Monday
As it is the school holidays, my son is staying at my sister's for the week, which means I get to work longer hours. My brain seems to function better early in the day, so the alarm clock goes off at 5am.
I have a morning ritual, so while the kettle is boiling, I check my BlackBerry for any important messages and scan through my daily FT bulletins.
I believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I sit down and eat my toast while watching the BBC News.
Wow – the Olympic closing ceremony was amazing wasn't it? At the station I pick up a Daily Mail and I devour more pictures of the closing ceremony throughout the journey into London.
First job once in the office is to clear my inbox. I receive an awful lot of retail emails, which I like to dip into – not just to satisfy my addiction to shopping – but it is always good to keep up on who is doing what and how creative and technically advanced retailers continue to be.
My Mondays tend to be one to one meetings with my direct reports, but it is holiday time so my diary is scarily empty today – a very unusual occurrence. Aside from a new business meeting and a working lunch with Nicola Blair Park, our account director for the North, it's a great day to catch up on things. I have a lot to cram in this week.
Tuesday
This morning my routine is slightly disrupted as I have to pack an overnight bag. I am due in the office for a 9am meeting before heading to our Leeds office. I make sure I do a monthly trip.
I generally see two of our day-to-day clients at Asda in one-to-ones, and then hot-desk from the Leeds office.
This week, Mike Welsh, CEO for Publicis Chemistry is also paying a visit, so it's a team night out too. Lots of talk about the Olympics and, strangely, a lot around food.
Two-and-a-half hours on the train to Leeds allows me to concentrate on some of the more complicated projects. This week, it's a presentation for one of my colleagues, Patrick Hanson-Lowe, CMO for Publicis UK, for our platform at the Customer Media Conference in Amsterdam this September.
Wednesday
Feeling slightly worse for wear this morning. As always with our Asda media centre team in Leeds, it was a full-on session last night. I manage a quick 9am meeting with Julie Goodair, group account director for the Asda account and then it is back to London for an all-afternoon meeting.
I finish the main part of the presentation for Patrick and even manage to catch up on two of my favourite media, Grazia and Look, which are – quite frankly – a weekly addiction. My other weekly addiction is Stylist, but I missed that today, due to coming back from Leeds as opposed to visiting my usual pick-up point outside Baker Street station.
Back in London and I am straight into a meeting. After discussing important gossip, we go through a few projects and some plans for 2012. I finish the day going through some client requests, fielding calls and answering emails.
Thursday
A seemingly straightforward diary today. I always try to plan the last couple of days pre-holidays with "me-time" just to be able to clear my desk.
I manage to get in a bit earlier because I want to update my iPad and iTouch. As it's holiday time next week, I need a new instalment of films ('We Bought a Zoo' and 'The Dolphin's Tale') and some apps – that's my son sorted out.
For me, I need to put some more music onto my i-Touch, as earlier in the year I signed up to the annual Publicis Blueprint Royal Parks Half Marathon in aid of Save The Children and the beat of the music definitely helps my pace. And yes. I have every intention of running every day on holiday. The last thing I want to do is sound like I am an avid sports person – trust me, I am not.
Thursday lunchtimes involve a regular date for me. I host a Blueprint colleagues lunch each week at one of the local eateries. Today I have the pleasure of two of our Asda team – Katerina, senior designer on Asda Magazine and Sabina, campaign manager for the Asda Media Centre digital team. I have at least one of these lunches a week up until Christmas, by which time I will have had this quality time with the whole of the Blueprint team.
Friday
Needless to say, I definitely have that Friday feeling as I'm going on holiday today. I head into the office to check emails and make sure everything is covered while I'm away. I leave the glamorous world of content marketing for a week to be just a mummy to Ben.
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