8am: Wake up and make plain porridge and a Nespresso coffee. It's crunch time at my current engagement and I'm also leading a proposal for a new project. However, we've been asked by management to use up 60% of annual leave before the end of August, so I'm taking next week off. Though I suspect there'll still be some bits of work I need to keep an eye on. I quickly go through news headlines on my Financial Times app while having breakfast (subscription paid by company).
9am: Log on, glance at emails that arrived overnight. I have a progress meeting at 9.30am with partner A, who oversees the engagement, to go through a key deliverable. I mentally prep for potential questions and challenges.
10.45am: Gosh that was excruciating! I've been grilled hard on what we've prepared so far, meaning that I'll need to make those changes before I go on holiday. Send a quick email to confirm the changes that need to be made to avoid redoing it a third time. Throw my laptop, notebook, water bottle and keys into a backpack.
11am: Hop onto a bus (£1.50) and head to a Japanese café. It's an impromptu meet-up/co-working session with a few colleagues who I'm close to and also live in east London. I have been missing human contact for the past few months so I'm determined to make the trip, even though it means a fairly rushed day.
12pm: Arrive and see my colleague S parked in the corner at a socially distanced table having teriyaki flavoured crisps. Buy a black coffee and bag of wasabi crisps so we can trade (£4.50). Sit down with S and ask about her 1-year-old, who just started nursery. We quickly switch back to work mode to go through the proposal we've been working on.
1pm: Put my headphones on to join a check-in call for the engagement. Put myself on mute and order a cold soba noodles with tofu (£7.80). Take a bite whenever I find a non-speaking break.
2pm: Call done! Take a group selfie and message the wider team to say how much I miss everyone. Receive an influx of lovely replies. Was hoping to chat with some of them for 30 minutes before my next call but interrupted by a nasty email from another boss, who challenged several key assumptions made in the proposal. We have a call at 4pm to go through these assumptions. I call my manager in a panic to discuss how to respond and decide to give yet another boss, who is also involved in the proposal, a call to get his buy-in. Boss reassures me he is on my side and offers a few suggestions on how I should open and lead the call later.
2.30pm: Say bye to boss and jump onto another call. Gosh these back-to-back calls are not giving me time to breathe! Spend the next 30 minutes onboarding new members to my current engagement. Hope I didn't sound too dishevelled as my mind is still on the proposal.
3pm: I decide to take the call at 4pm from home, given it's going to be a tough one. Get an Uber and prep for the call on the way back. Wearing a mask in the heat makes me a bit car sick. £11.40
4pm: Arrive home and take large gulps of cold sparkling water to get rid of the nausea. Spend the next hour defending the proposal in the calmest tone ever. Keep using the phrase "I hear you, but…" over and over again. Boss still not convinced, so won myself more work for the rest of the evening. Yay…
6.30pm: I'm hungry and heat up some leftover salmon and potato for dinner. Message manager while eating to check if she prefers speaking tonight or first thing tomorrow. She said tonight so I continue to work a bit more.
9pm: Exchange messages with a guy that I've met on Hinge, T. We had a physical date in July when lockdown was easing. For the past few weeks T has been in Slovakia spending time with his family. But he is finally flying back to London tonight.
11.30pm: T messages me when he lands. I fall asleep while exchanging messages.
Total: £25.20
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August 19, 2020 at 01:00PM
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Money Diary: A Consulting Manager In London On 83k - Refinery29
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