Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Several years back, I was asked to share what a day in my life looks like, and I did. However, it is still one of the most frequently asked questions I get, so I thought I’d share an update. I’m the Senior eLearning Developer at Traliant, where I spend my days building out different types of compliance training for various clients.

I work remotely, and I love it. I have a cozy home office, a space heater, and all of my pets to keep me company!

This time I’m sharing a Monday, which is one of my lighter meeting days. And wowee, it was a very productive Monday! Note: My days usually aren’t so translation heavy – a day like this happens every few months or so for me.

630am – 8am

I wake up at 630am, hop in the shower, and sift through my emails, and respond to some, while I eat breakfast. Breakfast is a smoothie. At around 715am, I dry my hair, get dressed, and hop in the car to take my husband to work. I drop Joe off, spin by a cafe on the way home to grab a latte, and then I come home to get settled into work.

8am – 930am

I fill all of my vessels (coffee, tea, water) and retreat to my office, where I get a jump on some translations before the rest of my team gets online. I manage to get through all of a French translation before hopping on a call with one of my coworkers.

We catch one another up on our weekends, talk about what we have to get done today, and then we get to work again.

945am – 1230pm

I finish a Hungarian translation and start a Norwegian translation before our weekly team meeting (we meet daily, but have a larger one on Mondays).

Our team runs through a deep dive of all the projects we’re working on and their statuses.

1230pm – 1pm

I get Oliver (our dog) ready for his lunchtime walk. It’s quite cold and salty out today, so he concedes to his nemesis – the booties, and we’re off. Lucky for him, there’s a lot of fresh, fluffy snow to rub his snout and body all over…I plan for a longer walk for this reason, even though it only takes us half an hour!

1pm – 230pm

I finish up with the Norwegian translation and start running through some test publishes for the next release of one of our courses. I come up with some findings, but they leave me with more questions than when I started. We’ll see what conclusions we reach tomorrow.

230 – 345pm

There are a couple of drag and drop interactions in the new release that I need to program, so I do that. Once I’m finished, I tackle my last translation for the day – Spanish. I upload the course file and send all published translations out for QA before heading out to pick Joe up from work.

430pm 

When I get back home, I fill out my planner with tomorrow’s tasks, and power down my office for the night.

Now that I’ve wrapped my Traliant work for the day, I’m going to make some dinner and settle in for some work on my ATDTK 2020 sessions.

Here’s a time-lapse of about 4 hours of work distilled into 5 minutes (don’t come for my posture…I KNOW!):

For the past bunch of years I’ve done an annual recap and goal commitment (or…goal), and this year is no different. 2019 was a wild one for me. Things that I did:

• Started a new job with Traliant as their Senior eLearning Developer;
• Helped Traliant win Best Video Solution at Learning Solutions 2019;
• Had knee surgery; and
• Delivered several workshops and sessions.

Now, let’s see how I did with my 2019 goals:

Personal Goals:

• Slow down and enjoy the present; –  I’m not great at this. There’s a theme.
• Have knee surgery to repair the torn meniscus; – Had microfracture surgery in July to repair busted cartilage and a torn meniscus
• Rehab the knee and then return to a maintaining a consistent exercise schedule; – Still doing this; the road to recovery is longer than anticipated. I’m in a nice fancy brace for the next 13 months
• Make additional dietary changes (maybe get rid of dairy?); and – Definitely did not do this
• Hit the cottage at least four times for max relaxing. – We only got here ONCE this year….waaaah!

Business Goals:

• WORK LESS; – NOPE! Definitely did not do this.
• Work smarter – implement processes that will make my work-life easier and more efficient; – Not really a process, but I did finally hire an accountant and it was glorious.
• Hire an accountant (something that I’ve been long overdue for); – See above!
• Maintain relationships with my existing clients; – Done! I worked with one primary client outside of my regular work.
• Invest in sprucing up the blog; –DONE! I had my bestie, Erin, do this at the start of 2019, and AMEN!
• Blog regularly; and – I published, on average, 2.67 posts per month.
• Continue to grow Sprout E-Learning. – Also kinda sorta; Many folks signed up for existing courses, but I was unable to push out additional courses because I need clones.

2020 Goals

Now, my goals this year are pretty practical and light. They’re a bit repetitive, but this year I’m trying to take some of the pressure off myself.

Personal Goals:

• Continue my knee recovery and get back to consistent exercise;
• Cut out gluten, despite my love of pizza, for the sake of my migraines;
• Plan an epic vacation with my husband; and
• Hit the cottage at least 4 times.

Business Goals:

• Give myself permission to say no and not feel guilty about it/reduce pressure;
• Speak at, or participate in, at least 3 conferences;
• Read at least 4 industry-related books;
• Participate regularly in industry chats (e.g., lrnchat or guildchat);
• Blog regularly; and
• Continue to grow Sprout E-Learning.