This woman decided to run her own business, which is a combination of her passion for fashion and wellness, as well as experience in e-commerce (which she also still currently does as a 9 to 5 job). Among these roles, Jane says being a mom is the best and her top priority.

---

Titled “A Day In The Life Of A Woman,” this series celebrates the women in our lives. From the everyday to inspirational, the series aims to highlight women from various fields and share a bit of the diversity we experience every day.

Jane Devela has been in the IT industry for more than 14 years where she does product management for e-commerce. She successfully multi-tasks by running a business on the side, an athletic line. Her most favourite role of all is being a mother to a six-year-old.

A day in the life of this multi-talented woman goes like this:

5 AM-6 AM: Morning routine for kid’s school. During school days, I wake up early to help my kid get ready for school. I normally don’t get to spend much time with her during the day so helping her with her morning routine is kind of our bonding time.

6 AM-7 AM: Yoga and business time. After the school bus picks up my kid, I have a bit of me time to either practice 15-30 minutes of yoga at home or work on my business. I usually practice yoga if I know I am not able to go to the gym later in the day. As a business owner, I do everything from managing and running the company, looking at product development, marketing and communications, growth and partnerships.

7 AM-8 AM: Prepare for my day job in e-commerce. To prepare for my 9-5 job, it usually takes me an hour to do my morning routine of taking a shower, getting dressed, putting on some make-up and quickly grabbing a light breakfast which is usually a veggie and fruit smoothie.

8 AM-9 AM: Morning commute and coffee run. My commute to the office usually takes 30-40 minutes and during this time, I try to catch up on reading news and articles. I also get my usual coffee and croissant, or omelette fix before heading to my work desk.

9 AM-10 AM: Start my 9-5 job. I start with identifying what my goals are for the day or for the week or month. I then write down my to-do list and prioritize them. I feel I can get big-picture projects done by breaking them down into specific action items on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I also run-through my list with my schedule for the day and record them as appointment tasks in my calendar.

10 AM-11 AM: Work through my e-commerce job. I then work on my to-do list/calendar for the day.

11 AM-12 NN: Look at KPIs or Key Performance Indicators. I look at previous day/week/month KPIs and continue to monitor trends. For e-commerce, I usually look at revenue, visits, and conversion firstly and drill down into the rest of the data from there. Depending on performance, I either need to investigate further and plan on mitigation strategies or continue to work on my to-do list/calendar for the day.

12 NN-1 PM: Go to gym. I try go to the gym at least three times a week to be fit and de-stress. I love going to group classes as I feel they allow me to mix fitness and fun at the same time. They also help me keep accountable and be motivated to attend since I get penalized if I suddenly feel lazy and bail out the last minute.

1 PM-2 PM: Eat lunch. After workout, I usually grab a salad with protein for lunch.

2 PM-3 PM: Check and reply to emails. Once I am back to work in the afternoon, this is usually the time I check and reply to my emails. I resist doing this early in the morning, so I can finish my most important tasks early on the day first and foremost. I usually advise my clients, colleagues, and vendors to message my phone if there is anything urgent they need me to attend to.

3 PM-4 PM: Attend meetings. As much as possible, I always try to schedule my meetings in the afternoon, from 3-6 PM. If I don’t have meetings for the day, I continue to work on my to-do list.

5 PM-6 PM: Check on team and catch up with colleagues. Usually towards end of the work day, I like to catch up with colleagues with either work or casual non-work related conversation. I also check on my team to see how they are going and allot this time to help or look at matters that need my action.

6 PM-7 PM: Run errands and go home. Before heading home, if need be, I use this time to run errands.

7 PM-8 PM: Dinner and homework time. I have a quick dinner and spend time with my kid to review her homework.

8 PM-9 PM: Kid’s bedtime routine. We usually have some talk about what happened in school and we cap it off with our evening prayers before saying our goodnights.

9 PM-11 PM: Business or me time. Depending on how hectic my day was, I spend this time catching up on my favorite shows and/or continue to work on my business. Evening time for my business is focused more on Lyaya’s operations, including order processing, product development, writing communications and marketing.

A Fulfilling Balancing Act

I can say that juggling these roles, while challenging, is deeply satisfying. It certainly requires tons of balancing that is why spending my time efficiently is extremely important to me. Having some downtime like holiday vacations with my family and friends to unwind and refresh is also something I do often to keep me going.