Week in the life of a 29-year old Part 3 architecture assistant, architecture tutor and architecture content creator
Written by Aliya, Edited by Aliya @archistudentnotes
This week I (Aliya) am sharing my own ArchiWeek as a 29 year old Part 2 Architectural Assistant working in Nottingham! I type my day in about 10-15 minutes using Notion on my desktop computer or on the Notes phone app. I find its a great way to reflect on the day and take a tiny break if needed!
Would you have tackled the week any differently?
Monday
Up at about 6am - Not on purpose, sometimes I just wake up!
Faced the normal morning decision - do I stay in bed and try go back to sleep for 30 mins (most likely ending up watching TikTok videos) or do I get up. Thankfully I got up. This week is a busy week as on top of my full time job as a Part 2 Architectural Assistant, I also work as a Architecture in Context Tutor at the university every other week so I make up the time during the 2 week gap. This means getting into work 30 mins to 60 mins earlier and altering my lunch break depending on how early I am able to get in.
Today, I got dressed and then did some very light @archistudentnotes content planning and recording for 30ish mins before leaving the house and getting into work for 8am.
Once in I did the normal morning routine. Checked my emails and looked over the work from the day before. Today of course involved looking over Fridays work from last week. I am currently working on converting a design scheme done by an Architecture in the office into tender drawings. I printed it all out to get better idea of where I got to and then made a plan to talk it over with the lead architect.
Note: always review/mark your own work before you pass onto anyone else.
We went back and forth on revisions pretty much all day and then work ended and it was time to get home and chill.
Tuesday
Up at 6.30am-ish.
Started the morning figuring out future of content creation at @archistudentnotes. I really enjoy thinking about it so it does sometimes get me up in the morning. I am trying to figure out how to be as helpful and as efficient as possible as next year I will be dedicating a lot of what has been content creation time to my Part 3 Course. Check out my YouTube video and please do subscribe for more free content!
Once in the office, I checked my emails and woo! A planning application for a project I have been working on for 6+ months has been validated! The day after submission I received an invalidation letter so it was nice to know that I understood the issues and responded with the correct information and drawings.
After reading the letter I got back to the tender drawings I was doing yesterday. There was a LOT of back and forth with the lead architect today again as issues were resolved and construction wall types were finalised and detailed.
Later, I remembered to email the client about the validation letter - really should of done it as and when this morning but no matter! All done and now it's a waiting game.
Note: Reply to/sort out important emails as they come in - or at least make a note so that you don’t forget!
After work I visited an event put on at Nottingham Trent University about the apprenticeship scheme. I made many, many notes which really needs its own blog post so I will do that instead of writing it all here. It was good though and I managed to do some networking before getting home to enjoy the rest of my evening.
Wednesday
Up at 5.30ish - I am so tired - I know these early mornings are having a huge impact on my mental health so I really need to sort it out sooner rather than later. Today being so tired I just wasted my morning watching TikTok videos for a couple of hours. Sad to admit but it is SUCH a time sink.
Note: If you have stuff to do and have an addictive personality, just delete the app lol.
I got ready and left to walk to work audiobook in ear. In the past I have listened to podcasts - more specifically the Diary of a CEO podcast and since Spotify have started offering audiobooks, i have started to listen to those too. Today I continued with Simon Sinek - Start with Why. Would 100% recommend. I listen as I am walking as I am trying to figure out how to add exercise into my routine as easily as humanly possible - entirely likely that my mood is partially based on lack of movement too.
Anyway, into the office. Continued working through this weeks project, detailing, doing some revisions, quick chats, sorting out issues etc etc. Slow end to the day on account of being so tired!
Mid Week Plug
Enjoying this weeks ArchiWeek? Interested in sharing your own week?
Thursday
Up at 5.30am. I swear my brain is just intentionally trying to annoy me -_-. This morning, waking up I felt relatively okay compared to the days before so I got up and started planning the rest of my week and looked into the next as well. A productive morning all things considered.
Walked into listening to my podcast which has really started to become a big part of my routine.
In the office my main goal was to finish the work I have been working on this week or at least get it to stage where the Lead Architect can take over tomorrow as I am not going to be in! (teaching). Got everything sorted, handed over the work I had done to the Lead architect and then hometime.
Tonight I went over the ArchiWeek schedule and ensured I had planned and scheduled enough ahead to feel comfortable and then as I have teaching tomorrow, I also started to do prep work for that. Prep for teaching includes checking the schedule sent uploaded by the Lead Lecturer, doing the reading that the task is set on and just general stuff like packing my bag ready for the day.
Friday
Finally Friday!
I tutor every other Friday and as you may have guessed from the previous couple of days, today is a tutoring day.
I still get up rather early but about 7am which is welcomed. I finish of my tutoring prep from last night, do some future ArchiWeek editing after scheduling a few more submissions and then I do some content planning for @archistudentnotes - I have a lot on and need to find ways to keep the content going whilst moving forward in other parts of my life too.
Got into uni just in time for a quick meeting with the other tutors and then it was time to teach!
I teach Architecture in Context and the year is split into morning sessions, an hour after a lecture and the afternoon sessions. Each group is briefed together at the beginning of the session and then split into two. 2 tutors for each. We go through the activity for the day which was designed to help with future tasks for the first hour and then moved into giving feedback on the work progress in the second hour.
4pm and my 50ish hour week is complete! I of course will be spending my evening in front of the TV probably watching YouTube and most likely gaming.
Note from the Writer
This has been a long week! Main takeaway is definetely that I need to get WAY more sleep. I know at the moment it is because I have so much on my mind and I want to make 2024 and beyond way easier for myself in terms of workload.
I will get started on ensuring I get enough sleep whilst you enter my birthday giveaway! Every year around my birthday I run a giveaway and this year is no different. I know students/gradates at the moment are looking for jobs and I want to offer some of my time for free. Check out this post for more information on how to enter!
And that’s the week!
If you’re interested in sharing your own ArchiWeek, your own reflection - click here!
