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Date:
October 22, 2021

Author:
Ashlyn Carter

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Hey! Ashlyn here, OG copywriter for creatives—reporting for duty. 

Let's get you a message so tight you can bounce a quarter off of it. Around here, we serve up science-based storytelling strategies the creative set.  Even while raking in more than 1.26M in agency work since I've been at it, I firmly believe working from a place of rest (not hustle) IS possible—and I want the same for you. Words matter. Best be sure they work (and oui, with math) ... and know how to party while they're at it. 

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Reading time: 13 min.

What does a day in life look like if you are a copywriter? Well, the quick answer is everybody’s days are probably a little different, obviously, but if you’ve been a copywriter or a content writer, or just an entrepreneur for a little bit, then you know that you can set some sort of semblance and framework around it to organize your day.

Today, I’m walking you through what a typical day looks like for me as a copywriter, how I organize my time to sit and have deep writing time, how I organize client meetings, and more. 

You all had questions like this in comments in the past: 

  • “This was such a fun and useful look behind the scenes! I love the way you have structured your days… I need to get better at implementing boundaries like these… otherwise, as you know, it’s too easy to get immersed in work and then you realize you haven’t worked out or eaten or even made it out of your sweat pants all day…lol. Anyway, this was great”
  • “This video gave me some really good ideas for my daily schedule and boundary setting.”
  • “Awesome. I love how you prioritize doing things you like in the day. Apart from your work. Although I was expecting a lottt of time spent co-ordinating with clients, teams and typing”

I like creating videos like this because I just want to remind you that I am also a hot mess express over here a lot of days.

I am a very organized, forgetful person—it’s a thing. 😉

These are parameters and frameworks I’ve given myself, so I can still be creative and a visionary all over the place, but also get stuff done because that’s the only way my business is gonna make money if I actually put my brain where it is most powerfully used.

Let’s start off with my morning routine!

⬇️Don’t forget to click here or down below to grab your freebie: Find Your Brand Voice Guide!⬇️



No. 1| My Morning Routine

Now, I’m gonna give you the cliff notes because I have done a full video on my morning routine, and I’ve done a video and blog about three weekly routines that I have consistently done for probably five and a half years now. 

**I’m gonna preface this part by saying I have always been a morning bird.** Even in the days of having an inflatable chair from Limited Too in my bedroom, as a young preteen in doing my little teen Bible devotion or whatever in the mornings.

I have always liked to get up and start my day with some sort of like, okay, here’s where we are in life. This morning routine, and again, why I like that P.R.E.S.E.N.T morning routine I talk about in that video so much is because it’s given me the space to ebb and flow. As my business has grown, as I’ve been in seasons of launch in my business, in seasons of more quiet and my business. Pregnancy, maternity leave, I still do this morning routine. 

So this is a day in the life classic, regardless of the time I’ll wake up. If I’m on vacation or not, the first thing I do is chug water and do that right out of bed. Sometimes I put some lemon in it and then, only then am I allowed to get coffee. It is so simple, but if you’re a coffee drinker, like get yourself in a habit of always prepping the coffee machine in the morning or your fridge press pour-over, whatever you do, it is the biggest reward to wake up and do that. That sounds simple. I don’t think I really started doing that regularly until the past year—highly recommend

Next, I read, I do some devotion time. I read the Bible first. I’ll link some of my favorite resources for that below. After I read scripture, if no one is crying upstairs yet, I then have the opportunity to read whatever I want. Like a book, I’m obsessed with reading. I’m not trying to just constantly reference videos, but if you are interested in hearing more about how I read, I’ve done a video on that. I will say that I have a very hard time at night reading anything that’s not fiction or fluffy. So my time in the morning is when I have an opportunity to read a little bit more about philosophy or theological learnings or business book, that’s for in the morning. 

a day in the life of a copywriter - ashlyn writes

Next up I pray, I use my Val Marie prayer journal to pray. I like it because I’m able to jot out and see over time what I’m praying for. It’s kind of cool at the end of the year to look back on. 

At this point, the kids are definitely up. So we do family breakfast. We have some playtime, get them ready and either my husband or I take them off to nursery school. 

