Have you ever wanted to walk a working week in someone else's shoes? Welcome to our series that gives you a no-holds-barred look at the Monday-Friday diary of successful women...

Jo Kenny founded GirlEatsWorld.co.uk in 2012. "It began as a hobby in my early twenties and somewhere to write about my passion for food. Over the years it has evolved into a professional venture sharing hearty recipes and cooking content." "I have a demanding and fulfilling ‘day’ job as a project manager and have spent the last decade focusing on developing my career. Recently, there was a big shift in my life with the arrival of my first baby and (almost in parallel) securing a book deal for my first cookbook. Juggling the demands of both a newborn and a book launch has been a wild and exciting ride, and stoked my hunger to scale up Girl Eats World beyond a supporting side hustle."

And while Jo plans to transition her side hustle into her main role, it's something she says will be "a process."

"The road ahead of me is challenging with a lot of hours to put in. Taking inspiration from those in the industry who have made the leap before me, it will be a phased approach from across a few years. In the case of the turtle and the hare I am definitely the turtle. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and in the past I have been slow to adopt new platforms and industry trends. Had I been quicker off the mark I would have a larger audience. It took me a while to realise ‘Hey, I’m really passionate about this, let’s turn this hobby into something more’."

But with her book Cook It, Eat It, Live It now available for pre-order, something tells us things are about to speed up for Jo...

Monday

Currently I am on maternity leave, and so this diary is the story of juggling life as a mother, the launch of my first cookbook and keeping my website going, with aims to scale it up. The dream is eventually working for myself... and there is work to do.

Each day starts at around 6:30am and begins with feeding and dressing my 8 month old son. Naturally, his needs come first and my professional ventures are concentrated into nap times and evenings. I spend the early part of the morning playing with my son and sending the odd quick email where possible. Then when naptime hits I plan out all the ingredients needed for the recipes in my second cookbook which I am currently drafting. I schedule what is needed in the food shop each week to meet my writing target.

Dinner is an absolutely delicious new rice dish which I am desperate to photograph and create content with. Unfortunately the evenings are still too dark. It may sound silly but productivity for a food creator skyrockets once the days get longer, with so many more hours to cook and shoot dishes. The clocks change soon and I cannot wait!

Tuesday

This morning I had some calls with bookshops to discuss potentially stocking my book, along with some launch events. Conversations were warm, however I remain reserved until anything materialises as getting stocked in high street shops as a debut author is notoriously difficult. But as they say: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So you’ve got to try.

I get out for a morning walk in the sunshine and spend it listening to a podcast interview with owner of Pinch of Yum: teacher turned multi-millionaire. Needless to say their story is incredibly inspiring and I come home with new ideas for a content series on Girl Eats World. I spend the afternoon drafting up the first one. It’s large and takes up a good chunk of the afternoon. Luckily my son is in a great mood and happy to watch me in his high chair and listen to me saying out loud what I type... he’s quite a handy sounding board!

I finish my time at my desk with pitching for content writing openings.

The evening is spent on the sofa with my husband. Under a blanket I create pins for Pinterest. It’s an easy task and important for generating website traffic but also time consuming and incredibly mindless. My plan is to outsource it soon.

Wednesday

I spend a large chunk of my morning shower pondering how to get a large brand that I adore to work with me. They only seem to work with blue ticks. Spend the rest of my shower grumbling that I’m not insta-famous.

Then it’s into the kitchen to do what I love best: cooking. The food shop has been delivered and I am stocked up with ingredients to begin working on exciting new recipes for the next cookbook. I have learned from my first one just how much time it takes to put a book together, so this time around I’ve got myself a schedule.

The afternoon brings good news that I have been selected to work on the paid content that I pitched for, so I get straight to work on drafting this out. It’s a fun opinion piece on restaurants, which I really enjoy writing up.

Thursday

My son’s new routine is going swimmingly and he is sleeping so much better; I feel like a new woman today after a good night’s sleep and a 7am start!

When my son goes down for his morning nap I finish up the sponsored article for submission and approval. I’m thrilled when the client responds immediately giving the go ahead - a good sign for an upcoming prompt payment.

The recipes cooked yesterday went really well and so today the working afternoon is spent writing these up. It’s always an incredibly satisfying job to tick recipes off.

I also catch up with my publisher to finalise plans for the launch of pre-orders. It feels unbelievably exciting to finally get to the stage of my book being available to order. The countless hours of planning, writing, editing and design are all coming together.

Friday

The end of the working week comes with the frustrating reality that you can’t have it all. Try as you might with your 24 hours, something has got to give... and in my case that thing has been cleaning.

Favouring working toward my future over being a domestic goddess has resulted in my home resembling a pig sty, and I reluctantly spend my morning cleaning, scrubbing and tidying instead of being at my desk. Babies sure do generate a lot of mess! The house now looks great but I am bored to tears and feel suffocated by domestic chores. As soon as my son wakes we’re off out for some sunshine and big wide open spaces. Note to self: invest in a cleaner.

My mood lifts on checking progress with my book, to see that the number of stockists is growing and has even reached all the way to Mississippi USA! It has me absolutely buzzing and sets the tone for a feel good Friday.

In the afternoon I work on securing book promo in the form of press releases, reviewers and interviews. Who knew writing the book was the easiest part! But I’m hugely enjoying the process so it feels nothing but exciting and energising. Bring on next week.