I’m writing this post three days into Spring in North America. I love the equinoxes and solstices because they mark the passage of time in very clear and natural ways. These natural cycles or rhythms are essential to all life.

Yet when we look at the nonprofit organizations we work for, we often treat them and ourselves as employees like machines, rather than living organisms.

I’m not trying to be philosophical. This is actually really important to the creativity and effectiveness of your communications team and to preventing burnout.

The Seasons of Nonprofit Work

One of our three suggestions for more peaceful time management at work is to seek out and then embrace the cycles or seasons of your nonprofit’s work and rest time. This is part of our larger CALM not BUSY framework for nonprofit communications pros.

Healthy growth demands rest. When does the work ebb and flow in your nonprofit? Where are the dormancy or recovery periods? If there are none at all, that’s a problem!

I’m not talking about times when your organization shuts down entirely, although those vacation days are great, too!

But what I mean is when does your organization stop to take stock of what’s been going on? When do you reflect? When does everyone get a chance to catch up with nothing new thrown at them?

Or do you only focus on the busy seasons, like end-of-year fundraising season, or whatever programmatic crunch times everyone dreads?

You also need to discuss how seasons for one part of the organization often precede or follow seasons for other parts. That’s especially true for nonprofit communicators who are busiest before everyone else as they do all of the marketing and communications for the programmatic work, events, etc., to come. 

Using our Big Picture Communications Timeline is a great way for organizations to start identifying the seasonality of their work, especially through a communications lens.

Know Your Own Rhythms, Too

What about you personally? How can you better pace your work at different times of day, days of the week, weeks of the month, and months of the year?

Look at the hours and days on your calendar. Are you giving yourself time throughout the week to process, think, and reflect?

If you’d like some help thinking through this from an organizational perspective, here are a few articles you might enjoy:

Movements and leaders have seasons – it’s important to know which one you are in

Seasonal nonprofit burnout disorder: You may be entitled to compensation

Tips for seasonal nonprofits to maximize the off-season  (Even if you aren’t a seasonal organization technically, it might help to pretend you are!)

Welcome to 2024! Starting a new year is a perfect time to evaluate how you manage your time.

If one of your issues is saying “yes” to too many things whether at work or otherwise, then this post is for you!

Here are the top five things you should do to help you take control of your time.

1. Do a Time Audit

Find out where your time goes by conducting a time audit. This is different from the exercise I suggested before in that you aren’t just listing everything you do, but also tracking how long it takes you.

It may seem a little annoying, but the results should be pretty illuminating. Set an alarm for every 15 minutes or so and when the alarm goes off, make a note of what you were doing during that time. Do this for at least three days to gauge your standard workday. But try to avoid doing the audit when you are covering for a co-worker, about to go on vacation, working on a major one-off project or other times with unusual activity.

Be honest though – if you spent that time looking at TikTok or scrolling through Instagram, then note that. At the end of your audit, categorize each note. You can do this is a variety of ways, but the simplest is to break them down between very important, not as important, or not important at all. (But be sure you don’t include needed mental breaks as not important.)

More on how to do a time audit.

2. Never Commit Right Away

Before adding anything new to your plate, take a moment to consider your other obligations and whether it’s important to you. Taking a minute before committing can also help you fight decision fatigue.

If you need to give some answer right away, these 7 Ways to Say No Without Actually Saying It from Kivi may help you stall before giving a final answer:

• “Let’s talk about our goal with this. What are we trying to accomplish?”
• “Doing this means I couldn’t do __________ this week. Is that a good trade-off?”
• “How about if I ________ instead?”
• “Can you get me more information?”
• “Let me think about that and get back to you.”
• “I’m going to put that on my Good Ideas List.”
• Say nothing at all.

3. Overestimate the Amount of Time Required

A meeting may be scheduled for 30 minutes, but how long do you chit chat with your co-workers before and after? Do you run to get coffee before the meeting starts or after? How often are people late? How many questions get asked? How long does it take you to get organized and back on task after the meeting?

Give yourself a time buffer that will help you deal with any problems or delays. Then if you don’t need it, you can use that time on things you may be neglecting like self-care.

4. Stop Keeping Score

Do you feel like you have to repay every favor someone does for you? Ok, first off let’s talk about “favors” at work. Someone doing their job is not a favor. You don’t owe Jill from Development help because she filled out your creative brief.

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You are not obligated to do anything outside of your job description because someone did something for you that one time. Only return “favors” when you genuinely want to help AND have the time to spare.

