Structure your day the “Dutch way”

Marike is the head of a popular marketing agency Uw Persvoorlichter in the Netherlands, and since we all know that those countries to the west are known for being incredibly time efficient nations, and since good habits die hard, we wanted to find out first-hand if this legendary efficiency spills over into the marketing industry and into Marike’s day.

We looked at how a single, carefully planned day “according to Marike” plays out on her agency.

AM email madness

It’s a lovely crisp morning in both Weesp and Marike and is sitting behind her desk overlooking people riding their bikes to school and work.It’s 8.00 AM and with coffee in hand, it’s time to check the all-important inbox for requests that may have come in overnight from customers or potential customers. This takes care of the first hour of the day. She’s not in it alone however, as she has an external colleague whose office is in Hague. This allows Marike to share her work on projects equally.

Once the emailing is out of the way, Marike continues on and starts calling the media for press releases at around 9.00 AM, following by publishing the news on other platforms.

There is also time to do some thinking and brainstorming for new ideas. Loads of pencils, fluorescent sticky notes, paper in the bin and many litres of coffee later, the clock has passed midday and it’s time for lunch.

Marike heads to lunch at 12.30 PM; not alone of course. Its either with a client, colleague or a journalist she is currently working with.

After good food, it’s back to business

Since Marike doesn’t like or want to rush good food, lunch stretches to an hour and a half. By 2.00 PM it’s time to get back behind the desk and carry on with the day.

Marike heads back to the email inbox and phone to check the news of the day. She follows this up closely with a new press release for the customer.

Another hour and a half later and she is off to a meeting with a customer. Once the meeting is over, she checks the internet and makes a report on successes in the media. The day is slowly coming to an end at 5.00 PM but Marike still has an hour of work ahead of her. So she spends the last hour of the day preparing and setting up a new press release and making a press list.

Finishing time is within reach

This is the time Marike closes her laptop and calls it a day. With another successful, jam-packed day behind her she’s off home to spend time with her family and friends to relax and recharge before it all happens again tomorrow. However, Marike’s role means the work often spills into late nights and weekends. Late nights are often quieter times to catch up on the day’s work and weekends; Sundays are used especially to catch up on what’s left from Friday.

It seems to us that working in the marketing industry is truly exciting. No two days are ever the same as there are always different customers and companies to deal with. If you want to contact Marike or find out more about her agency, feel free to check out her website on uwpersvoorlichter.nl