One of my favorite things about Instagram is Instagram stories because I love seeing what my favorite bloggers and influencers are up to on a day to day basis, specially on the weekdays.
I’m not a typical fashion blogger in the sense that I am working full-time, and often times, that means I don’t have the freedom to blog or post as much as I would like. I have seen so many other fashion bloggers starting out who are like me; we all struggle with how to find the time to blog and create content when we also have a job. This is a longer post, but I hope this gives y’all an insight into my life and maybe gives some ideas for new bloggers starting out on how to balance working full-time with blogging.
7:45AM
I have my alarm set for 7:15AM, but I realistically wake up each morning at 7:45AM. I have never been a morning person (and I’m not sure I’ll ever get to the point where I do become a morning person), which is why my alarm is always half an hour before the time I actually need to get up.
When I do get up, it takes me around 10 minutes to brush my teeth and wash my face with my Clarisonic (my favorite brush head is the deep-pore cleansing brush head). It then takes me around another 15 minutes to do my makeup and hair, and another 15 minutes to get dressed and be ready to actually leave the house.
10 out of 10 of my pictures taken during the weekday are taken in the morning in between the walk from my apartment to the Subway. I like to give myself an extra buffer of 10 minutes in order to take pictures. Because my boyfriend is the one taking pictures for me, we have gotten into a good routine of taking, no lies, around 100 pictures in 10 minutes. We have a quick and snappy process of me doing different poses as he is holding down that button at different angles.
9:30AM
I get into work at 9AM, and usually, I’ll grab my breakfast and morning coffee at around 9:30AM. Due to the nature of my job, I have only a 9:30AM to 10AM window to eat breakfast (and consume enough coffee to get me going). My typical breakfast will consist of some turkey sausages or turkey bacon and eggs (scrambled or over medium). Occasional, I’ll get myself from french toast for breakfast because my favorite breakfast food by far is french toast.
When I’m eating my breakfast, I will be sorting through the pictures from the morning and editing the ones I like.
The way I organize my pictures is I will always use the favorite/love button on my iPhone to find the ones I like, and only edit the pictures that I like in order to determine if they are worthy of being posted. My favorite apps to use for editing my pictures are Pic-Tap-Go, Darkroom, Snapseed, and Facetune. I will also use Planoly to visualize how my new pictures compare to the rest of my Instagram feed and plan out my captions.
1:00PM
For some reason, everyone I work with love to have lunchtime meetings (aka meetings that start at 12PM).
My lunchtime consists of a kombucha (because the coffee bar in my work building started selling it), a soup, and a daily special from my building’s cafeteria.
When I do grab lunch at 1PM, I’ll spend some time going through Instagram hashtags to like and comment on pictures that give me inspiration for new fashion or beauty looks. If the picture I am posting is not going in a blog, then I will typically use my lunchtime to post my look on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and ShopStyle.
I also use my lunchtime to go through all of the Insta-stories from the bloggers and influencers I follow. My favorite blogger whose Instagram stories I immediately gravitate towards is Arielle Charnas (SomethingNavy).
6:00PM
On a good day, I’ll leave work at 6PM and head over to SoulCycle at East 83rd Street in Manhattan.
Typically, I will take 2 to 3 classes each week, depending on what my workload looks like and if I have prior commitments. My favorite Monday classes are with Olivia, Tuesday and Thursday classes with Emma and Jaidus, Wednesday classes with Junior and Trammell, and Friday classes with Sam Y.
SoulCycle is such a huge part of my life, and I honestly don’t know where I would be or what kind of person I would be without it. SoulCycle classes is how I get rid of the negative energy from my day and rejuvenate myself for a productive evening. Without SoulCycle, my life genuinely feels like something is missing.
I highly recommend going to a SoulCycle class if y’all have the opportunity!
9:00PM
By the time I get home from SoulCycle, I tend to spend around 15 minutes just lying on the floor by my front door, just going through my phone and relaxing for a moment before I shower. I use this time to take a look at my blog schedule, check how my content is doing, and figure out what my priorities are for the rest of the evening.
Most of the nights, I will cook a meal with HomeChef, and I will make sure dinner is cooked and the dishes are put away before I head to the shower. If y’all want to read a review of the food delivery systems such as HomeChef, Plated, Blue Apron, and Hello Fresh, just let me know and I will be happy to do it!
I spend my evening watching whichever NFL or NBA game is playing on television. When there is no game, then I’ll spend my time watching How I Met Your Mother as I work on a new blog post or complete other outstanding items for my blog. Typically, I am able to finish dinner by 9:30, give myself half an hour to relax with my boyfriend, and I’ll spend the next 2 hours before bed working on my blog.
12:00AM
Some days when a Lakers game is running late or if we are watching a movie, then we’ll go to bed around 1AM. Most days, however, we have to be in bed by 12AM in order for me to even be able to wake up at 7:45AM. Every night before bed, I try to spend at least 20 minutes having quality time with my boyfriend. We lie there in bed and just talk. I find that it is so important to carve out time with your significant other just to talk to each other without any other distractions.
I hope you all enjoyed reading about my day! I know this post is a lot longer than usual, but this is my honest-to-God routine from Monday through Friday.
I love you all!
XOXO,
Claire
