‘I discourage my team from working past 8.00pm’ – 24 hours…with Anchor Agency’s Larry Lim

8.30am: A typical morning cannot begin without multiple alarms. Let’s just say I have a love-hate relationship with the ring-tone. Though I hate to admit it, I fall into the category of a creative who is just not a morning person.

9.00am: My eyelids draw open and I start by browsing through my to-do list, social media feeds and reading the news. I like to keep track of shares on my watchlist for potential buys, and bookmark new animation videos to keep tabs on the latest trends.

9.45am: I grab a hot plate of chicken noodles and a cup of kopi siew dai (coffee with less sugar) for breakfast at my favourite coffee shop near my neighbourhood. It’s been my breakfast since poly days.

10.00am: I make my way to work. Being a relatively small social content agency, we work out of a little cosy corner in a coworking space.

10.30am: This is when I typically have a quick catchup with my creative partner, Xinting, who leads the social content and business development side.
We usually talk about the work in progress for all projects on hand ,as well as business administrative issues. As we are a startup, we have to wear different hats for the business, even if it is not within our scope of work.

11.00am: The fun begins. The first step is to choose music for the day. I make it a point for us to take turns as it helps me understand the people my colleagues are. It also helps keep our work environment fun and lively.
After briefing my team on what needs to be done for the day, I will always follow up at the end of the meeting, having them repeat to me what the deliverables are and timelines required for each animation video so that we are aligned on the deadlines.

 

12.00pm: Here’s when I look into sending quotations and replying to emails/messages from clients. I also take the time to explore new businesses through various online platforms that require post production/social content support.

At times, we do educate our clients on what is required to get started with us. In fact, we get a lot of queries from clients that want to be different and unique. But everyone wants to be different and unique, isn’t it? This is the time where we get them to identify their unique proposition.

1.00pm: A time to talk about everything under the sun with my colleague – lunch time at our favorite ban mee stall in Suntec’s Food Republic. Even though it’s not exceptionally special, I guess it’s the company I keep that makes me feel warm.

2.00pm: We head back to the office for a quick review on the progress of the team. Being the motion director of the company, other than the essential part of the business as previously mentioned, I have to ensure that the backend needs to operate well.
So, ensuring that each designer/freelancer hits the client’s brief and maintains the agency’s animation standard is the main part of my job. As each individual animation studio agency operates differently, we will always want our team to maintain a useful workflow while keeping the animation identity unique for the agency.

4.00pm: We will do a quick brainstorming session with the team on the latest trends in Singapore. Perhaps a pun or a meme that we can use for our Instagram account.
If work permits, we will use the next one or two hours to build content that we can use for our social media.

Most of the time, I encourage designers to create a short three or five second animated video that they can use for their own Instagram’s art account. We believe that this is the most effective way to bring their social presence out in the industry.

7.00pm: Time to regroup and discuss what is left on the plate. For projects that require more work, I lend an extra pair of hands to help the team.

8.00pm: We stop all work at this time. I hugely discourage any of my team staying beyond 8.00pm as I don’t believe productive work is possible after that time. Having said that, we do believe in the phrase “Work hard, Play hard.” So beyond 8.00pm, if we are still not feeling worn out from the day, we will play a round or two of Overwatch.

9.00pm: We must not forget to allocate some time for our own social lives. I will try my best to meet close friends or clients for a quick drink/dinner. We never like to talk about work after working hours be it with our close friends or clients.
Our conversations will generally revolve around the latest movies to the most absurd news in Singapore.

11.00pm: I shut down for the day. The time where I slowly respond to any message that I have missed out on and pin down all the email that needs to be responded to. And yes, this is the time of day where I start to binge watch previews for NBA on YouTube, especially considering it is playoff season.
With that, I drift off to sleep in preparation for the next day.

Larry Lim is motion director at Anchor Agency. He is based in Singapore