5. Prioritize Time for Rest and Breaks

Rest is a necessary component for better health and decision-making. A lot of the #NPCommLife posts explain why taking a break and rest are so important to your productivity:

• Schedule Your Vacation, Nonprofit Communicators, (and Actually Take the Time Off)
• Let’s Talk About Mental Health Days
• Toxic Productivity: Is There Such a Thing as Being Too Productive?
• Handling Anxiety When You Are Busy
• Is Time Management the Key to Happiness?

Other helpful resources:

• 10 Easy and Somewhat Unexpected Ways to Lower Your Stress Levels
• Balancing Mental Health in Nonprofit Marketing
• 4 Forces Working Against Your Productivity

Hopefully these tips will have you well on the way to a better, slightly less stressful 2024.

Here are the Top 10 Blog Posts published by Nonprofit Marketing Guide in 2023 according to WordPress most viewed:

Note: Several of the Nonprofit Social Media and Newsletter Ideas for each month usually do well enough to make the top 10, but seemed a little like cheating to include each one of them. I update those every year and you can find them under the Writing Prompts tag.

1. Four Models for Nonprofit Communications Teams by Kivi Leroux Miller
2. Nonprofit Email Deliverability Is Pretty Bad: Here Are 10 Steps to Help by Kristina Leroux
3. 2023 Nonprofit Communications Trends – Highlights from Our Report by Kristina Leroux
4. Photography Tips for Nonprofits by Kivi Leroux Miller
5. 7 Steps to Take BEFORE You Leave for Vacation by Kristina Leroux
6. Community Engagement for Nonprofits: What It Is and How to Do It
7. The Best Thing Nonprofits Can Do on Social Media Right Now by Anysa Holder
8. Why Communications Staff Need the Ability to Say No by Kivi Leroux Miller
9. Why People Use Each Social Media Platform by Kristina Leroux
10. Is LinkedIn Finally Having its Moment in the Nonprofit Sector? by Kivi Leroux Miller

Honorable Mention

These posts were top performers around the time they were published, but didn’t quite make the cut for the year:

• 2023 Marketing Trends from Around the Internet by Kristina Leroux
• Our Top 10 Tips for Working from Home by Kristina Leroux
• Making Your Social Media and Other Messaging More Relevant by Kristina Leroux
• How to Take a Workcation (Not to Be Confused with a Vacation) by Kristina Leroux
• 10 Types of Video Content Your Nonprofit Should Be Creating [With Examples] by Kristina Leroux
• 11 Easy Ways to Repurpose Your Content by Kristina Leroux
• Should Your Nonprofit Join Threads – the Latest Twitter-Like Social Media App? by Kristina Leroux
• Curating Content: Why You Should Promote Other People’s Stuff by Kristina Leroux
• 6 Messaging Options for Email Re-Engagement Campaigns by Kristina Leroux
• Stuck in Endless Review Loops? Talk about the Levels of Editing by Kivi Leroux Miller
• Funny Social Media for Nonprofits: Add Humor to Your Advice by Kivi Leroux Miller
• Three Ways Nonprofits Are Improving Their Editorial Calendars by Kivi Leroux Miller

Wish we would write about something in particular? Let us know!

Disney’s Boardwalk

We’re already more than halfway through May! Anyone else feel like the last few weeks have flown by? I am actually out of the office today, but still have the most helpful articles, posts, and tips for nonprofit marketers. This week we have a social media report, an email benchmarks report, better CTAs, GPT issues to consider, and more.

It’s time for Mixed Links…

Social Media Examiner released the 15th annual Social Media Marketing Report.

Here is An Open Letter to Anyone Who Feels Writing Is (Sometimes) Hard.

GetResponse gathered Key Insights From the 2023 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report.

Kath Pay shared 4 rules for better email CTAs.

Meta Begins Testing Generative AI Elements for Facebook and Instagram Ads

But here are seven GPT objections to consider.

Farra Trompeter of Big Duck chats with Marisa DeSalles and Michelle Flores Vryn about bringing radical honesty to communications.

Do you know What Is Trackable in Google Analytics?

And finally Seth Godin warns against doing the unnecessary Chores.

Catch Up on Our Content from This Week…

• A Nonprofit Email Welcome Series Template (and Five More Where This Came From)
• 7 Steps to Take BEFORE You Leave for Vacation

Nonprofit Communications Training and Coaching for You…

Need more training and tips for nonprofit marketers? Join us for any of our training events or our Mentoring Program.

The Nonprofit Communications Director Mentoring Program

Registration is now open for the July – December 2023 session. Includes the All-Access Training Pass and the full Mentoring Program. Due to the personal attention you will receive, space is limited to 16 people and this program does sell out. 4 spots have already been taken.

Learn more and claim your spot.

The Annual All-Access Training Pass

You can attend all of our training webinars and workshops at no extra cost (as well as access lots of other goodies) for 365 days with an All-Access Pass.

