This woman graphic designer works remotely for a startup. A passionate animal lover, she shares how she integrates care for her dogs with her work routine, and how they help her be creative, relax, and bond with her loved ones.

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.

Alexa has been Connected Women’s Graphic Designer since August 2014. She creates and conceptualizes visuals for the company’s promotional materials and creates promo displays, flyers, and other similar material.

Here is how a day goes in Alexa’s daily routine:

7:30 AM: Wake up, make up my bed, and time to let the dogs out.

8 AM: Prepare dog food, give them their vitamins, change the water bowls of my dogs, and clean out whatever mess they did at the garden.

8:30 AM: Time to walk Group 1 of dogs. I have seven dogs and I walk them in groups; Group 1 in the morning, and Group 2 in the evening.

9 AM: Eat breakfast or sometimes, I just lay in bed again.

10 AM: Time for work, catch up on things, and ready my brain for my work load.

11 AM: I usually start talking with the product team on updates and what are the next phases we need to do, or sometimes check for revisions in product.

12 NN: Work on social media images or the mock-ups while I wait for dev’s revisions.

1 PM: Still working. Also take a bathroom break or mind break, and check on my dogs.

2 PM: Still working. I usually stop working when I finish a task or a mock-up. I then remember to eat lunch.

3 PM: Lunch break, take a bath, let the dogs out again, spend time with my dogs, and give them treats.

5 PM: Work again on my next tasks.

6 PM: Catch-up with product team on updates and if they need me to check on something. If not, I will continue to still work on the mock-ups or my other tasks.

7 PM: Ken, the boyfriend, usually arrives at this time so it’s time to relax. Usually my head is tired after work and lay down for a bit while catching up with Ken.

8 PM: Prepare and give the dogs their food, eat dinner with family and Ken, then after we eat let the dogs out again.

10 PM: Sometimes I relax, sometimes I do some freelance work from friends just to add to my budget.

11 PM: Walk Group 2 of dogs with Ken, or sometimes with my sister.

11 PM-12 AM: Get all the dogs ready for bed and clean up their mess. Also, time to say goodbye to Ken.

12:30 AM: Lights off.

Challenges In Designing

Alexa admits that like most situations in life, she cannot please everyone. The same is true for her work. “[It’s] hard to please everyone,” she shares. “In making designs, sometimes ideas tend to not go well with one another and thus [this results] to never ending revisions and making my design very different from my original version. But it’s for the better of the design, and it’s always a learning process for me. Also deadlines [can be hard]! I think everyone hates deadlines, haha!” She says she has a hard time finishing certain tasks because she gets unexpected tasks at times.

How To Always Be Creative 

Having creative blocks can be dangerous for a designer, so Alexa makes sure she relaxes so she can get her creative juices flowing. “Go outside,” she says on what she does. “Sometimes, sitting a long time makes me really uncreative or I tend to have a creative block. It rarely happens but sometimes it does. The first thing I do in the morning is drink water then take my three dogs for a walk (before work) and the other four dogs at night (after work); this helps me refresh my mind and at the same time, bond with my pets.”