It is a random day in Germany. A random day in my life. Well, maybe not random random. I don’t business travel very often but then often enough that it is a day I want to log down. I believe life happens in those moments that pile up during the day. Those are what we call living. Of course our brains are wired so we most likely remember the heartaches and hardships. Even more important to capture smaller things. Happy moments. Nuggets of celebration. I am and sure they are hidden in the profane looking days. So today I share the every day life on random day in 2022.
Today is Wednesday November 9th and I am on a business trip in Hamburg where my client HHLA is located. I’ve started working for them right at the beginning of the pandemic (July 2020) and have been at the headquarters when restrictions allowed. Since 2022 I am here more regularly around once a month.
6:30 am – waking up after a somewhat rougher night with being awake almost hourly. Trying to snooze off because the alarm clock is set for 7:45am today.
6:50 am – giving up on sleeping and taking my phone to scroll Instagram – a luxury I only do when traveling as I usually don’t sleep with my phone in my bedroom – a habit I started back 2019 I believe.
7:30 am – getting up and making myself a coffee, painting my nails as they are very chipped (and I am on a business trip after all) and then opening my lap top to do some blog writing and reading. Because I know tonight I’ll be exhausted.
8.10 am – taking a shower, getting ready, packing my bags as I leave for home after three days in Hamburg.
8.32 am – a few more minutes time ans so I read another blogpost and comment
8.45 am – checking out and meeting my colleague from Italy who happens to stay in the same hotel as I in the lobby and then we head over to the office
9.00 am – Arriving at the office and getting settled. Starting up the laptop saying hello the team and getting coffee.
Side note: I am working as a freelance contractor at an European logistics company with several port terminals (Hamburg, Trieste, Tallinn and Odessa) that also operates a cargo train company, drone systems and real estate as well as various number of business. I am working in the Social Media Team and create a majority of content you see on Instagram and LinkedIn. I’ve recently shared a video about me at work.
9.10 am – our daily meeting starts. It’s a hybrid thing with half the team on location and half via teams from home office or from business trips. Today it’s been almost the entire team. Here we usually check in on urgent daily tasks, check if someone needs help and if everything is on track.
9.30 am – half an hour before the next meeting. I try to get some things done but I wasn’t really productive. So many people so we talk about things and check in quickly about stuff. Things that only happen when being physically in the office. I started an email though…
10.00 am – the social media team meets for the weekly editorial meeting. Today we were all in the office. A rare occasion. We talked about some Christmas content we have started creating, also about some recruiting things and the status of our latest content production days (mainly my tasks). We also discussed about using more user generated content and a new project that is just started that we can follow on social media for the next year. While we talked about all that we also ate a lot of candy one of the team members brought back from NYC and we tried all sorts and discussed and voted on.
11.00 am – next meeting but our Italian colleague was running late. So I approved some content our student prepared and tried to work on that email again.
11.30 am – meeting with Italian colleague to outline our cooperation, what kind of content and projects we communicate and what’s ahead. It was good in terms of understanding each others pain points more but didn’t exactly create anything or made decisions.
12.20 pm – I am starving suddenly and so I push the group to have lunch immediately. It’s the whole Social Media team plus our Italian guest. I can not remember the last time I had lunch with 5 people. We went to a place called beets & roots that provided options for every one – vegan, lactose intolerant, starving for veggies or for carbs. Everyone was happy. After lunch we decided our Italian guest needs to get a “Franzbrötchen” a Hamburg specialty. A sweet danish kind of thing with cinnamon. Very different from a cinnamon roll though. Unfortunately I dont’ have a picture.
1.30 pm – back in the office. Another 30 minutes to get some work done. Worked on that email again, downloaded videos to forward to approval but systems were slow. Also again discussing things in between.
2 pm – deep dive TikTok. The social media team met for a workshop where we looked more closely into TikTok. Stats, best practices, bench mark of logistics companies, recruiting and employer branding. We watched a lot of videos, discussed, analyzed, strategized and shared experiences. Very good brainstorming and discussion. The plan was not to make a decision but keep on top of Social media channels available. We all will sit with our thoughts for a week and see then how to continue.
5.45 pm – wrapping up the meeting and heading back downstairs to the media hub – our office. I also need to get ready to catch my train back home.
