Miscen Desiderio-Dime didn’t really plan on becoming a lawyer but as fate would have it, the legal profession allows her to do what she does best. In today’s Day In The Life Of A Woman series, the legal head of one of the largest IT-BPO companies in the Philippines gives us a preview of her day and why it’s important to go tech-free once in a while.

I began my career in law over 20 years ago and spent the first 11 years of that in litigation. I started out as the most junior associate in a large firm where I worked my way up from carrying files and doing legal research for the more senior lawyers until I became a litigation partner supervising my own associates.

In my career, I’ve litigated the whole gamut of cases from things as mundane as bouncing checks to kidnapping and arson. I appeared in the tiniest fiscal’s offices in as far away as Zamboanga to being privileged enough to argue before the Court of Appeals and appear before the Supreme Court.

My priorities shifted when I became a mother and decided to pursue a career in-house but I never lost my love for problem solving and litigation. After more than eight years in the corporate world, I am now the head of legal for one of the largest, if not the largest, IT-BPO companies in the Philippines. I currently have an immediate team of 24 lawyers in the Philippines and India.

Here’s a preview of my typical day at work.

5:00 A.M. – I wake up and decide if this is the day I will return to my walking/exercise regime. The current metrics are at a 50 percent success rate. In other words, half the time I decide to go back to sleep for another 30 minutes.

5:00 A.M. – 6:00 A.M. – I am either walking or I could be asleep depending on the success of the exercise plan.

6:00 A.M. – 6:30 A.M. – I have breakfast with the girls. I am a big foodie so my cholesterol level is not that great. As a concession, I will have rolled oats and fruits for breakfast every day on weekdays.

6:30 A.M. – 7:30 A.M. – I get ready for work. I carpool with my husband and since he takes longer than me to get ready, I always try to beat him to the bathroom. This way, I have a few minutes to scan my schedule for the day and try to prioritize what I need to do for the rest of the day while he’s still getting ready.

I notice that as I’ve gotten older, I wear less and less make-up so I’m one of those women who can actually finish getting ready in 30 minutes flat.

7:30 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. – I travel to work.

You just can’t beat the traffic but with today’s technology (and a driver), I can literally work from anywhere. I use time stuck in traffic to start work. It takes me an hour to an hour and a half in the morning to get from Alabang to my office so I have time to scan my mail—select those I can respond to quickly and mark the ones which need more time to think about, research, or discuss with my team.

9:00 A.M. – 12:00 NN – I arrive at the office. Usually, I will have one or two meetings before lunch either via teleconference or face to face. If I have no meetings, I use this time to respond to urgent mail and deal with any administrative matters that need my attention.

12:00 NN – 1:00 P.M. – I have made a rule with my team that we do not schedule meetings at lunchtime. For this one-hour period, I’ll have lunch with whoever on my team is working at the office (and not working from home) that day. This allows them to catch me up on what’s going on with them from both a work and a personal standpoint. We bond and spend time together without talking about work. It’s a good break from the day’s stress.

1:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M. – I go back to work and meetings.

6:00 P.M. – 7:30 P.M. – We go home. My husband and I agreed that we will not use gadgets during our drive home. It’s our “Tech-Free Time” and we spend the drive catching up on each other’s day.

7:30 P.M. – 8:30 P.M. – I have dinner with the family.

8:30 P.M. – 10:00 P.M. – I check the girls’ homework and prepare any materials they’ll need for the next day.

Some nights I’ll have conference calls in the evening and will take one or two calls. The girls will usually sit with me at the table where I work and they’ll do school work or read while I’m on my calls.

10:00 P.M. – I put the girls to bed. Bad mommy moment—the girls refuse to sleep any earlier and fighting over bedtime does not work. To compromise, I let them stay up late provided that they took their nap in the afternoon after getting home from school.

10:15 P.M. – I attempt to plank. I plan and lay out my clothes, bag, and shoes for the next day. This is a big timesaver for me in the mornings as I don’t waste time deciding what to wear,

11:00 P.M. – I shower and get in bed. I read and relax until I fall asleep. I’m a big reader so I usually read a couple of books simultaneously at any given time.

I don’t read my email after 10:00 P.M. It just stresses me out. If there’s an emergency which would require me to get online, I have a special number that my team calls only for that purpose.

What do you like most about your job?

I never really planned on becoming a lawyer and ending up in the legal profession was an accident involving 500 hundred pesos and a very convincing college roommate who didn’t want to take the law school entrance exam by herself. However, I really believe that everything happens for a reason because in my case, I stumbled into the career that in hindsight, was actually perfect for me.

Being a lawyer allows me to do what I do best—at heart, I am a firefighter and an advocate. I am in my element when I am fighting for something, trying to solve a problem, and selling my vision to others. Being a lawyer allows me to do all these things in an environment where inquisitiveness is not just encouraged, but is essential. It is a profession where I can indulge my passion for writing and speaking and where the challenges are different every day.

I work for a very technology-driven company where I am forced to continue learning because technology is changing at light speed. It is a huge company where I am never bored because the issues that come up are almost always novel and require critical thinking. My company encourages me to be a work in progress—and this aligns with my own values because I believe that the minute you stop learning is the moment you become obsolete.

What is your proven time management or productivity hack?

Multitasking is overrated. It’s very tempting to do several things at the same time, especially with today’s technology which allows you to read your mail while sitting in a conference call and also while occasionally browsing the internet on your smartphone. In the long run, however, you can end up with shoddy work or miss important details because your focus was on too many things at the same time.

I used to be very guilty of multitasking until I realized that focusing on one important task at a time saves you time and the effort of rework in the long run. Multitasking didn’t really save me time. I just ended up with several half-finished, mediocre pieces of work.

So now, I try to be very deliberate about what I do. I spend time to prioritize my tasks. I segregate what I can assign and delegate from those that I need to personally address. After that, I re-assess the things I need to personally do and separate the quick wins from the more complex issues. Once that’s done, I tackle the short, easy things first to get them out of the way and then I spend quality time on the more difficult and complex matters. Of course, there will be times when something is extremely urgent and extremely important which will supersede everything else but in all other instances, organization is key.

What is your favorite quote and why?

One of my favorite quotes if from Napoleon Bonaparte who said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Often, when faced with a challenge or when confronted by an antagonist, we immediately give in to the fight or flight response. And if you’re anything like me, more often than not, the default response is fight.

Over my long career, I’ve tried to be more strategic and mindful when faced with a confrontation—be it in the courtroom or in the boardroom. Instead of reacting immediately, I take the time to really listen and many times, you will be able to logically and easily identify your opponent’s errors, shallow arguments, and inconsistency which you can then use against them. When faced with an opponent who is getting over emotional and illogical, I allow them to go on and on and give them enough rope to hang themselves.

On the flipside, I turn this quote against myself as well. When I am unsure or not confident about my argument, I try to be as brief and to the point as possible, limiting myself to only what I know with certainty so that I don’t bumble on and on until I dig a hole big enough to bury myself in. Brevity is, after all, the soul of wit.

Did Miscen Desiderio-Dime’s “Day in the Life” inspire you? Interested in sending your “Day in the Life” story? Join the Connected Women community now!

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