My family accuses me of always being on the computer. Well, I am on the computer a lot, that is my work. I write, I tweet, I Facebook, I host and participate in tweet chats, and I do a radio show. Plus, I write a comic strip and other assorted things like fully redesigning BruceSallan.com right now. I imagine if I went to an outside office vs. work at home, their impression might be a bit different.
So, for the fun of it, for them and for those of you wondering what a busy day looks like in the life of someone active in social media and traditional media, for that matter, let’s take a look at Thursday’s timeline!
6:00 a.m. – I wake up and begin my weekday social media ritual. First, I check e-mails that arrived since I shut down my computer the night before. That will usually be between 50-75, of which half are spam. The others require some attention and often are requests from PR firms and other so-called business related communiqués.
I then do my Twitter/Hootsuite/Triberr daily ritual. That means looking at all received tweets, DMs, and checking the Triberr stream. I literally schedule dozens of tweets as I average 50+ tweets per day. Again, I pay special attention to any that are directly business oriented.
With Triberr, it’s a ritual of reviewing upwards of 50-75 new blogs every day and deciding which I’ll tweet, which I’ll read and comment on, and which I’ll simply delete. I like to comment often, but it’s certainly a time consuming activity.
As Thursday is my radio show and #DadChat day, I review my notes for my radio show and send out additional tweets about #DadChat. I post the first update on my Facebook page.
7:15 a.m. – I take my younger son to school: twenty minute drive. Then to the nearby Starbucks where I continue my social media routine, write a little bit on one or more columns and check a bit of news.
8:30 a.m. – Head up to Santa Barbara, where I broadcast my radio show “live” from the KZSB AM1290 studios. On the drive, I call a friend who requested some counsel on “working” Triberr, the blog sharing site mentioned above.
I stop at my favorite little café in Ventura, where I schmooze with Andre, the owner, while Brittney prepares my usual breakfast, a bagel with lox, cream cheese and a large coffee.
8:45 a.m. – I continue my drive to Santa Barbara, and on arriving at the station, I set up my laptop, hook up the ethernet cable, and open my Word Doc of notes for today’s show. As I heard something on the radio that I thought was cool, I add that to the notes.
I check for new e-mails and tweets and respond. Then, I go to the station manager’s office where we do our weekly ritual of catching up. He’s on a drastic diet so my first question is how much weight he’s lost in the past week. He brings me up-to-date on station business and I then head back to the broadcast booth to further prepare for my show.
Richard, my producer/engineer is working another show, but during commercials he reviews some of my music choices for my show and the commercials we will be airing, as we needed to make some changes.
I microwave my coffee, continue to check e-mail and such, and begin the “live” broadcast at 11:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – I do my show. I love it. I have regular guests that call in and it’s a hectic, but quite fun hour. Between segments, I update my notes, make changes as needed, and also check tweets and e-mail.
12:00 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. – Richard and I record a couple of new commercials for my show, which I’d written during commercial breaks. We review the show schedule for the last two weeks of December, as I will be gone. One of the shows was a prerecord with Dabney Porte and Britt Michaelian. There was a slight gaff in the first segment that we fixed. Otherwise, it’s really good – a special on online safety. The other show is a repeat of my Christmas music special and I record a new opening, expressing that this is a repeat show.
12:45 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. – I head to my favorite local Chinese restaurant and order the mu-shu lunch special. I work on my phone since there’s no wi-fi there. They bring my food fast and I’m out of there.
1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. – On the drive home, I listen to a cd of my just broadcasted radio show. I listen for mistakes that I want to avoid in the future. I listen to learn and improve.
2:15 p.m. – I stop at CostCo to pick up a prescription.
2:35 p.m. – I pick up my son from school. He wants an iced coffee from McDonalds so we stop for that and then head to Trader Joe’s, and get a couple of things my wife wanted to prepare dinner.
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Back in my home office, I do the same sort of social media routine earlier described, catching up on more tweets, e-mails, and post my second update of the day on the “A Dad’s Point-of-View” Facebook Page. I post twice a day M-F, and once a day on the weekends.
4:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. – I walk both dogs and then go for a run/walk around our nearby lake – four miles.
6:00 p.m. – 7:05 p.m. – I host #DadChat “live.” During the hour I will read several hundred tweets and tweet up to 200 tweets myself. It’s intense, fun, and exhausting.
7:05 p.m. – My wife shouts “Dinner,” and I head downstairs and eat with the family. We talk, we argue, we laugh. Typical. I help clean up.
7:20 p.m. – Yeah, our weeknight dinners are eaten quickly. I head back to my office and respond to any post #DadChat tweets and reply to any tweets I missed that needed a reply. As we had a giveaway and I’d requested the addresses of the two winners, I wrote an e-mail to the night’s sponsor with their addresses so they’d send the giveaway directly.
8:00 p.m. – I look around the office, pick up some bills, choose to pay some and ignore others. Got to pack for tomorrow’s trip to Boston: a red-eye flight.
9:00 p.m. – 9:15 p.m. – Pack. Shower. Dress.
9:15 p.m – 9:25 p.m. – Play with the dogs, lay on the bed and take a couple of deep breaths, and shout to my son to be sure he’s ready to leave.
9:25 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. – Check for what I’ve forgotten ‘cause I always forget something. Printed plane tickets. Check. Printed hotel info. Check. Filled up wallet and briefcase with cards and reading material. Check. Kiss wife goodbye. Check.
10:15 p.m. – At the airport, it’s surprisingly smooth, though we learn our 11:37 p.m. flight is delayed. We get through security, I plop down in the waiting area and check my phone. Close my eyes. Seems like my first break in 16 hours.
11:50 p.m. – Board plane. It leaves shortly after midnight. We arrive in Boston around 8:00 a.m. Friday.
Want to trade lives?
