Alex MacLaverty, managing director for technology at Hotwire, finds she gets most work done at the beginning of the day, so she likes an early start.

My Day

6.00am: Time to get started with my day! I like to get an early start on the day’s news, so I spend my train journey with the team from the Today programme. I am also one of the many commuters glued to my BlackBerry on my way in, checking emails and of course keeping up-to-date with who is saying what on Twitter.

8.00am: I settle at my desk and find that the first hour is often when I get the most work done, before the day has had a chance to really get into gear. So over a cup of tea I deal with urgent deadlines and begin planning out the day, lining up any extra meetings I may need.

10.00am: Mornings are usually spent catching up with team members in one way or another, whether it is discussing current clients and campaigns, brainstorming new ideas, or preparing and holding review meetings. We are just kicking off a new client in our clean tech practice, so the team is coming in to talk about messaging.

11.00am: Between meetings, and occasionally on the way to or from an external meeting, I spend some time responding to emails and calls. This is also a chance to discuss new business leads and proposals with colleagues and make sure that everyone knows what the priorities are for the day.

12.30pm: Today we have an internal lunch to discuss team training needs for the year. At Hotwire we have our own training academy to support all staff levels. It’s decided that crisis comms in digital and social media is a must, as is a course on using multimedia content for some of our junior team members looking to specialise in this area.

1.30pm: Time to get another update on the news agenda and how it has progressed from earlier in the day. News breaks and moves on quicker now than ever before, so to stay on top of it, I usually browse a few of my favourite websites and news feeds, such as the Guardian site and client-specific feeds looking for issues to jump or interesting angles we should be flagging.

2.00pm: Meetings, meetings, meetings! Afternoons are usually pretty full with clients and prospects – I prefer to meet face-to-face, but as Hotwire is an international business this is not always possible, so much is done over the phone or on Skype. Email is a great medium too, but nothing beats talking in person. First up is an introductory coffee with a software development company.

3.00pm: Head out to hail a cab or jump on the tube (far greener!) for an external meeting. I particularly enjoy visiting clients’ and prospective clients’ offices – it gives you an amazing insight into the type of organisations they are. You can really learn a lot from the look and feel of the space they work in and I do try to look at our own office in the same way, because it’s essential that it lets our personality as a business shine through. Today I am seeing a client to talk about PR plans for Mobile World Congress and provide an update on the media interest we’ve had so far.

5.30pm: I try to leave the office on time whenever I can, as I think this sets a good example for the rest of the team and cliché or not, a good work/life balance is important! We are not the kind of agency that expects people to work until 8pm every night and I am very proud that by and large we manage to strike the right balance.

7.00pm: I arrive home by another train journey and more BlackBerry working. If I am not going out then I’ll usually just relax with something nice for dinner and a bit of TV, before it all starts again the next day.