Daily life in an award-winning Aberdeen independent practice

7.40am

I usually get up about 7.40am, and the first thing I do is take the dogs out. We try to do a 30-minute walk in the morning. The dogs come to work with us, so it’s quite a long day for them in the practice, because we don’t generally have time to go out at lunchtime. I like to get them out and running around first thing, to burn off some energy.

9.15am

We normally get into work at about quarter past nine. It’s just me and my husband that work in the practice, so we go in together. My first job is to warm up all the equipment, and calibrate anything that needs it.

We’re only open four days a week, so if we’ve been shut on a Wednesday, usually by a Thursday morning, people will have left voicemails. I’ll listen to them, respond, and check any emails, before I start my clinic.

Lindsey Jones

10am

The clinic starts at 10am. My appointments vary from routine eye tests to dry eye clinic appointments. We do a lot of emergency care in Grampian, and we have done for the past 20 years. We don’t have an eye casualty, and patients are not allowed to present to the hospital or to their GP, so everything goes through optometry.

I have two slots that I keep every day specifically for emergencies. I’m quite lucky, because I have one-hour slots for my routine sight tests, which gives me a bit of wiggle room. If you have a patient who is only 20, they usually don’t need a full hour, which allows me to slot an emergency into that space. It gives me a bit more flexibility with my diary.

We also provide myopia management. In my dry eye clinic, I have assessments, but I also have treatments including IPL and low intensity light. It’s quite a mishmash, with contact lens appointments as well.

We do a lot of emergency care in Grampian, and we have done for the past 20 years. We don’t have an eye casualty, and patients are not allowed to present to the hospital or to their GP, so everything goes through optometry

1pm

Technically, my lunch is between one and two o’clock. Sometimes, that time will be taken up with emergencies.

Lunch is often soup, or scrambled eggs with ham or salmon. I spend maybe five or 10 minutes eating. The rest of the time I’m ordering contact lenses, or sorting out any emails or problems that have come in during the morning.

If I get time, I sit in the back room, and get a cuddle from the dogs. Maple, my oldest, likes to come up onto my knee for a cuddle, even though she’s far too big for that. She’s a really soft, sensitive soul.

2pm

After lunch, it's straight back into my clinic. There’s not much definition in my day, between morning and afternoon. They just run into each other.

When you work with the public, it’s really rewarding, but it can be also quite draining. You’re emotionally really invested when it’s your own business, more so than you are when you work for somebody else. That’s why we only open four days a week – so we can feel like we can put everything into the Monday and Tuesday, then have a Wednesday to recover and gather ourselves, ready for Thursday and Friday. That’s really important, particularly when it’s your own business, and you’re trying to give a really high-quality level of service. You need to be on top form, all the time.

Lindsey Jones

6pm

Clinic runs until six o’clock, and we technically close then. Support and business tasks are for when I can fit it in. It might be after six o’clock, when the last patient leaves and we can blitz through the admin. Most nights, we leave around 6.30pm.

7pm

We’re generally home about seven o'clock. Midweek dinner is probably something like spaghetti bolognese. I try and make things on my days off so that we just have to reheat and chuck on some pasta, so that we’re not wasting time.

Ideally, I try to come home and take the dogs out for a second walk and then sit down and have my dinner. Chris will cook the pasta while I take the girls for a walk, because once I sit down, that won’t get done.

8pm

We generally watch a lot of sport on TV, and a lot of Netflix. We’ll usually a watch an episode of something and then get ready for bed.

8.30pm

I often come up to bed at half past eight. I'm big into my skincare, so I spend a bit of time doing that, and then sit with my book, usually with the dogs, and read for an hour or longer, sometimes until 10 o'clock, and then my brain is ready to switch off.

I love crime fiction. That’s my way to unwind, although I’m rubbish at figuring out who did it. If I don’t read before I go to sleep, my brain just keeps going.

It’s taken me a lot of years to realise that resting and a bit of me time is so, so important. For me, that’s reading my book for an hour at night, doing my skincare, or having a hot bath and a bit of mindfulness. When I was younger, I was really bad for being very go, go, go all the time. As I’ve got older, I’ve realised that actually, that’s not good for my mental health.