Maya Zankoul is a Lebanese author, visual artist, blogger and television personality mostly known for her cartoons and comics published in her books and popular comic blog, Amalgam. Maya Zankoul grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2005, she moved back to her home country, Lebanon, where she earned a BA degree in Graphic Design in 2007 from Notre Dame University. Maya has written and illustrated two best-selling books (Maya's Amalgam Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) which are based on her comic blog. Today, 28-year-old Maya is married and based in Dbayeh, Lebanon. She is the co-founder of wezank and founder of Maya Zankoul Design. In her free time Maya likes to play the piano, listen to all types of jazz music, experiment new recipes, and watch good movies. In this blog, Maya walks us through a typical day in her life as web designer and illustrator... 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM On most days I wake up around that time. I'm a morning person and my most productive time is in the morning, so I try to make the most of it. I prepare a quick and healthy breakfast, check my email and answer urgent emails while having breakfast. 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM I will usually continue working from home non-stop for another hour or two, so as not to stop the flow of my work. Most of my morning work consists of email, planning and following up with my team on their tasks. I run two "projects" in parallel: wezank, my latest project with my co-founder (and husband) Toni Yammine which produces explainer videos, and Maya Zankoul Design, which is for my UI/UX work. 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM I get ready and head to work. 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM While at the office, I take several hours in a row to focus on specific design and UI/UX work for upcoming apps and websites. By this time, I will have gotten all the management part of my job out of the way, so I can focus on actual design tasks without the distraction of email or meetings. I will usually have lunch at my desk while working. 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM The early afternoon is reserved for meetings with clients, Skype calls, or discussions with Toni about wezank projects and direction. I find that meetings can easily disrupt my concentration at work, so I try to limit them to only when really crucial for the advancement of a project. 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM The late afternoon is a time to catch up on email, follow up with my team on their work for the day, and send them feedback. 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM Being healthy physically and mentally is at the top of my priorities, so I will often work out (cardio + strength training) in the early evening. 7:30 PM - 10:30 PM My evenings are for family dinner, movies, favorite series (I'm a professed Apple TV addict), and seeing friends. The evening is leisure time for me. I also cook lunch for the next day at night (eating healthy is also a priority for me). 10:30 PM - 1:00 AM On busy weeks, I will have an additional late-night work shift to finish any remaining tasks for the day, or for management/planning. On regular weeks, I like to catch up on some reading at night, be it books or blogs and websites that I follow. 1:00 AM - 8:00 AM Whenever I don't sleep enough, I find it hard to be as productive as usual the next day. So I try to get 7 hours of sleep a night. And that's it! Do you have an interesting career, or simply love your job so much that you want to share your story? Send us an email at dayinthelife@bayt.net, and we’ll get in touch with you!
