- A typical day as an English copywriter—time to work
- Asana’s “My tasks”—the only to-do list I need
- The biggest challenge during a typical day as an English copywriter? Distractions
- My typical day as an English copywriter ends around 4:30—or does it?
- Asana keeps both my professional and personal tasks organized
- My typical day as an English copywriter starts winding down around 10:30
- How does my typical day as an English copywriter compare to yours?
I just hit my 3rd anniversary of working remotely with my current employer. My life as a marketing team lead and a freelance English copywriter in Korea is very different from what it used to be. I taught English for 20+ years—17 at a university. I often taught the same courses. Though I constantly refined them, the biggest changes were the students each year. But now, no two days are ever the same. And I’m okay with that—despite my inclination to routines. Keep reading for a behind-the-scenes look at a typical day as an English copywriter.
My day starts at 7:22 am when my first alarm goes off. I have a second alarm set for 7:25, and I’m downstairs by 7:30. I start my day with 100 pushups, interspersed with some stretching. While stretching, I multitask. I study Korean (Duolingo), identify fretboard intervals (online app), and practice ear training.
A typical day as an English copywriter—time to work
Around 7:55, I pour my cup of coffee (which started brewing at 7:40—set up the night before). By 8 am, I’ve greeted my team online. We say “hello” in the morning to let each other know we’re online. No one’s checking times to see who signed on when. It’s just a courtesy.
When I log on, I check my chats and channels on Teams for new messages. Then I move on to email. Once I’ve determined if there are any urgent matters to attend to for the day, I turn to my lifeline, Asana. If you’re unfamiliar (I’d never heard of it until three years ago), Asana is a planning and productivity platform. I use it to plan and organise campaigns and tasks. This includes everything from marketing emails and newsletters to blogs and other tasks.
Asana helps everyone on our team see what work is currently on their plate. It shows when tasks need to be finished and who’s waiting on a task so they can work on their assigned task. Asana has excellent features, including different views, dependencies, and automation rules. It streamlines organising projects. Our team often has multiple projects active across several different brands. Staying organised is essential. I can’t imagine successfully trying to do what I do without a tool like Asana.
Asana’s “My tasks”—the only to-do list I need
When I jump into Asana, I first check My tasks. This is where I can see what I need to get done for the day and which tasks are overdue. This helps me set my daily priorities as I mentally prepare my day.
Next, I use the Reports function in Asana to review what tasks my team members have assigned to them. I use this as prep for the morning standup meeting I run several times a week. If we don’t have a meeting, I can still update the team on what tasks are priorities. I also share any updates that they may be unaware of.
I’ll typically try to find a couple of quick and easy tasks I can finish before our morning meeting. Assuming no new priorities from our morning meeting, I prioritize my remaining tasks. I prioritize tasks with approaching due dates and tasks related to campaign launches. I also assess which of my outstanding tasks are blocking team members from completing their work. For example, I’m the proofreader for our team (and company at large). If I can see that social posts are ready to schedule, I’ll tackle those so my co-worker can schedule those posts.
As the marketing team lead, I’m often the first point of contact for the marketing team. As such, I have to keep an eye on Teams throughout the day. This is one of my biggest job challenges—getting distracted. There are times I’d love to turn off notifications or check a Teams message later. But if an urgent social post or customer comms needs to go out, it’s my job to be available to review those comms quickly.
The biggest challenge during a typical day as an English copywriter? Distractions
Getting constantly sucked into Teams messages and chats can be tough. When the chat ends, I often find myself trying to figure out what task I was working on. It’s also why I often end my shift for the day with 50+ tabs open. 😉
I may have one or two other meetings to attend. But most of my day is spent plowing through my tasks or collaborating with team members.
You may have noticed that I didn’t mention breakfast. That’s cause I don’t eat breakfast—or lunch. So, I don’t take a lunch break. But that’s my choice. At some point in the afternoon, I’ll take a 15-minute meditation break. When the weather’s warm enough, I head out to our rooftop, pop on my meditation app and take a short break. This helps me recharge and get my daily dose of Vitamin D. I’ve got a decent tan going for someone who works from home and rarely goes out. 😉
At some point in the late afternoon, I’ll often grab another coffee and sometimes a handful of nuts. But many times, I won’t eat anything until after I’ve done my daily exercise after work. I’ve been doing this for over three years now. I wish I could say I’ve lost weight, but I’ve basically been able to maintain my current weight. Ideally, I’d love to drop another 10-15 kgs. I have learned that three meals a day is not necessary—at least for me.
