One of my favorite lessons that I have learned and continue to teach myself while working in community is not having to do everything all at once. Community is exciting and if you are like me, you want to be able to implement a lot of ideas, strategies, etc. but prioritizing when and how you implement change is just as important.
Plus, focusing on too many things at any given time is not sustainable, and it is one of the main factors that can lead to burnout.
Are you looking to narrow your clarity and focus? Read on to see what has been working for me!
Prioritize
Not everything needs to get done now. One thing to remind yourself is that your to-do list is never going to end. As much as you would like to cross something off, once you do another item takes its place.
Plus, there will inevitably be more important tasks that need to be taken care of first, which is where prioritization comes into play.
Plan of action: Once you have your big to-do list in front of you, start going down the list and putting an * next to each item in which you believe to be important. Once you have that list completed, move it onto a separate piece of paper (or Google doc, Notion, etc.). Once this is complete, the next step is to move on to ask for feedback from your team.
Ask for feedback
Now that you have your prioritization list set, it is important to schedule a meeting with your manager/team to go over this list. You should have a clearer idea of what needs to get prioritized more than others, but getting feedback from your team is going to confirm that.
Plan of action: Reach out to your manager/team and ask to go over upcoming community goals. Set the agenda to chat about this list and present why you prioritized some items over others and ask for confirmation if this aligns with your company’s goals.
Mapping out the calendar
After you have more clarity on the goals that you and your team want to tackle, the next step is to map out the calendar. What has worked well for me was prioritizing the team’s goals into quarters. Knowing that there is only so much that realistically can get done in 3 months, I broke out the prioritization list down even further to match what quarter our team would like to work on that specific goal.
Plan of action: Start small and scale with the goals that you want to accomplish per your timeline. For example, if you have 12 priority items that you want to focus on during the year, see what 3 goals that you can focus on per quarter. If time allows you can always add more, but don’t overwhelm yourself at the beginning.
Create the space for quiet time
Sometimes if you have a bigger project that requires some quiet thinking time, it’s hard to do if you have meetings scattered throughout your day or if people are constantly messaging you. Schedule a blocker on your calendar for Focus Time for that particular project or task so it doesn’t get scheduled over with a meeting.
Plan of action: During this time, turn off your notifications, turn on some focus tunes, channel your coffee house vibes (or go to one in-person!), and work it out. 1
Make a regular check-in
After each quarter or timeline that you set, make sure to do a check-in on what went well, what didn’t go well, and what’s the focus for the upcoming timeline. This is super important because if you realize that 3 goals per quarter are actually a bit of a stretch, then you can change up what the next quarter looks like.
Plan of action: Set a calendar reminder with your team at the end of each quarter to discuss how the quarter went + your goals for the next few months. At SuperHi we do this by hosting team-wide quarterly retros. It is a great way for our teams to reflect and plan for what is ahead.
Be flexible
In reality, you can have the best laid out strategy/plan but things happen. Priorities shift, project timelines change, etc. The point is, even if you have your selected focus areas for your timeline, be adaptable if plans change. Also, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get to everything as well.
Plan of action: If and when goals shift, go back to your prioritization list and see what can get moved around. At the end of the day, because some goals are more important than others if things need to get shifted a few months then so be it.
I hope that these ideas help bring a little more clarity and focus to your day-to-day community building process. Remind yourself that you’re doing great work (because you are!) and keep learning and growing.
Shout out to Tiffany Oda for the assist in inspiring & writing this one.