Are you taking the summer off? It’s something I’ve heard from many outside the higher education profession who might not understand the difference between staff and some faculty roles.
My answer is always that summer is actually my busiest time of the year.
The reason is three fold:
- Finishing out the incoming class
- Preparing for the next recruitment class
- Strategic summer projects
Strategies for Managing a Busy Summer Season
As I’ve worked over the past 15 years and managed the multitude of summer projects, I’ve developed a plan and strategy that helps me chart and manage the busy summer work.
Here are a few strategies that I’ve used to help me accomplish many summer tasks on my radar.
Chart it Out – Especially if this work involves multiple people or teams, it’s really helpful to break up the tasks by weeks. This gives me a sense of accomplishment by leaving the week on track, but I don’t get too overwhelmed because I’m thinking about key tasks in small, reasonable chunks of work.
Manage Meetings – I try really hard in the summer to minimize meetings. We have cross-functional teams, and if the team doesn’t have anything pressing, I cancel the meeting to give people production time to the team. I also try to make sure that meetings are working times to tackle parts of the work, as opposed to just status updates.
Communicate Consistently – Because we’re working with two student classes, it’s important that enrollment teams are in the loop. Both classes are important so we have to balance the work of both. However, we also need to communicate that with our enrollment teams, so they can help us in managing time and priorities of the work.
Mix Up the Routine – This might sound silly, but it really helps me to tackle some of the deep summer work. I love to change things up. It could be working one afternoon at Starbucks on campus, it could be getting casual so I can channel my creativity. I think the big thing is changing up my environment can force me to be creative in new ways, which gives me energy to manage the busy summer season.
Give Team Members Autonomy – Once you make sure team members are looped in on the pressing work each week, give them some autonomy to manage it. Freedom to manage the work is incredibly freeing, and it can sometimes result in new and better ideas. Something about know there is trust to handle the situation is incredibly liberating.
What Else?
These are strategies that have worked for me, but I know there are other great strategies to manage the busy summer season. I’m curious how you’re thinking about the busy summer season.
And Carrie On 