Hello! I am Connor Mitchell, Senior Consultant – UK Media Lead at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents.
What’s your morning routine?
I’ve always been an early riser. For better or worse, I don’t ever really set an alarm and tend to wake up naturally between 6 am and 6.45 am. Even at weekends, I just can’t seem to have a lie-in for love nor money. Regardless of how early I arise however, I’m always incredibly slow to get ready.
Normally I do some housework first thing to feel productive before the working day begins – i.e. putting some washing on, packing some dishes away from the night before or taking the rubbish out. Then I brew myself a cup of decaf coffee and do some stretching to ease myself into the day.
How do you organise your day?
I wouldn’t say that I have a set organisational system per se. Like most people I suspect, I have a handwritten to do list with my ongoing tasks laid out across each client and a sub-list that I know I need to crack through for a specific day.
Broadly speaking, I try to focus my mind and efforts on those areas that I know I will add the most client value. For example, if a client has a major news announcement to be released or there needs to be an important piece of content drafted within a tight deadline, then those are the kind of actions I’ll prioritise.
When are you the most productive?
Although I’ve been in the working world for gone five years now, the answer to this question still eludes me!
In contrast to conventional wisdom, it isn’t in the morning. This is ironic given that I would brand myself a “morning person”, but unfortunately it just takes me a while to get myself into gear.
In terms of my optimal working conditions, I like it to be quiet – very quiet. I’m not one to listen to background music and ideally, I like to be alone with my thoughts so I can concentrate.
What is your favourite workplace?
Variety is the spice of life. In other words, I don’t just like to work from one place and that’s it. I like variation and the ability to change my surroundings and the environment I work in to mix things up. Personally, it’s this way of working that I think keeps my brain most alert.
What I can say definitively is that I don’t like working from one fixed location. In my view, this is what breeds monotony.
What do you miss about working in an office?
Generally, I’m very grateful for the ability to basically completely determine my own schedule. But, at times, I do miss the more impromptu social side of things.
Of course, at Tyto, we endeavour to meet whenever we can in person (in non-Covid-19 times that is!). Although sometimes I confess that I crave the ability to spend a bit more off the cuff time outside work with my colleagues.
Other than that, overall, remote working is certainly worth the trade-off.
What’s your secret weapon?
Increasingly I’ve found that focusing on working smart, as opposed to working hard, is really paying dividends. Taking the time to really think about what the end goal is for a piece of work, before just throwing myself headfirst into it, is proving to be more effective (I think).