Kristiina Coenen juggles sport and career – she describes her daily routine to us. Getty Images/Pakin Songmor
Kristiina Coenen, a manager at Deloitte, explains how she has a successful career while still exercising seven times a week.
Her sporting and professional journey began as a child – she was a competitive gymnast with the dream of taking part in the Olympic Games. A severe blow of fate ultimately did not stop Coenen from pursuing her goals.
She shared with Business Insider what she learned from her sporting career and what her everyday life looks like – and revealed her calendar.
Combining a demanding career with an active lifestyle is a challenge for many. However, Kristiina Coenen, Director at Deloitte, proves that it is possible to be successful as a leader while exercising seven days a week.
The German-Finnish woman born in Erkelenz, who founded the innovation hub “Garage” for “Tax&Legal” at Deloitte when she was just 30, gave Business Insider an overview of her busy everyday life – and tells us how she integrates her passion for sport into it.
A competitive athlete since she was a child
The passion for sport began in childhood. At that time, Kristiina Coenen wanted to take part in the Olympic Games as a competitive gymnast. Until she broke both wrists while doing gymnastics at the age of 13. But Coenen continued, started playing football and played actively in the club at the age of 14: She started in SV 1910 Brachelen (Heinsberg, district league) and played her way up to Düsseldorf in the association league.
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I became a director at Deloitte at the age of 32 — this is my career plan:
Sport had to give way to work
The team sport required several training sessions per week. But then in 2008 came my studies and my first jobs. Coenen gave up the sport.
She got her first permanent job in tax consulting at the age of just 22, at Deloitte, at the so-called “professional” level. That is the lowest entry level, about working students and interns, comparable to business analysts and consultants. Today she is 35 years old and works as Director “Tax & Legal” for the ideas incubator “Garage”. This means she holds the second highest position available in the company. The position is only topped by that of the partner, which Coenen is already aiming for.
This is how her exercise routine works
But what does the daily routine look like for someone who has so much on their plate? “My daily routine looks different every week,” says Kristiina Coenen as she shares her calendar with Business Insider. However, what has returned to her life as a constant and important balance: the sporting routine.
Kristiina Coenen im Training. Kristina Coenen
Which professional appointments come up within a working week depends on different projects and meetings. She would often have to travel for her job and reschedule accordingly.
One calendar feature she swears by every day is “time blocking.” Time blocking is a time management strategy that helps to divide the calendar into manageable time periods and thus plan tasks effectively. For example, by using “disturbing work blockers” (she calls them “quiet work” in her calendar), i.e. blocks of time in which she can only be reached in emergencies, Coenen manages to stay on task.
This is what a typical day looks like for the team leader
Kristiina Coenen gives insight into her weekly routine. Sensitive data is blacked out. Kristina Coenen
Never get up before 8 a.m.: Coenen swears by the power of healthy and adequate sleep. Therefore, she would never get up before 8am. However, she has had a little puppy for a few days now, as she says – “the world would look a little different now”.
Only available from 10 a.m.: In the first few hours of a day, Coenen can only be reached in emergencies. Because then she reads her emails: “I receive around 160 emails a day. I have several meetings every day. So the first thing I do in the morning is read all the messages – in peace.” When the emails have been processed, start them with the first open tasks.
Lunch with the team: Coenen takes a lunch break from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. As a team leader, it is important to her to go to lunch with her team members as often as she can. Even though she regularly works from home. The advantage of this is that her home is only a six-minute bike ride away from work, as Coenen explains. If she can arrange it, she also likes to go swimming at lunchtime.
Meetings, trips and calls: The 35-year-old is in meetings and calls in the afternoons, and if necessary, she travels for work during the week.
Exercise six to seven days a week: Once the work day is over, Coenen goes to exercise every evening. This is shown by her Urban Sports membership, within which she can show up to seven check-ins a week. If she has managed to swim at lunchtime, she often goes bouldering in the evening, for example. Basically:
Once a week, Coenen goes to Hyrox (a combination of endurance and strength training, in which Coenen focuses on running) for swimming, once for bouldering, twice a week. Going to the gym once a week: The sports enthusiast likes to meet up with good friends in the studio so that she can use the time on site to exchange ideas. On Thursday evenings, Coenen goes to badminton with her team members. “A good combination of team building and fun,” she explains.
This Deloitte Director at Tax & Legal trains privately seven days a week. Kristina Coenen
Your learnings for your job and life
Finally, Kristiina Coenen sees many advantages in her sporting activities for her everyday working life and her career: As a child, she was able to learn endurance and discipline through competitive sports, both of which she needs in her job today. She can also transfer her dedication to sport and the endurance she has trained there to her everyday work.
Going to play badminton with your colleagues helps with joint projects and co-working at work and is a great team building measure.
Finally, in sport as well as in work, it is good and important to have big goals: Kristiina Coenen wants to become a partner at Deloitte at 35, i.e. take on the highest possible position in the company.
She can already tick off one goal in sports this year: Due to her professional and private commitment, she was selected as a torchbearer at the 2024 Olympic Games as part of her application – and can thus fulfill one of her life’s dreams.