I want to direct our readers’ attentions to a great post at Associations Live called Managing Your Time. Time management is always important — especially for small staff association professionals, who have to juggle multiple priorities and departments — but I think the holiday season is a time to be especially cognizant of how our time is being spent. Between holiday shopping, parties and finishing up the new year at work, the holiday season seems to be even busier than the rest of the year.

The post linked above points out the usefulness of cleaning off your workspace at the end of each day and taking a few minutes to put together a to-do list for the next day. Personally, I like to write up my day’s to-do list each morning, and I get a huge amount of satisfaction from crossing each item off with my pink highlighter. (Nerd alert!)

One important point that I think may be difficult for small staff association professionals is don’t schedule more than two hours of your time each day. I realize the importance of this, but I think small staff professionals automatically get sequestered into many meetings and member engagement. Rather, what’s important is realizing what’s worth a meeting and what can be resolved via e-mail. If it’s a serious conflict or matter, try to meet face-to-face. But don’t think you need to have meetings for every little detail. Some small staffs work in such close quarters that this may not even apply to them!

I really want to hear from you, though. What is your best time management or productivity tip?

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