A week in the life... Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant, founder and director of Bath-based Grant Associates, provides an insight into his typical working week, highlighting how he balances commercial sector demands with life outside the office.

I don't have a typical working week.

Landscape architecture is not a predictable or programmable profession. 

It is like nature, whimsical and with its own cycles and patterns.

Depending on projects and travel commitments, my week might start on a Friday afternoon. 

Fridays are the bottleneck for sorting out day-to-day challenges, but the weekends are the time to reflect, free the mind, be creative, solve problems and love life.

Mondays are fresh fruit-fuelled, bursting into the office to shape the week with positive energy and the deliberations from the weekend. 

But after that, each day has its own rhythm. 

Sometimes, they’re set by an early morning call to Asia or a late afternoon call to America. 

Sometimes, they’re defined by a design review or a deadline that could be any time on any day. 

Some weeks feel like a day and others like a month. 

Some days are joyous, and some are dark and sad.  

Some days are hands on, real-life drawing and sketching, other days are densely packed with emails and screen time. 

Some days you work alone, others you are immersed in collaborative conversation. Sometimes within the office, more often as part of an international collective of different consultants. 

Then again, I might be outside on a site, exploring a new piece of the planet before pondering on what I might add to that place.

Today, I am making a great crested newt out of aluminum foil and Pal Tiya. 

Tomorrow, I will write a description of an ecological corridor connecting France to the seafront of Monaco.  

The day after that, I might fly to Singapore and arrive a day later when I will check in with our local office and meet clients to discuss progress. 

Do the days of the week matter when you are fulfilled with a rich diversity of experiences, thoughts and relationships? It is different for everyone. 

I am 66, and can be impulsive and spontaneous. 

It is very different for younger parents or those with other personal considerations. 

Then the structure of the working week becomes important and necessary.  

Then it’s another Friday. 

The weekly cycle of the office has come around again. 

Maybe next week, it will start on Tuesday. 

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