For entrepreneur Aditi Deo, whose company — The Doodle Factory — has been taking the art of doodling to a different level, a day off means chilling out with family and actually doing something really creative.

Some time off:

A day off — that’s a real toughie. As a mother of two young girls, I hardly get, what you might call, a day off.

But I have two strategies to an off-day: the days I spend with my kids and the days I spend with myself. On my days off, that I get for myself, I have a lot of things to do.

First I hit the first available bookshop and browse like crazy. Bookshops are an amazing resource of design, colour, typography, literature and what-have you and they just fill me up with a great energy. I invariably land up buying one or two books or movies after a couple of hours.

Someone for chai 

I drop in on unsuspecting relatives for tea — that’s a real treat! I love to get my hands into a lot of DIY projects — which I’m constantly browsing for on the net. The latest has been soap-making. I love to knit, crochet, embroider and I’m very skilled at all these.

Invariably, I have an on-going project which I take up and continue. Quite often though I find myself trying out some art project too; something other than what I may be doing at work — so maybe an oil painting or papier maché crafts could be the order of the day.

Shop shop!

I am usually very busy with either my work or my kids’ routines I hardly get time to shop — so on some of my off-days by myself I take myself shopping. This activity only takes place if I decide to take an off-day during the week. Tuesday mornings are a great time to go shopping because most shops are totally empty and I can have all the peace and quiet I like.

I am also a huge movie fan and have often indulged myself in movie marathons like the Godfather trilogy, Omen Trilogy, my own collection of Nora Ephron movies — I’ve watched all these back-to-back all by myself.

Hwllo there, kiddos!

With my kids, the day-off has a totally different tone. If my husband isn’t busy that day, off usually involves a long drive. But otherwise my kids and I, we take up 45-minute long activities interspersed through the day with a movie and three meals thrown in.

So we bake brownies, cook Masterchef recipes, play board games like Cluedo or Pictionary, make storybooks or some other ridiculous craft that requires adult supervision.

I love my days off as much as I love my workdays because there are a lot of things to be done and I want to have dabbled in as much as I can while I can still do it.