She’s head of a design company that she inherited from her mother. Being project-based, her hectic work days are not your regular 9-to-5 but Meg has found her groove as a creative director and is sharing her day with us.

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.

Running The Family Biz

Meg Amat is the Creative Director of Eve & Co., and a second generation business owner in Manila. Now that her mom’s transitioning to retirement, Meg holds the reins on the business. Her company designs spaces for events, seasonal decor, and pop up exhibits.

No two days are ever alike for her because her work is primarily project based. Some days, it’s design work that keeps Meg busy. Other days are usually a mix of purchasing, logistics, administration, and marketing. This means the team always get more opportunities to learn how to delegate.

5:45 AM: Wake up.

6:45 AM: Leave for yoga class or running. I try to get at least three workouts in every week, in the form of yoga or running/circuit training. Thankfully, I live near a fantastic studio, YogaHive, and am quite close to Manila Bay where I often run. I find that the exercise helps me clear out my mind.

7:45 – 8:15 AM: Dress up. Our office is really casual, especially if my schedule is clear of client meetings. Since I’ve discovered uniform dressing, I’ve settled into a routine of white button down shirts and jeans. I dress my outfits up or down with accessories and shoes depending on the kind of work that I have for the day.

8:15 – 9:30 AM: Essential to getting my head in the right space before heading to work is the time I spend reading the Bible and journaling. This is also when I set my priorities.

I don’t have daily task lists because they tend to rattle me when I don’t cross everything off by the end of the day. Instead, I work with a weekly goal scheme that I update every day. All this planning happens over breakfast. Oh, and I prefer paper over digital checklists.

9:30 – 10 AM: It’s a 10-20 minute drive to our office in Pasay.

10 – 11 AM: When I get to the office, I set about an hour to respond to pending emails. I used to be on-call all the time and reply well into the night or morning but that was making me go crazy.

11 AM – 5 PM: This is when I get the real work done. Much of what I do is finding inspiration and matching them with our clients’ requirements. I consolidate those ideas into mood boards and have our artists work on digital 3D models. I cost out the designs, source materials, create prototypes, oversee installations and work our social media accounts.

6 – 8 PM: Another thing that’s important to me is to always keep learning. It doesn’t really matter what the subject is—anything from mixing cocktails to marketing campaigns. These days, I’m studying Mandarin.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go to the Confucius Institute. Admittedly, I started for personal reasons but it’s proven to be useful when talking to our Chinese suppliers. They find it amusing when I try to speak their language.

8:30 – 9 PM: Dinner. My family and I eat out for dinner about 40% of the time but we treasure the meals we share at home. One of my favourite things to do is create new dishes from leftovers or whatever’s in the pantry. It gets my creativity going, as if the day’s design work was not enough.

I’ve made things like this longganisa wrap, braised chicken, and these satay noodles.

9 – 10 PM: Unlike a number of Filipino households, we don’t have help at home so I set aside some time for chores like laundry, dishes or food prep for the next day.

10 PM – 12 MN: Pending work from the day gets picked up again. Or I’m on Netflix.

My all time favorite show is Madam Secretary. I love the show’s lead character, Elizabeth McCord. She’s excellent at work, brings a fresh perspective to an otherwise male dominated world of politics, and shows grace under pressure. And she has an unbelievable husband to boot. I want to be her when I grow up!

12 MN: In my profession, I find it vital to be onsite during installations. Usually that happens after midnight until the event kicks off.

On those days, I skip chores in favor of naps so I have energy for the installation. I also bump off my usual morning routine then.

While my days are pretty tight, I still get to talk to my best friends throughout the day. Thank God for technology! That keeps me balanced too.

It’s not unusual for me to work on weekends so when the load’s a bit light, I block off a couple of days and recharge with some vacation days.

Beating The Burnout

There are instances when Meg feels like there’s not enough time to get everything done and burn out can be a real issue for her. She has realized however that trying to stick to a routine helps a lot though.