A Busy Data Analyst On Raising “Little Monsters”, “Contouring For Idiots” + Other Life Hacks
By: Vanina Nikolova and Chie Davis
At PowerToFly we share what it’s like to be a woman in tech — even if that means discussing diapers and data in the same sentence. Transparency brings life hacks we can all use.
PowerToFly’s Senior Data and Web Analyst, Vanina Nikolova shares how she integrates a full time job data mining with raising two sons aka “little monsters.”
A Day In The Life of Vanina Nikolova aka a Senior Data Analyst
2:00 a.m. — My 20-month-old ‘Little Monster’ (Theodor) wakes up and demands his midnight snack. I quickly debate if I should be a lazy mom and succumb to nursing him? In five minutes both of us will be asleep again. Or should I be a good mom, and remember that I’m trying to wean him off and suffer a 1-hour fight? He’ll spit out the formula bottle, cry and demand breastmilk. The lazy mom wins.
5:45 a.m. — Little Monster wakes up again and demands breastfeeding. I succumb again, knowing that I’m likely spoiling him and teaching him that persistent whining can get him a lot of things. I decide to worry about that later. He goes back to sleep. I wash up and get dressed.
6:00 a.m. — Time to start my work day. I sift through emails, Skype and Slack messages. I update my task list and plan my day. I may jump into a meeting as this is the best time to touch base with my colleagues in Europe and Asia. I check some reports, our Geckoboard dashboard and Google Analytics. I look at our numbers, quickly scanning for some unusual patterns or interesting finds. I update daily KPIs.
7:15 a.m. — Time to wake up my Little Big Monster (Stefan, 6 years old) who needs to get to Kindergarten on time. I always start out nice, asking him lovingly to open his eyes and get up, but it quickly escalates to: “If you don’t wash up, get dressed and eat your breakfast by 7:40 you are not going to see your tablet until the end of the week!!”
I wake Little Monster up, get him dressed and put him into his stroller. (AKA: Trying to get an angry octopus into a tight-fitting nylon bag, while keeping all of the tentacles inside). I remind Stefan to wash off the oatmeal that’s stuck on his face. I don’t know another child that insists on eating oatmeal with raisins, honey and dark chocolate chips every morning, for the past five years!
7:50 a.m. — We leave for Kindergarten. Stefan rides his bike. I push Theo in his stroller. I run and shout to Stefan that he should remember to stop and wait for me, before crossing the street. We make it to school safely at 7:59.
Click here to register for Vanina’s webinar: Google Analytics From Scratch
8:00 a.m. — Theo and I head home at a more relaxed pace. He munches on cheese, bread, a pancake or whatever he took off of his father’s breakfast plate before leaving. This is a perfect time for a call with my colleagues from Eastern time zone or Europe. I am ready to discuss web tracking of new features, the effect of the upcoming release on database reports, or the latest bug in Google Tag Manager. My route home varies, depending on the length of the meeting.
8:30 a.m. — We make it home. I mentally prepare for the ordeal of getting into my office room and closing the door. When Theo sees his babysitter, he drops everything and hangs onto my leg. I have to march with him around my leg all the way to the fridge where I get him some blueberries to distract him, or play his favorite song — “Sultans of Swing” by Dire Straits on my phone, until he releases my leg. I quickly dash into my office, balancing the breakfast that my husband prepared for me and my breastfeeding tea. I close the door and put on my headset. I play Metallica full force to muffle out the sound of Little Monster banging on my door.
8:45 a.m. — Time for more work. Depending on the day I may have a meeting, or two. Some of my favorite tasks are connected to building our reporting database from scratch, finding the right query scheduler tool to work with it and laying the foundation of a coming data warehouse. Another big task is an update and detailed look at our Key Performance Indicator and Marketing Conversion reports. A request comes in about measuring the time it takes for a woman to get placed in a job. I dig into the data to see if we are improving our turnaround time. This matters a lot to us.