Learn more and get your All-Access Pass

Learn More And Register

Learn More And Register

Last week I implored you to schedule your PTO because 43% of you won’t use it all. And that absolutely still stands.

But with 35% of you telling us you work from home or remotely and a whopping 60% working hybrid, you may be thinking you can get away and still work. And you can.

According to that same survey from Go City I mentioned last week, 29% of remote workers say they plan to work while on vacation in 2023 and 1 in 4 will extend a vacation this year by working remotely.

That, my friends, is a workcation and it can be a wonderful thing! BUT KEEP READING…

Workcations vs Vacations

THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!

Repeat after me:  Workcations DO NOT replace vacations. 

On a vacation, you use your PTO and completely unplug from work. You need these even if you take workcations. You don’t necessarily have to travel anywhere, but you do need time away from your work duties to recharge. Go back to last week’s post for more on why you need a true vacation.

On a workcation, you DO NOT use your PTO as you are still, in fact, working. You are just doing it in a different location than normal. You can work similar hours, answer emails, attend Zoom meetings, etc and then explore a new place or spend time with friends and family later in the day.

According to The Atlantic article ‘Workcations’ Aren’t an Escape. They’re Practice:

Studies show that new experiences boost creativity, motivation, and learning.

Experts agreed brief, regular recoveries are more important for burnout prevention than longer, sporadic breaks. Research shows that the well-being effects of a vacation fade soon after you return to work, so we need recurring ways to top up our depleting energy reserves. And in our always-on work culture, taking a prolonged vacation can be a source of anxiety in itself.

Again, this doesn’t mean you don’t need to take a full vacation from work, but sprinkling in workcations throughout the year can be beneficial to your productivity and mental well-being.

10 Tips for Having a Great Workcation

1. Check with your organization about workcation policies (if they have any).
2. Tell your boss what you are planning. This post has a great script you can use if you think they might balk at the idea.
3. Schedule anything with deadlines before you leave and don’t take a trip during the middle of a big project.
4. Research your accommodations. Make sure the wifi/internet is acceptable and there is a suitable place to work.
5. Have a backup plan if the internet isn’t as good as you thought it would be.
6. Research your destination and make plans for your downtime/adventures.
7. Remember time zone differences.
8. Set working times and play times and let your travel party and work colleagues know what they are.
9. Make sure your travel partners have reasonable expectations about you working on the trip.
10. Keep track of the work you are doing to document your results in case anyone questions you.

Do you take workcations? Let us know what your favorite workcations spots are!

Anyone remember those PSAs that came on right before the nightly news that said “It’s 10 o’clock. Do you know where your child is?” I was telling my 18-year old about this and he was very confused as to why parents would need to be reminded to check on their kids. Ahhh the 80s!

That really has nothing to do with this post other than I thought of it when I wrote the title. Anyway…

Go City surveyed full-time workers in the US and found just 45% of employees used all of their paid time off (PTO) in 2022. And according to our 2021 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, only 43% of nonprofit communicators regularly take all of the PTO that they are entitled to each year.

Oddly enough though, 86% of Americans wish they had more PTO.

But, but…you aren’t using the time off you do have!

Why?!?

Let’s remind ourselves of the benefits of taking time off:

1. Vacations Can Cut Your Risk for Heart Attack
2. Vacations Boost Your Energy Reserves
3. Vacations Can Help Get You a Raise
4. Vacation Adventures Give You a Natural High
5. Vacations Make You Happier With Your Entire Life
6. Vacations Can Help the Economy
7. Vacations Help Keep Your Mind Calm
8. Vacation Happiness Is Contagious
9. Vacation May Help You Live a Longer, Healthier Life
10. Vacations Force You to Improve Your Workflow
11. Vacations Can Make You a Better Boss

Plus the Harvard Business Review says employees who took 11+ vacation days were over 30% more likely to receive a raise than those who took fewer days. And for each 10 vacation hours an employee used, their performance review scores raised 8% on average.

Not too shabby, right?

It’s time to schedule some time off, friends! And spare me the excuses like:

1. You feel guilty. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using your PTO. They’re yours.
2. You’re saving them “just in case.” Unless you know you have events coming up, schedule out any unused days now.
3. There’s too much work. You either need better time management skills or you need to have a talk with your boss about workload and boundaries.
4. It’s too expensive. Schedule a staycation, visit family, or one of these other inexpensive ideas.

We just opened our 2023 Summer Vacation Challenge in the Community! (Not a member yet? You’ll need a free membership to access. Just click the community invite in your welcome email to access. Already a member? Search “community” on your student dashboard to find the join link)