My typical day as an English copywriter ends around 4:30—or does it?
I work until at least 4 pm, depending on how many breaks I’ve taken during the day, usually signing off for the day by 4:30 pm. Just as our team says, “Good morning” to start the day, we also let each other know when we’re logging off for the day.
Once I log off, three times a week, I do another 20 mins of stretching. I’m over 50 and spend most of my day sitting—gotta work on that flexibility somehow! Then, I move on to my 30 minutes of daily rowing. After that, it’s time for a quick shower, followed by a veggie smoothie and some almonds. I’ll typically spend some time catching up on Facebook and checking my personal email before dinner, as well as tackling household chores like laundry or taking out the recycling during this time.
Sometime after 7 pm, I usually have dinner with my wife while we enjoy an episode or two of something on Netflix. After that, I’ll head back upstairs to my office to spend some time on my DC CopyPro stuff. That could mean writing a new blog ( like this one) or optimising an old blog for SEO (which I wasn’t very good at when I started). If I’m not working on a blog, I’m usually working on my Instagram posts.
Asana keeps both my professional and personal tasks organized
I schedule posts over a month in advance to ensure I’m never under the gun to get a daily post out. It’s how I’ve managed to post daily for several years without missing a day. I have a weekly schedule I follow.
- Week 1—Choose pictures for each day, edit if necessary, upload to my scheduling platform
- Week 2—Write posts and get the opening lines translated
- Week 3—Add posts to my scheduling platform for the coming month
- Week 4—Writing my weekly wrap-up posts for Facebook and LinkedIn
Remember how I talked about using Asana at my job? It’s such a great platform that I use the free version for my personal tasks. That includes blog writing, Instagram posts, and a few other random weekly tasks. It’s my to-do list. A few years ago, I was using Asana so much that it almost got me into trouble.
My wife asked me to do a small task later in the day. I had to stop myself from automatically saying, “Sure, just add it to Asana, and I’ll get to it later.” 😉 Bullet dodged!
My typical day as an English copywriter starts winding down around 10:30
Depending on how much stuff I’ve got to do, I’ll usually call it a day around 10:30 or so. I’ll head down to the kitchen to prepare the coffee maker for the following morning. Sometimes, I join my wife when she walks our dog. I usually unwind in front of the TV for an hour before heading upstairs to bed around midnight. Thanks to the Tour de France, I’m going to bed a little later than usual these days.
I’ve tried going to bed earlier, but I’m a night owl at heart, and I usually just find myself staring at the ceiling. Once I get into bed, I make sure to keep two streaks alive. I make a few moves on Words with Friends to keep my streak going. But most importantly, the new Wordle becomes available at midnight.
It’s one of the last things I do before I go to sleep. I’ve currently got a 185-day streak going, which roughly coincides with the new year. I think I lost my last streak somewhere between Christmas and New Year’s. I’ve been much more careful about keeping this one intact. So far, so good!
How does my typical day as an English copywriter compare to yours?
There you have it—a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of an English copywriter and proofreader in Korea. Pretty exciting, eh? 😉 Since my band has folded, I don’t get out much during the week, but I’m okay with that. I “may” have found some other musicians to play with, so stay tuned. I still do stuff with my family from time to time, and occasionally, I’ll meet up with a friend or two for drinks.
Though it may not be flashy, I’m pretty satisfied. I won’t lie—I do miss the five months of paid vacation I had as a university instructor. But as much as I enjoyed teaching, so many of my students were just getting a piece of paper. They weren’t interested in actually learning something. I’ve joked that my dream was to walk in on the first day of class and say,
“If you just want a C, you’re free to leave. I never have to see you again. But if you’re actually interested in learning something about English, I’ll see you next week.”
I never had the guts to try that (that’s NOT why I lost my job 😉). Trying to teach/inspire unmotivated students was always the biggest challenge with teaching. I don’t miss that.
Though I have much less free time now, I can honestly say I’m enjoying my work much more.
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