24 hours with... Ainara Kaur

Ever wondered what an ideal day in the life of someone from advertising/marketing/media is? We're here to spill the beans on it.

 

Every Tuesday, we'll have a person from the advertising/marketing/media industry profiled in this section.  

 

Name: Ainara Kaur

Job: co-founder, Belora Cosmetics

Personal mantra: We are all meant for great things in life but life doesn’t owe it to us, we do.

 

5:30am: This is clearly me-time. I like starting my day with coffee and a few minutes of quiet reflection. It’s the time to meditate and say a prayer of gratitude for all that life has bestowed on me. I am a follower of Vipassana and even five minutes of quiet meditation in the day arms me with positive feelings and strength.

 

6-7am: Play with my three babies – Indie street dogs namely Salad Singh, Laila Kaur and Pankhuri Kaur - who have adopted me. I also go through news, catch up on emails and most importantly, plan my day.

 

7-8:30am: I like to kick-start my day with exercise. I ignored my health last few years as I started my company. I think many founders tend to do so. However, there is nothing more important than your physical and mental health. I have recently started practising yoga and boxing on alternate days. It’s a good combination of strength and cardio.

 

9-10am: Getting ready for office.

 

10-11:30am: I generally find this is my highest performance period and therefore, I always reserve this for most critical aspects of my job. I utilise this for all self-tasks such as analysing business data, working on business strategies, employee communication, strategic initiatives etc.

 

11:30am to 1pm: Most days I have a very tight schedule with back-to-back meetings. These include the most mundane discussions on sales and marketing aspects of business, to various strategic meetings on shaping up the business or rolling out new products. No matter how packed the day is, I ensure that I spend some time with people across teams to catch up informally. This helps me understand softer nuances of how people are feeling towards the organisation and towards each other.

 

1pm: This is lunch break and l look around for the most interesting food dabbas that my colleagues bring and share mine with them. The love of food bonds all of us in the simplest of manner.

 

2-7pm: I like to keep this slot for more external meetings such as hiring interviews, calls with investors, partner agencies etc. I feel my energy level dips around afternoon and therefore, it’s best to do tasks that tend to add energy, around this time

  

7-7:30pm: I head home and often take remaining calls on the way.

 

7:30-9pm: This is time to unwind. Relax and play with my dogs, exchange notes on our day. Time to catch up with my family and have a healthy dinner. I feel it’s extremely critical to switch off after a hectic day to avoid getting burnt out. Specially, running a start-up is a high energy consuming task and comes with lot of highs and lows. If one doesn’t consciously enjoy a life beyond, that provides calm and contentment, it starts taking a toll.  

 

9-10:30pm: This time is reserved for me. I like to relax, Netflix, listen to podcasts and catch up on my reading before going off to sleep. 

 

10:30pm: Say a short prayer and sleep.