Bruce Moore Jr. is usually in bed by 10, with hopes of catching the 10 p.m. local news. But after a long, busy day, he usually doesn’t make it through the newscast.
“With having a young family, it is pretty busy from the minute I get home with eating dinner, bath time, and usually watching TV or reading a book with them before they go to bed,” says the president of Eastern Land Management in Stamford, Connecticut. “Once that is all said and done, my wife and I usually take the time to catch up with each other or catch up on work things to get ahead for the next day.” Here’s Moore Jr.’s average day.
When I get up in the morning, I am helping our family get ready for the day. I prepare breakfast, and some days during the week, I drop off my kids for school. My wife is an elementary school teacher so fortunately she has summers off, which allows me to get into the office earlier during the summer months.
I rarely eat breakfast in the morning during the work week. I typically make myself 1-2 cups of coffee in the office in the morning and then wait until the afternoon to eat lunch.
I split my time every week between both of our locations. My commute to our main office is only about 20 minutes and I generally listen to our local radio station. When I am traveling to our other location, which is 45 minutes away, I try to take on an audiobook or listen to news radio.
During the school year, I tend to get in later around 8-8:30 as I have to take our kids to school in the morning. During the summer, I tend to get to the office by 7:30. I am thankful for our teams as our crew dispatch runs smoothly and most crews are out by 6:30-7. I usually check-in with our team to review our financials, review bank transactions from the previous day, review and respond to emails, and prepare for any meetings of the day.
I am a believer of clearing my deck and doing most of my thinking in the morning. It allows me to feel accomplished and at the same time have available time to spend with our team and clients throughout the day. I am working to screen my emails and evaluate what might be urgent to respond to so I am not stuck at my computer.
I usually have 1-2 meetings scheduled a day and they tend to be internal with our team discussing current issues and working on strategy. I try to schedule prep time a day or two before every meeting to prepare an agenda and document any thoughts I would like to discuss. We utilize OneNote so that agenda is shared with each team member, and everyone has the opportunity to update his or her items to discuss.
I do not usually have a set time for lunch. I wish I could say that I come prepared with my lunch every day but unfortunately, I do not invest in the time for it. I just usually run to a local deli and grab a sandwich or salad. I will use the time mostly to go out and visit a jobsite or check in with a crew.
I usually spend my afternoon’s visiting clients, checking on crews or catching up with our management team to see if they need any help or support.
I usually leave in the late afternoon between 4:30-5 p.m. It all depends on my schedule for the week.
I try to get back to anyone at a suitable time and do not like to wait on responding. This makes having a “no cell phone time” tough to do. I would say my greatest accomplishment so far has been the ability to step away on the weekends or come home earlier during the week to spend time with my family participate in their extracurricular activities.
Prior to having a family, I would work a tremendous amount of weekends. Now that we have a family of three young children, I try to hold myself accountable about not going into the office on the weekends any longer.
