#needing to stop and catch your breath because you remembered leaving a reddit comment earlier and youre terrified people will dogpile you

[lago-morpha]

I want to let the social anxiety win and disappear sometimes. Some more than others

[minnievirizarry]

#NoTwoDays: A Day in the Life of Pete Haas of PCMag

“Well, no two days are alike.” That is a common response to the question marketers get on a weekly basis: “What is your typical day like?”

From unexpected deadlines to mini firestorms, every day brings new hurdles to overcome and questions to answer. And while there will always be the standard items on our to-do lists, the reality of our world is that of unpredictability. It is what makes marketing both exhilarating and exacting.

In the spirit of embracing the unique nature of what a day in the life of marketers embody, we’re thrilled to share our new series #NoTwoDays. We’ll examine a day of a fellow marketer to discover how they adapt to change, incorporate routine and balance their workload–all while maintaining a life outside of the office.

We’re excited to kick things off with avid gamer Pete Haas, social media manager at PCMag. Because no two days are ever the same, here’s a (edited for clarity) day in the life of Pete:

MORNING

6 a.m.: I’d love to say I’m one of those guys hitting tires with a sledgehammer at CrossFit at 5 a.m. The truth is, though, I need to be practically dragged out of bed. Every day, my wife wakes me up before she heads off to work. I make her tea and my coffee and then see her off.

7:30 a.m.: While I’m getting ready for work, my nose is in my phone. After checking the office Slack chat, I head right to Twitter. If I see some worthwhile tech news to share with the team, that’s great but it’s not the goal. My brain is still limping along at this point so I’m just looking for anything—dumb GIFs, good one-liners, whatever—to give me a jumpstart. This morning, it’s a video of a cat climbing on a cameraman while he films a documentary.

8-ish a.m.: I leave my apartment building and hear a car blaring “Ignition (Remix)” by R. Kelly. This is a good journal day.

8:35 a.m.: The train gods smile on me and I’m in the PCMag office early. We have an editor in the UK so there are already some news stories waiting to be pushed to Facebook and Twitter. I schedule the stories out and then for yesterday. I then scan Reddit, a few competing sites and Facebook’s trending topics to see if there’s any juicy news out there.

8:40 a.m.: I take pictures of some of my desk knick-knacks for this article. These precious artifacts include a Chewbacca figure, a wooden dabbing robot (I have no idea where that’s from) and a sketch of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid on a Post-It. My desk also has a Radtkebuck, a fake currency emblazoned with my coworker’s face.

8:45 a.m.: “I’m also very curious what browser tabs you have open during the day,” says no one. Slack, work and personal Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Chartbeat, and my social scheduling apps Sprout and Tailwind. Tailwind is for Pinterest and Sprout is for everything else.

9 a.m.: The editors for PCMag, Geek.com and ExtremeTech meet to go over yesterday’s traffic and social stats. We also discuss what news stories we’re seeing, some of which will be part of our morning Facebook show.

9:45 a.m.: I head over to the small studio we’ve carved out of our office for live Facebook shows. Every weekday at 10am EST, we broadcast a show called “Random Access” where our analysts discuss the hottest tech news and then show off a product we’re reviewing. Today’s show has something for everyone.

Apple just announced a new iPad and some town in China is using facial recognition to catch toilet paper thieves. Our featured product is the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, a new mirrorless camera. Before the show, I set up the broadcasting software for the show, promote it and do sound checks for the hosts.

10 a.m.: “Random Access” goes live. During the broadcast, I chat with our Facebook viewers and relay their questions to hosts.

10:30 a.m.: Show’s over. Back to my desk to schedule out more content. As PCMag and Geek.com publish articles, I toss the links into a spreadsheet. Once I schedule them, I delete them. My stress level rises and falls depending on how many articles I’ve got pending.

11:30 a.m.: Once Facebook and Twitter have a healthy queue of content, I turn to Instagram and Pinterest. Most people seem to think Pinterest is just a bunch of cupcake recipes and wedding dress pictures. But like Instagram, it’s a product-focused network with a strong tech community so it’s a great fit for us. I use Canva to make quick edits on our in-house photos to get them ready for each network.

AFTERNOON

12:15 p.m.: Lunch! My wife and I made pressure cooker chicken and black bean stew this week. It looks like swamp mud because of the black beans but it’s go—mn delicious. While I’m eating, I read “Mass Effect: Andromeda” reviews and get sad that the game’s not living up to the years of hype. Then I remember I still have “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” at home and I get less sad.

1:30 p.m.: It’s time for another live show. We often have tech leaders stop by the office for interviews and today it’s GE’s VP of Software Research Dr. Colin Parris. He shares some really fascinating insights about artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and more.

2 p.m.: Scheduling, scheduling, scheduling. The stream of stories includes an editorial about the new electronics ban for airlines and a comparison of the new iPad to previous models. While knocking out this work, I take some time to make fun of Iron Fist with coworkers.

3 p.m.: Live show number three. Every Tuesday, two of our office’s phone experts host a show called “Dialed In.” Google decided to announce the new version of Android a few hours earlier so our hosts have plenty to talk about.

3:50 p.m.: “You’re not supposed to drink coffee after 4 p.m.” is a rule I may have made up. Whatever, it sounds legit. I run to Dunkin Donuts and get a comically large and cheap iced coffee. I slug it down while scheduling out Facebook and Twitter for the rest of the day.

(In addition to coffee, Seagram’s Seltzer Water is a regular with Pete.)

5:30 p.m.: I get drawn into a wide-ranging discussion with two coworkers about video games. We bounce from “Mass Effect: Andromeda” to “Knights of the Old Republic” to “No Man’s Sky” to “Elite Dangerous.” It gives me untold amounts of joy to be surrounded by people that are as nerdy as me.

EVENING

6:45 p.m.: Finally back home. I order Thai food. While waiting for the delivery, I do a few pending tasks from work. For example, I schedule a review video for Samsung’s new tablet for tomorrow morning.

7:15 p.m.: I should’ve taken a picture of my Pad Kee Mao but it didn’t survive long enough.

7:30 p.m.: My wife and I binge-watch several episodes of “Rick and Morty”. I realize this is going to make the article sound like elaborate sponsored content for “Rick and Morty” but it’s one of the funniest and most innovative shows on TV right now and you should absolutely check it out. The side benefit to watching something this entertaining is that it keeps me off Slack and Twitter for awhile.

10 p.m.: The day ends as it began, with me glued to my phone. I spend about 30 minutes reading issues of “Amazing Spider-Man” issues on my phone and then go to sleep.

So what do you think of Pete’s day? Questions? Comments? Keep the conversation going by using the hashtag #NoTwoDays and share your story!

This post #NoTwoDays: A Day in the Life of Pete Haas of PCMag originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie http://sproutsocial.com/insights/notwodays-pete-haas/