5.50 pm – making myself some tea to take a long, hit the bathroom and quickly stop by at my boss to at least say good bye. He mentioned that my contract will be extended until end of March and also that a person he and my dad knew had passed yesterday. Weird atmosphere to leave the office…
6 pm – leaving the office to walk to the train station. I am getting better with not needing to be at the station an hour prior to departing. It is a bit of a struggle and I am often anxious. But I make it on time With 15 minutes to spare.
6.35 pm – boarding the train that is on time. Yeah. But missing half the wagons so its getting crowded. Luckily people around me wearing mask. I take out the laptop and start typing up this post until this exact paragraph. After that I try to read blog posts but the wifi is horrible and I am feeling a bit nauseous. Keep trying but I end up just sitting and staring and closing my eyes and retrying. So not too productive but what I needed.
8.29 pm – arrival in Berlin. With 9 minutes delay. The best husband picks me up from the station so I don’t have to ride public transport for another 45 minutes. This way we get to talk, share our previous days and just spend some time.
9.00 pm – finally home again. parking the car, getting the mail
9.10 pm – I throw my rucksack and laptop bag in my office, wash my hands and am in my pjs within minutes. Then I unpack quickly. We discuss food options and end up with cereal (the husband) and I make myself a fruit salad.
10.00 pm – we sit down on the couch and have dinner while watching an episode of Brooklyn 99.
10.20 pm – I am tired and all socialized out and need some quite. I say I go to bed. But then “have to look” at some apartment listings that came in the last couple of days. I am a bit annoyed.
10.40 pm – finally in bed. hot water bottle with me. ready to read a bit.
10.53 pm – I give up. Too tired. So I turn of the lights and go to sleep within seconds.
And this was my every day life on a random day in 2022. Packed with meetings, out of the home office and finally back home. I am not always this busy but then other days look differently busy.
Now let me know one thing you find surprising in my day?
Happy Thursday
12 comments
This was so fun to read! I need to tell my husband about “Franzbrötchen” immediately — it sounds right up his alley.
Your job sounds really cool, too.
I would say everyone loving cinnamon will be loving Franzbrötchen. Make sure to google it to see a picture. And thank. My job is fun and demanding and all the things in between.
If this had been my day, I would probably have tried to get to bed immediately after lunch. LOL. So busy!
It was a busy day and a nap after lunch would have been nice.
I agree- your job sounds fun! Very collaborative and creative. I’m sure there are plenty of non-fun parts though (like all jobs.) I looked up Franzbrotchen and it looks amazing! There are lots of recipes online and I might try it someday. I’m sure it wouldn’t taste authentic, but it would be similar to the original and my family won’t know the difference.
Jenny recently posted…Last Christmas
That is true if you never had it is great no matter what.
And yes every job has its ups and downs but overall it’s fun
Oh Franzbrötchen. I had one when I visited my friend in Bremen a few years ago and I have a random craving for them ever since. I think I found a recipe for them that I have bookmarked. Should give them a try sometime.
Thanks for sharing your day with us. It’s so interesting to get a glimpse into people’s lives :) How often do you go to HH?
It’s a bit depending on what is going on. During the early pandemic days there have been times I wasn’t in the office for 10 months. Now I try to be there around every six weeks lately even every two.
If you make the franzbrötchen let me know. I’ve been pondering that too.
This was so fun to read! I love that you have to do Tik-Tok research for your job – that sounds like fun! It does sound like a very busy day, though. I’m glad your husband was able to pick you up so you didn’t have to do more public transport!
Stephany recently posted…Week in the Life: Sunday, November 13, 2022
It was a busy but fulfilling day. If I had this every day I wouldn’t like it but sprinkled in between is fun.
Oh, my gracious. I would have dropped down, dead tired, at about 3 pm. So many meetings! So many people! I admire your ability to go from one to the other to the next. I don’t think I could do what you do. (I have lots of meetings but… for some reason, this seems really overwhelming…)
I can not handle so many people on a daily basis. And those meeting days do take some time to recharge later on.But sprinkled in it’s also nice to be so busy and on the go. It’s all about balance. Mainly I am at home by myself and I love it.