If living in London or any big city will teach you anything, it’s that there aren’t enough hours in the day. New Yorkers coined the term “faster than a New York minute” as the passing of a normal minute is just too slow for the fast-paced rat race lifestyle over there. Over here it’s no different and it’s certainly a rarity to have the luxury of spending hours in pre-date ritual preening.

I lament the days when I had time to sit with my hair in rollers whilst I ransacked my wardrobe over a glass of wine. Unfortunately my beloved ritual is no longer the status quo and  with dating, as with most things you need to be prepared and I firmly believe that no-one knows this more than a professional female who dates. So after discussing this with a few friends I’ve decided to share their wisdom as you never know when you’ll need that extra minute!

Firstly, leave your house prepared. We could not stress this enough. The night before the date make sure your outfit is planned. You can spend all the time you need inside your wardrobe and you definitely do not want the stress of trying to pull something together whilst on  your way to work. This is the hardest part over. Now when it comes to choosing your outfit, make sure it’s something you can wear to work and dress up easily for your date. No one has managed to grasp dressed down sexy like the London girl has, so follow their example. If creativity fails you, a simple well-tailored/fitted black dress can be sexed up with an amazing pair of shoes, a clutch bag and some accessories. And if that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I’ve found some ideal desk to date outfits:

Wear with a smart blazer for the office and add jewellery and heels for your date. Secondly, your makeup. The idea of desk-to-date is not to be transporting the entire contents of your bathroom cabinet with you so only take the essentials. After much deliberation with my fellow desk-to-daters, we found that the essentials include:

• Concealer (to fix what the day took off!)
• Bronzer – for that extra glow
• Blusher
• Mascara
• Eyeliner
• Eyeshadow

That’s it! Anything else is totally unnecessary and these can fit comfortably in a small makeup bag. We also estimated that the exact application time should be…10 minutes. That’s all you have I’m afraid. A colleague of mine can be counted upon at exactly 11 a.m to be doing her nails. As a massive advocate of “desktop manicures” she claims that when you don’t have the time to do your nails properly, this is the ideal solution. Failing this, you can always book an appointment at a nearby nail bar on your lunch hour. You can be in and out inside of an 30 minutes and still have time to pick up a Starbucks.

Now for some final quick tips – take bobby pins in case the hairstyle you spent an hour and half perfecting falls flat. Pack a spare pair of tights in case you sustain a ladder. Carry heels with you so you’re not dashing around in the underground in you’re heels as though you tried so hard to make it in time, you’re probably running a few minutes late.