As Vice President of Daniel Arsham Studio, Karl Cyprien is always on the move. His work spearheading collaborations for the internationally recognized contemporary artist has him traveling to Europe and Asia an average of 4-10 days every month.
He’s become an expert at adapting to ever-shifting schedules and fighting jet lag (pro tips: adjust your body clock the day before and avoid eating on the plane), but he still embraces consistency when closer to home.
“Because travel makes my work unpredictable at times, I enjoy having a precise routine when I’m home—the repetition helps keep me grounded,” he says.
When he talked to Jayaram, he was fresh off a trip to Hong Kong and Japan, and settling back into his routine in New York City:
6:00 AM
I generally start my day reading DealBook and the New York Times Daily, just to get a digest of what’s going on in the world and in business. From there, I’ll skim through my emails and flag any that require a response, knowing that I might not be able to get to them for a few hours.
Once I’m up, I’m typically taking my son for a 40-minute walk with the dog, and that’s a time for me to spend time with them. Once I get back, I’m making sure my son is situated, the dog is good, everyone has breakfast. I also try to fit a workout in somewhere between walking the dog and getting ready.
9:00 AM
I’m out the door and off to the studio. Most days, I’m taking a call on the drive over to use my time wisely, since my days are relatively compressed with meetings.
10:00 AM
Once I get to the studio, I’m jumping straight into meetings for the first few hours. Those could be with external partners that the studio is collaborating with, or our internal teams in New York or across Asia and Europe. I often need to touch base with the latter on various projects just to make sure things are tracking.
I’m also playing music throughout the day, which helps keep me focused but also balanced and calm. What I’m working on will really define what I listen to, but music always plays a big part.
12:30 PM
I don’t typically have time to leave my desk for lunch. So around now, I’m at my desk working and getting emails or presentations done.
1:00 PM
Oftentimes as professionals, we spend a lot of time in meetings corresponding via email, and we don’t actually get to do the work. My work generally involves putting together proposals and decks, reviewing creative that we or partners are preparing. A fair amount of my day also revolves around outreach–exploring new projects and, on a weekly basis, going through different project proposals we’re getting.
On an average day, I’m jumping between 20 different projects, each at different life cycles. Some are in the initial stages where we’re exploring the mechanics or the scope, some are underway, and some are toward the tail end.
I try to be as organized as possible, particularly with my emails, so I can quickly get a sense of which subcategory is the busiest just by looking at the sidebar on my Gmail.
4:30 PM
I typically leave the office around this time to try to get home and spend time with my family. Again, I’m taking calls on the way home—trying to use my time as wisely as I can. Once my son is asleep, I’m getting ready for dinner with my wife and starting the winddown routine.
7:00 PM
We save about two nights a week for being social. That could be at a gallery reception, an opening, date night with my wife, or making time for dinner with local friends or those from out of town.
To unwind, I also read everything from non-fiction to finance to fiction, and I’ve kind of been obsessed with just knowing what’s going on in the world–reading different forms of media from different points of view, just to get a better sense of how different outlets are reporting the news.
So, I read New York Times, but I also look at Financial Times, Bloomberg Business Week–occasionally I see what Fox News is saying. We’re living in a very peculiar time, but somehow, knowing what’s going on from a number of different points of view gives me peace of mind somehow. I always make it a priority to catch up on the news before I go to sleep.
10:00 PM
I may have a call in the evening with any partners we have in Asia, but otherwise I try to be asleep between 10:00 and 10:30 to start all over again in the morning.