A Day in the Life of Assad

I’m not a morning person at all. Never have been, never will be. I’d go as far as saying that for the last 30 years (I’m 40), my first thought upon waking up each morning is to go back to bed. I just don’t get why someone would choose to get out of bed at 5am to hit the gym! That’s just messed up! However, the screams of three young children and the school run are, unfortunately, enough to usually get me out of bed for 7.15 ish.

I try my hardest not to even look at my phone until the kids are packed off to school. This doesn’t always work though. There’s something about reading my emails (usually from a certain key colleague who’s been up around 3 hours already at this point) that sometimes I just can’t resist.

Then it’s the typical early morning ‘finish your breakfast’, ‘brush your teeth’, ‘where are your shoes’ routine that every parent reading this will tell you is the bane of our lives! My wife usually takes the kids to school and I settle back to have some breakfast (usually cereal), whilst catching up on emails, Twitter, news etc..

I set off for work around 9ish to miss the traffic and am usually in for between 9.45 – 10.00. I’m trying to settle into a routine of working from home at least one day a week although there is no regularity just yet.

Then it’s on with the usually work-related activities including finance, general strategy and direction and trying to ensure that everyone enjoys working at Phase 3. I tend to work best in bursts. Although I have set tasks to deliver each week, there is no real routine in my work life. I prefer it this way. I’ve never been one for routine as I have a very low boredom threshold. I’m very much a burst of energy kind of worker.

Managing our rapid growth plans are a key responsibility of mine. We’ve recently increased our team by over 100% and I’m so fortunate to have a wonderful team who have the self-motivation, discipline, commitment and work ethic to be cracking on. It’s important to me that our team have as much fun as possible during the week and there is a fair bit of the usual office banter around football, global politics etc. We have a pool table and have recently started a ‘sponge football through the Dyson fan’ competition. I’m not winning! As the company grows, keeping our ‘start up feel’ culture is crucial to me and one of our biggest challenges.

I try to take lunch around 1pm and since our move to the northern quarter, Manchester – there is almost too much choice! I usually opt for a sandwich although there are times when only some greasy fish ‘n’ chips will do!

More of the same in the afternoon. I’m self-taught with all the finance stuff involved in running a business. I’ve started to enjoy this much more in recent years but my main passion remains strategy and sales. My working life has changed quite a bit in the last few years – mainly due to the introduction of the amazing Kate Wadia and the rest of the management team. I have less ‘in the business’ work to do but probably more ‘on the business’ bits.

I’m usually one of the last ones out of the office at around 6.30ish, again to avoid the traffic. I get home for around 7ish just in time to say goodnight to my younger two and help my eldest with some homework. I’m quite proud that I’ve taught myself long division all over again! I never liked it the first-time round!

I’ll have dinner around 7.45ish and then there’s just enough time to relax for an hour or so before bed. Usually either watching football (on my own), a box set (with my wife), or just fiddle around on my phone usually scanning FB, TW & LI. I’ve really cut down on the TV I watch although I’m still partial to some ‘Only Fools and Horses’ re-runs to unwind.

Then it’s off to bed around 10.30 ish hoping that I don’t have to get up the next day…

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