During the day I’m a scientist and business development manager. During the evenings, weekends and holidays, I’m a mom entrepreneur running one company and hustling to setup another one AND a travel/lifestyle/fashion blogger. Know what a day is like for a woman scientist!

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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.

Introducing Sandhya Sriram, PhD., Founder and CEO of SciGlo.

In between all of this, I am a mother to my wonderful boy and a loving wife to my best friend, whom I have known for 20+ years now.

Science has been my life and the air I breathe.

In 2014, apart from pursuing my research at NTU and then A*STAR as a postdoc, I stepped into the entrepreneurial world. My first startup, Biotechin.Asia helped me discover my strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Even though my journey with this media company ended in less than two years, it gave me confidence to start my second company, SciGlo.

My passion has always been to do meaningful science and not fall into the trap of academic science which is “publish or perish”! Starting up my own companies has been an eye opening experience, through which I further discovered my passion for the “right” science.

My time in the entrepreneurial world has been exciting. Numerous interviews, media coverage including a feature in Forbes Women in Tech, invites to mentor at a VC/incubator firm, being a writer for Nature Biotechnology blog and also an influencer at Mogul – to name a few. But the biggest excitement has come from how my work and vision has helped others in this world. I strongly believe that innovation/entrepreneurship in the healthcare sector is the only way mankind can exist in the future.

Apart from the science, running businesses and thinking of the “next idea”, I love traveling in style and hence started blogging (www.sandhyasriram.com) on travel, lifestyle and fashion in late 2016.

So, this is what my busy weekday looks like:

7 AM: Get up to wake up my son and husband, get them ready and get ready myself for work (my day job). Instruct helper on what needs to be done for the day including what meals to cook, etc.

8 AM: Have a good healthy breakfast and spend some time loving my son. By 8:30 am I head off to work.

9 AM: On the bus or train to work, I check my emails, listen to music and post fashion/travel related posts on Instagram and schedule posts for the rest of the day too. I reach my workplace around 9:30 am.

10 AM: Fully into work at my day job. Most mornings are meetings with clients, customers, researchers and scientists.

11 AM: Continue with work – emails, legal agreements, phone calls, etc.

12 PM: Lunch. I generally get lunch packed from home; if not, it will be a work meeting combined with lunch. If I bring my own lunch, I generally eat with a few colleagues or like to eat at my desk. During this time, I browse online looking at news, some videos on YouTube and so on.

1 PM: Back to work – busy with legal drafts, agreements, meetings, emails and so on.

2 PM: I take a 10 minute break to get some sun outside and some fresh air. I also take a little walk around Biopolis, since my job is very sedentary.

3 PM: I generally like to schedule meetings around this time and I prefer meeting people in their offices since that gives me a chance to walk and get some steps counted.

4 PM: Snack break and also to debrief my mind from everything that has happened throughout the day. I browse on my phone to answer any personal messages, emails, social media, etc. and then continue to work.

5 PM: I talk to my research associate who runs my research experiments, learn about the updates and advise on next steps forward. By 5:30 pm I leave work.

6 PM: Back on the bus/train heading home, I listen to music and do not use my phone for anything else. This gives me a chance to just calm my mind and get ready for the evening in terms of running my businesses. I reach home around 6:30 pm and after freshening up, I play/talk with my son.

7 PM: I spend this entire hour with my son either playing, talking or eating with him. I sometimes head out for a walk in the park with him and play on the swing with him.

8 PM: This is when my hustling as an entrepreneur and blogger starts. The next 2 hours are crucial with Skype meetings, phone calls, emails, messages etc. strategising, planning, raising money. This works well as my team is in the US time zone, and I am in the Singapore time zone.

9 PM: My husband comes home from work and we chat about work, life in general, daily updates and more.

10 PM: My husband and I take turns putting my son to bed – so if it is my turn, I am in bed with him, telling/reading stories. Most of the time I fall asleep with him. If it is my off night, then I continue to work or watch some TV or catch up on my favorite TV shows while my husband makes our boy sleep.

11 PM: My husband and I finally get some quality alone time. This is the most relaxed I feel in a day.

12 AM: Time to sleep!!

I am a huge movie buff, so Friday nights are for movies, either on TV/Netflix or in the cinemas.

For me, weekends are busier than weekdays as I have more time to run my businesses, hustle and that is when I concentrate on my fashion/travel/lifestyle blog.

In the midst of all this, my husband, son and I love traveling so we make the most of it living in Singapore. I travel for work as well – so it works great for me.

I have the most understanding husband and son and feel blessed to be able to do so much and give back a lot at the same time.

So, that is me!

Points Sandhya Lives By

• Be fearless and just do it. If you’re just sitting there and contemplating, things will never move forward. The world is so fast-paced now that there is no time to sit and think for too long. Don’t think about the pros and cons too much – if you have an idea that you can’t get out of your head, just go for it!
• Always ask – because if you don’t, you’ll never know. If you try and it’s a no, then so be it. You won’t lose anything. But if it’s a yes? You’ll open the door to infinite possibilities.
• Find strong support systems… nothing will be achieved by going solo
• “Collaboration” is the key to success.

 

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