Day in the Life at The Idea Bureau: Ben Everard

Continuing on the same wavelength as our previous blog post, we’d like to give you a glimpse into what a typical day is like for us at The Idea Bureau. Today, we’re looking at Ben, our Technical Lead and Director’s day as he cracks on with a client’s WordPress build.

Early morning

6am – 9am: I like to start the morning off by getting up early for a bike ride to clear my mind and put me in a good headspace for the day ahead. Following that, I drop the kids off at school, then come home and get started on the day.

9am: Tash and I will begin with a remote stand up meeting to check in on the projects we’re working on at the minute; I’ll then spend some time making sense of my day – this takes the form of:

• Checking emails
• Looking at my schedule to see if I need to prepare for any calls or meetings booked in
• Checking our project management tool, Teamwork, to see reconcile tasks and check any project milestones that are coming up too

10am: I may have a client call booked in around this time – we try to have similar timings for calls and meetings so we can maintain a good working schedule and break the day up into blocks to maximise productivity. These calls can either be with clients to discuss their project statuses or a call as part of our Bureau⁺ service that we use to support retainer clients on an ongoing basis. I may have a client call booked in around this time – we try to have similar timings for calls and meetings so we can maintain a good working schedule and break the day up into blocks to maximise productivity. These calls can either be with clients to discuss their project statuses or a call as part of our Bureau⁺ service that we use to support retainer clients on an ongoing basis.

Mid morning

11am: Once I’ve got any calls and meetings out of the way, I’ll open up Visual Studio Code and get cracking on project work. At the moment, I’m working on a bespoke WordPress build for L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), as well as automating their data migration for when they move to the new website.

I’ve been building out the content blocks that Tash has designed, using our custom style guide, ready to send back to her for quality assurance testing. These blocks will be used across multiple pages of the website, so we need to make sure they’re all working correctly from a user experience and accessibility point of view, and also look great. Usually, I will prioritise building components based on how many pages they’re used on, so those used the most will be built out first.

12pm: I tend to break for lunch around this time – I’ve actually blocked it out in my calendar to ensure I do take a lunch break and that nothing gets booked into this time. I tend to break for lunch around this time – I’ve actually blocked it out in my calendar to ensure I do take a lunch break and that nothing gets booked into this time.

Afternoon

1pm: After lunch, I’ll get back into the client project work – my day can be a bit of a mix of client calls and project work; however, I find it really important to try and have some kind of routine in place to help with productivity and keeping things in focus, hence why we’ll try to book in meetings and calls at a specific time.

4pm: Around this time, I finish work and go pick up the kids from their after school clubs. There are a few steps I undertake to close off for the day, including:

• Wrapping up on the day’s project work
• Checking emails once again and responding to any that may have been awaiting answers
• Getting things around the office squared away so it’s tidy for the next day

So, that’s a look at what a typical day might be like for me at the minute. It’s a bit of a mix between client project work and calls, so it can be a bit different, depending on the day. I think the important thing I try to keep the same is to have a routine, creating time blocks to help maintain the focus on a specific task at any one time. I also really find the setting up and turning down at the beginning and end of the day really helpful to let me know what’s happening and put me in the right mindset.