In that P.R.E.S.E.N.T morning routine, exercising is in there. In my exercise routine, I either do a 15 minute Peloton exercise, whether it’s on the bike or I honestly just like some of the little strength training exercises that are in there. There’s so many that are like 15 minutes, which is a blessing, that’s all I have time to do. If I don’t do that, then I’ll just go on a quick walk in the morning. Part of my morning routine is listening to a news podcast that’s again about 15 minutes. So I pop on my favorite one and listen to that.

That’s *everything* I do in the morning before I start my work day. 

Related: A Week In the Life | 3 Weekly Routines for Success


No. 2| 8:30am to Lunchtime

Okay, next up in my daily routine, the time from about 8:30 in the morning to lunchtime. One thing I have to do when I first sit down at my desk is plan my day out and make sure that I’ve got everything plotted. I do not sit straight down and just start doing the first thing on my desk, I never open my inbox. 

a day in the life of a copywriter - ashlyn writes

First thing in the morning, I’ve got to sit down again and be like, okay, what needs to get done today? What time blocks am I gonna put these in during the day? All that’s planned out because I do have my dream week scheduled. And this is where I start, by the way, hit the subscribe button and the bell next to it. Next week, I’m doing a video that shows more about like how I set up my planner. So you’ll learn a little bit more about that there, because of that planning, I already sit down at my desk knowing what the big three things are I need to do that week. Like the things that have to get done for the business’s livelihood. And I also know that day because I set it up the previous day, what three things need to get done this day. Okay, so I know what I’m tracking after. 

When I sit down and take my vitamins, I also take this weird powder my friend Helen told me about, maybe a placebo it’s called, Focus Brain. Maybe it works, I light a candle. I’ve talked about that in some videos and dab on some essential oils. This kind of like tricks my brain in knowing like it is go time, we are on the field. We’re performing now, the first thing I’m going to do is my rest to work wind up routine, that sounds fancier than it is. It’s just a set of tasks that I need to do before I get going, I’ll put them up over the side. 

a day in the life of a copywriter - ashlyn writes

In my dream world, I would get all of these things done before I first dive into my number one big task of the day. But realistically, I only get about four-ish of them done. Then for this next block, I am hunkered down, like in a cave, before I take lunch, I’m trying to get two of the things on my big three list checked off.

So those things are going to ebb and flow depending on what focus day it is of the week. —>

✏️Marketing Mondays—copyrighting or client work and our team call

✏️Tuesday and Wednesday— product development, either enhancing the copy bar shop items or curriculum and Copywriting for Creatives or Primed to Launch.

✏️Thursday— meetings, partnership meetings, client meetings, customer meetings, anything like that is on Thursday. 

✏️Friday—I’m doing admin and finances. 

Related: How to Batch Work & Organize with Themed Days


No.3| Lunch 

Okay, that gets me to about 12:30 or one in the day, this point I go into the kitchen and grab some lunch. If my husband’s home, I talk to him. Lately, I also put on some dumb TV show during the day, just break, get my brain off of work for a little bit. I’ll call my mom or my sister, sit on the porch for a sec. Pet my dogs, have an actual step time away.

I used to work over my desk, I think that was a relic from corporate days. I realized I can either spend 45 minutes eating lunch over my desk, not really getting either done well or definitely not enjoying the process of like having some good food or I can spend 20 to 30 minutes, stepped away from everything and then go back to work and be able to focus more, you see the obvious answer. 


No.4| Early Afternoon

Okay, early afternoon, back to work. I try very diligently to be a maker in the morning and a manager in the afternoon. 

I do not start talking to my team really beyond a few voxers back and forth with my integrator until afternoon, ’cause I’ve got to get through two of those major work focus things in the morning. Like I said, internal meetings are on Mondays. At this point, if it’s a Monday, this is when I’m hopping on the phone on Zoom with my team to chat with them. This early afternoon slot too, is when I’m getting back to messages on Voxer and in Slack. So during this slot I’m doing that, I’m also copy chiefing. 

a day in the life of a copywriter - ashlyn writes

On the agency side of my business, things that our team has assembled, deliverables for clients, nothing goes out without me looking at it at the end of the day and editing and making sure that everything is exactly what the order was. I’ll copy chief during this time too, that takes a chunk. I’ll help my integrator in customer service troubleshoot anything on the copy bar side of the business and products and templates and courses that we have. And then late afternoon comes.

