The 12 – 18 hour days, the countless emails to make things happen, the pitching for new business, the entire whisky consultant side that I cannot talk about due to around 25 different non-disclosure agreements being signed and the time away from home.

These are mere ‘occupational hazards’ but worth pointing out.

My days vary a lot, and can change last minute, but this is roughly what happens from wake to sleep.

6:00am

My wife’s alarm goes off and is snoozed around three to four times before she gets up to get ready to travel into work.

6:45am

I scan through emails, answering anything that will take less than 2 minutes to think about and respond to, a handy methodology I have developed over a few years – if anything will take less than 2 minutes to do or reply to, get it done, it will only ever clog up your day later.

7:15am

My alarm goes off telling me Kirsty is about to leave and I need to think about getting up and obtaining caffeine post-haste. Instagram feed and comments checked. Facebook page’s notifications checked and responded to if necessary. Read The Times newspaper in its entirety.

8:00am

All emails have now been dealt with, I know what’s happening in the world and casually have both a hot water and lemon and a cafetiere prepared for consumption when their respective temperatures hit lukewarm to quite warm, any hotter and I just cannot drink it.

Doorbell goes, something gets delivered.

Maybe avocado on toast, maybe not.

Write a list of things I need to do today and tomorrow, and who I need to be in contact with to make various things happen or just for a catch up.

9:00am

Open Keynote, start writing presentations for whichever consulting project I’m working on, this could be anything from new product development in gin or whisky through to creating a new whisky brand or planning a social media campaign for a client.

11:00am

More coffee is needed. Update my list of to dos, tick some off with a satisfied scribble or add to the list.

Client calls unexpectedly, we talk about our NPD project for a while before they have to head off to another meeting.

12:00pm

Roll through incoming emails again to see what I need to respond to and what I can get dealt with immediately.

Frantically check calendar to see if I can go to whichever cool event I have been invited to. I can’t. Balls. I wonder if they are doing another one?

1:00pm

Kirsty, my wife, calls whilst she is out and about getting lunch in London Bridge.

Remember that it is lunch time for full time folk, then instantly forget to eat as something interesting has just landed in the inbox.

1:30pm

Begin to plan the three articles I need written for GreatDrams and various publications this week. Storyboard or bulletpoint content, get cracking.

3:00pm

I forgot to have lunch, and it is too late for coffee, I will be up all bloody night if I have one now, is it time to review some whiskies? Probably.

Have something for lunch.

4:00pm

Client call to go through the building of X Brand. We discuss work to date, any responses to the proposition and brand story I’ve developed and agree next steps.

5:00pm

Email check again, continue writing articles for the week, breaking from one to write another then repeating to keep it fresh and keep me thinking.

Send articles to Kirsty to proof and feed back on.

5:45pm

Kirsty phones to say she has left work, we have a brief chat then I mentally turn on the 60 minute countdown for how much more I can get done today.

Eyes down, focussed writing or presentation building.

6:45pm

Kirsty arrives home, cooks dinner, we chat and watch whatever is on the Sky Plus or whatever football is on.

10:00pm

Kirsty falls asleep, I’m about to but one last email check reveals I have an urgent client request, instantly wake up again to respond.

11:00pm

Fall asleep.