess in the background…*cough*). You can find some funny Zoom backgrounds to use for your next meeting here.
Check out the background I went with today:
Any chance I get to insert myself into The Office, my favourite TV show, I’m going to take it. Are you an Office fan too? You can download my background here.
Today our meeting went for a full hour. Kevin, David and I all took turns presenting our updates and what we were working on for our clients. David had to take off to attend another meeting, but not before we briefly caught up on TV shows we’re currently watching. It’s important to set aside 5 minutes to chat about non work-related topics too – as both a sanity check and just being, well, human.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Time-Sensitive Work
Alright, now it’s down to business. I usually spend my mornings focusing on what I deem to be “time-sensitive” work. This usually refers to any blogs or social media posts that need to be published, for either WMDM or our clients. Every month I prepare a content calendar for each client, that provides an overview of all social media content going out that month, on what day and what platform.
Social media posts typically perform better in the morning, so I try to publish all blogs and social posts prior to noon. Using Hootsuite to pre-schedule posts is always an option, but I prefer to publish posts natively within their respective platforms. This is because the formatting of posts varies slightly from platform to platform. Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram posts use hashtags, but Facebook doesn’t. Twitter has a 250-character limit, so I need to re-word the post to accommodate for that. Instagram photo dimensions differ from Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, so photos need to be re-sized accordingly. Instagram links have to be placed in the Bio, not within the post itself.
Today, I published Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts for our client Access eHealth.
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM – It’s Getting Hot (Pot) In Here
Ah, my favourite time of day has arrived–it’s time to shut the laptop and acknowledge my rumbling stomach. For quarantine lunch today, I turned last night’s Hot Pot leftovers into a noodle soup with dipping sauce. Yum!
1:00 PM – 4:30 PM (with 15-minute breaks in between!)
After lunch, the rest of my day is focused on less “time-sensitive” work that is ongoing. This includes working on clients’ social media calendars for the upcoming month, writing blogs, curating photos, making graphics, and writing social media copy. Content creation eats up a good chunk of time because it requires great attention to detail and adherence to the clients’ personas, business objectives, and brand tone and voice. I can’t just write whatever I want—I have to tailor it to what the client wants. This work will be sent to clients near the end of the month for review and approval—so it must be my best work.
Today, I worked on the May content calendar for our client Jillian Irene Lee & Associates.
Remember to take breaks throughout the day! I spent mine playing with my dog, Beanie:
4:30 PM – Finish for the Day
The day comes to a close at 4:30 PM. After taking one last look at my quarantine To-Do list, Slack, and emails, it’s time to put away my laptop and relax for the evening.
There it is, folks – that was a typical quarantine day in the WFH (how many times have we all used this acronym already?!) life of Vivian. What does your WFH routine look like? Have any tips for me to improve my productivity during these times? Let me know your tips and tricks!
If you’re currently running a small business or finally tackling that “passion project” you’ve always wanted to try but didn’t have the time for, let WMDM help you get the word out there. Check out our marketing services and Book a Wingman if you’re interested. We’re all stuck indoors, so let’s help each other out wherever we can. 😊