Related: How to Build a Team: Behind-the-Scenes of Team AW


No. 5 | Late Afternoon 3-5pm

About the three to five-ish o’clock block, this is what I do, realistically like I said, out of the big three, I’ve probably only gotten two of them done. I’ve got this one lingering one left. Getting three big things done every day is a struggle if I’m honest. So I’ll try to hunker down and get at least some big movement done on that last thing— it may spill over into the night. 

I’ll also say at this point, if these big three things that I’m working on are like very important, like launch-related, running a timeframe. I love doing a very early morning sprint. I started doing them about the time COVID began and it just had so much, I needed to focus on to keep the business alive. I would get up at like four or 4:30 in the morning and turn on Zoom with a friend. Hey Abby, we wouldn’t say a word. We would just both have our cameras on. And we would work for an hour and a half and knock out one of those. So if you really need your big three done, and you can’t, maybe you’re following this kind of schedule. I would recommend that, I still pull that out from time to time.

Related: My Evening Routine: The Work-to-Rest Wind Down

 I do as much during this time as I can before I’m at my wit’s end, ready to go see the kids, play with my family. And then I sign off. I also have a work to rest wind down routine. Sometimes I do during this block, more often I’ll pop open in my laptop at night and do a couple of these things. 

Mainly it’s doing an inbox sweep. I don’t spend much time at all in my inbox. I just am very firm in that that has taken years to get to. I could do an entire other video on that, but I’ll probably only spend at max, one hour every day in my inbox, and then it’s supper time. 


No.6 | Evening

During the evening, either I’ll cook supper, or my husband will, we’ll play with the kids, go on a walk, play outside, gotta do that bath time routine, bed, reading, everything like that. By the time all the family stuff is done, It’s like 7:30, sometimes eight o’clock. That’s probably the first time I have from 4:30, four, five, whenever I get off to catch my breath.

a day in the life of a copywriter - ashlyn writes

Like I said, at this point, in my daily routien, if we’re in a launch week and I’ve got a lot going on, I’ll pour a glass of wine, go back in the office and knock some things out or I’ll just sit on the couch and watch a show with my husband. We’ve enjoyed a good throwback lately. Or at this time, I’ll start reading again. Usually, the baby needs another bottle at this point.

I try to head towards my bedroom and start my skincare routine because I’m in my thirties, start that around 9:30, 10 ish o’clock, that would be late. I try to fall asleep between 10 and 11 because I have small children and we’re probably waking up once or twice in the middle of the night. 


Okay, there you go. That’s what a day in the life of my life as a copywriter looks like, like I said, factors obviously change depending on the time and season in the year. I learned very much that this changes depending on the age and stages of your family. I wanna share this one analogy with you. 

—> This is from my friend, Amber Housley. She has talked about how there are seasons of business. Sometimes it can’t always be summertime in your business where sales are crazy, and you’re just, you know, having all the blooms and the blossoming, you’re gonna have seasons of business where it’s winter and you’re hunkered down. And you’re kind of figuring out things. You’re gonna have seasons of spring and your business where you’re planting and there’s no big harvest yet. ‘Cause you’re just planting those seeds. And then we have seasons of fall where it’s just an absolute harvest coming in. 

>>This analogy was sooo helpful for me because I did just come off a year of being pregnant and then maternity leave. I’ve taken two maternity leaves from my business, I am off. I have to peace out, I am off. 

Like I said, this day structure that I’ve shown you does not always look like this based on if I’m in winter, spring, summer, fall in our business, but by and large, that container of it has stayed roughly the same for about five and a half years now. 

All right, please feel free to say hello down in the comments below. Ask me any questions about my daily routine, if you have them! Thanks so much for watching, here’s to working from a place of more rest, less hustle.


Reading Time: 11 Minutes Reading time: 13 min. What does a day in life look like if you are a copywriter? Well, the quick answer is everybody’s days are probably a little different, obviously, but if you’ve been a copywriter or a content writer, or just an entrepreneur for a little bit, then you know that you can set […]

10/22/21

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  1. martinrossow says:

    This is a really awesome and helpful article for me. I really appreciate your work for providing such useful information, thank you so much!

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