Adam Bowdery joined The Fifth agency as a talent manager in January this year. Now the team is working from home, he tells us how his routine has changed and what his working day looks like in this lockdown edition of A Day in the Life column.
7:30am: It’s time to get up and get the brain active. If I was heading into the office I’d usually wake up around 6am, so this feels like a lay-in. I mentally prepare for my day by looking at my schedule and understanding my key priorities. I also respond to messages or WhatsApps that I may have missed while asleep. After this, I make my attempt to avoid the traffic on the stairs, weaving between the dog and cats before drinking a pint of water, putting on my running gear and heading straight out for a light jog.8-9am: I’m back from my run feeling energised and ready to attack my day. I get my breakfast, which usually consists of granola with mixed dried fruits. I also use this time to have a look through websites and check in on our talent’s content too. Last week one of our talent went viral and got played on The One Show so sometimes it’s crazy to see how things progress overnight. 9-9:30am: A working from home day for me really kicks off when we jump on our daily team call. As a two-part business, we feel it’s key to involve everyone in the morning call regardless if we are working directly on the same projects or not. This is a great time for members of the team to share highlights from the previous day and collate a roundup of individual daily agendas and identify how we are going to approach these as a team.9:30-9:45am: Next up is our talent team call. All talent managers come together to discuss what they are working on for the day. This includes flagging upcoming content our talent may have, sharing key wins from the previous day, identifying trends or updates on the pandemic and lastly, a roundup of objectives for the day ahead. 9:45am-12:30pm: Internal calls complete, it’s time to get stuck into my emails. The majority of conversations will be with brands, networks and key contacts, talking about upcoming brand deals, press or interview opportunities and then communicating these with our talent.12:30-1pm: Lunch! A normal day’s lunch is very different from lunch at home. I’d usually prepare my meals for the week or pop out for a bite to eat with the team but today it’s a quick grab from the fridge and back to my desk. One of our talent, Hamzah Sheeraz, a professional boxer, has an interview with talkSPORT, so it’s time to tune in and make sure all goes okay. 1-4pm: I find this a key time within the day. 1pm is like a mental checkpoint for me. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how the start of the day has gone. I also use this time frame to explore new opportunities for our talent. I would usually make the majority of my calls during this period and start working on some new pitch material for our talent too. I talk to most of my creators throughout the day, so I’ll usually be checking in on their progress with campaigns as well. 4-6pm: Towards the end of the working day, I would have collated a new list of to-dos. Once this is complete, it’s time to catch up on emails and finalise anything that needs to be dealt with.6-7pm: Time to eat and recharge the brain. I usually wouldn’t have left the office just yet or I would be heading to the gym but I guess the luxury of working from home is eating at reasonable times. I use this time to also watch YouTube, mainly lifestyle or golf vloggers.7-9pm: My evening consists of more YouTube and keeping a close eye on our talent’s content that will be going live. For example, this evening Asma Elbadawi, our spoken word poet, activist and basketball player, has a collaboration with The Telegraph going live on socials. I’ll also read for an hour. I’m currently reading – ‘The Rules of Thinking’ by Richard Templar – I would recommend!9-10:30pm: A new pre-sleep habit of mine is definitely scrolling through TikTok. A lot of our creators are rapidly growing on this platform and creating incredible content, so it’s important to keep up to date and check out relevant content types. 10:30pm: It’s time to sleep. I set my alarms and fall asleep to some variation of meditation. Depending on how tired I am, I listen to guided meditation, do affirmation work for positive thinking (which is great to have on through the night as it will train your subconscious mind while you’re sleeping) or play calming music. All of the above help me sleep well and 99% of the time, all the way through.We would love to know has your day changed since working from home. Tell us in the comments below.