10:00 a.m. — More loud banging on my office door. Theo shouts: “Ama…ama…yummy!” I try to ignore him, but the banging gets louder and his tone becomes more threatening. I open the door. He comes in, carrying the breastfeeding pillow and lets out a loud victory cry! He walks triumphantly to my chair, hands me the pillow and waits for his snack. While I try to come up with creative ways to wean him off, I wonder if typing with one hand and balancing a breastfeeding toddler on the other is a skill to put on my resume?
10:10 a.m. — Time to continue work.
12:15 p.m. — Theo refuses to eat his lunch and throws food at his babysitter. I have to intervene and sit with him. He feeds me. I hate broccoli and brussels sprouts, but it’s non-negotiable this time. I have to eat it and say “yummy,” so that he does the same. I’m glad that chicken and peas also come with lunch. OK — half of my lunch is done. I wash our faces, change our clothes and get Theo ready for the park.
12:50 p.m.- Theo and his babysitter go to the park. I clean the leftover mess in the kitchen, load the dishwasher and add the washed laundry that my husband put in before going to work, to the dryer. Real teamwork!
Click here to register for Vanina’s webinar: Google Analytics From Scratch
1:05 p.m. — I get on my bike and pick up my kindergartener. We bike to the park. This is my favorite time of the day, as we ride one after the other, in the nice weather. He talks without stopping about Minecraft, classmates, Minecraft, his teacher, Minecraft, Minecraft, his zombie girlfriend in Minecraft that beat up Josh’s zombie girlfriend. I drop him off at the park and head home.
1:40 p.m. — Back to my desk with the second half of my lunch. This time I add a delicious treat- Nutella bread. It’s the same Nutella that I hide from my kids, while warning them to avoid sugary junk food. I enjoy the quiet of the house and am very productive during this time of the day, as most of the email, Slack and Skype messages have subsided.
4:30 p.m. — The kids are back from the park. Stefan is immediately glued to his tablet, until his 40-minute daily allowance runs out and the screen control apps kills his access. Theo plays in the backyard. Stefan bargains with me to get more tablet time. I have a lists of tasks for him to finish, before he can get more time. They include homework, vacuuming his room and putting his brother’s toys in the toy box.
5:10 p.m. — I stop work and take the kids outside to play with the other children in the neighborhood. There are 10 kids on our small street, all at an age where they still enjoy playing outside. I also get some social time in, talking our neighbors.
6:30 p.m. — My husband is back from work. He takes over preventing Theo from putting every single stone, stick and acorn into his mouth. I start dinner. I cook a big meal, every second day, so that we have leftovers. I watch YouTube videos on Javascript, Google Tag Manager hacks and database architecture, while I cook. From time to time I sneak in a “Contouring for Idiots” video. I want to be prepared for those two times a year when I wear makeup. I also finish some remaining job tasks.
7:30 p.m. — We eat dinner and after I usually bake something quick, like muffins, crepes or pie, so that the kids can snack on something with no bad fat and a controlled amount of sugar. We don’t have a TV. We tossed it out five years ago, after not having time to watch it after Stefan was born. We get so much more stuff done at home. My husband helps with chores and plays with the kids. Laundry goes back into the dressers. Laundry that needs ironing goes into my office. It sit in a pile that gets ironed once every two or three months, usually during webinars or meetings where I don’t need to talk.
9:30 p.m.- One of us gets Little Monster in the shower and ready for bed. The other has to come up with creative ways to get the Little Big Monster into the bathroom and to bed. An epic fight with both kids ensues. They don’t want to go to bed and always have something more important to finish.
10:30 p.m. — The kids are finally asleep. We’re both exhausted, shower as quickly as possible and crash, usually with our laptops, into bed. I finish up emails and final tasks for the day. Sometimes I’ll check the news or Facebook, while hoping that one of us stays awake longer than the other, to charge our laptops.
11:30 p.m. — Hopefully everyone is sleeping. In a fairytale, this is the moment when good goblins come out to clean and put everything in order. But we’re in the real world, so we wake up to the same mess we left the night before.
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