24 hours with… Mousumi Mishra

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 in Campaign India's '24 hours with' feature, which runs every Tuesday. 

Name: Mousumi Mishra

Job: head of consumer marketing, ShareChat and Moj

My mantra: Work hard, nap harder.

The sun rises but I don’t!

8:am: While one may find multiple articles and books about how waking up early leads to success, I have always loved my ‘well-earned’ sleep too much. My day usually starts with me snoozing the alarm at least twice and then finally waking up. 

8:30am: I then play my favourite music, drink my first of many cups of chai and enjoy a slow morning because I believe mornings are not meant to be rushed but rather savoured. 

Time to put on my ‘serious’ face and get to work

10:00am: On days when there are no early meetings or fires to be fought, I start my work by first going through my to-do list, checking up on Slack messages, clearing my unread emails and then catching up on news and latest trends on social media.

10.30am-1.30 pm: Since I work from home, I am mostly in virtual meetings either with my team or with cross-functional teams to catch up on the progress of ongoing projects. This is interspersed with my need to reply to all Slack messages and not have any unread messages.  

When I have external meetings with our music partners, I fight traffic to reach their office and listen to the new music they are launching before anyone else gets to (work perks!). 

1.30pm: This is when I face the most challenging question of my day - What’s for lunch? 

The second half - the power hours

2-7.30pm:  Back to work. Virtual meetings again with different teams - brainstorming ideas, thinking of a plan of execution, doing consumer research and answering doorbells. I often take a break for five-ten minutes during this period to listen to some music and then resume work with a revived rigour. While I hop from one call to another seamlessly, my favourite meetings are where we discuss creative ideas based on strong consumer insights we discover on our apps. I also frequently block time to work individually on problem statements that excite me.

It’s me-time

7.30pm: On days when there are no late meetings, it's a struggle between taking a break or working out. On days when I convince myself to work out, I do a zumba session followed by meditation. On other days, I spend this time talking to friends and family or coaxing my husband to go out for a drive.

8.30pm: Another occasion for some adult decision-making - should I cook or should I order? On days when my love for cooking takes over, I start preparing dinner. I put on some upbeat music and try a new recipe, or stick to an old favourite. I strongly believe that cooking is a great way to de-stress and unwind.

9.30pm: Catch up on my current favourite show or some reading after finishing dinner. Also, be distracted by WhatsApp messages on your phone or online ads or thoughts of having a vacation in Italy.

12am: Lights out. Get a good night's sleep. Rest up for the next day so that I can start all over again.