Before Shirley Ekblad saw the itinerary of one of her days printed out in front of her, she never really grasped how much she does in a 24-hour period.

An Avon Beauty Center owner and operator, Ekblad was one of 500 women to write about a day in her life at work for the book “Water Cooler Diaries: Women across America Share Their Day at Work.”

“It was kind of therapeutic,” Ekblad said. “It was interesting. I absolutely loved it. It took me quite a few hours to write it down in reasonable handwriting, but I loved doing it.”

Authored by Joni B. Cole and B.K. Rakhra, the book is part of a series Cole started when she was feeling down in the dumps one day, she said.

“It was a good idea that came from a very bad day,” Cole said. “I was still in my pajamas past noon. ... Then I started thinking, ‘What are other people doing right now?’ I was really intrigued with it.”

After deciding her project should include about 500 very different women with very different jobs, Cole said she has learned a lot about occupations she had never previously thought about. She said truck drivers, medical examiners, working moms and clowns are just some of the jobs the women featured in the book.

“It’s really important to get geographic diversity. Also, the economic diversity is really important,” Cole said. “I wanted blue collar and white collar and CEOs, people trying to get their first jobs after college.”

“Water Cooler Diaries” is the third volume in the This Day book series, which Cole started about women chronicling their days. She believes the books get such interesting voices that the series could go on forever.

“There’s no end to women’s voices,” Cole said. “There’s no end to unique experiences and voices, and in that sense it will never get old.”

Reading entries like Ekblad’s have made Cole emerge from her really bad day that started the whole series, she said.

“I get a little bit of inspiration,” she said. “It makes me feel more connected and more normal in a way.”