Episode #023: Secrets to Managing Time and Energy

Welcome to the Volunteer Nation Podcast, bringing you practical tips and big ideas on how to build, grow, and scale volunteer talent. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson. And if you rely on volunteers to fuel your charity, cause, membership, or movement, I made this podcast just for you. 

Well, hello there. Friends welcome to another episode of Volunteer Nation. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson. And today I want to talk about the secrets to managing your time and energy. I don’t know about you, but sometimes things start to drag a little. And we wonder how we can bring our energy back up to the optimum levels so that we can do our work. 

Not only just to get things done, but to have a little joy in our work. Don’t we all wanna have a little joy? I think so. And we want our volunteers to feel like they’re having joy. So I’m hoping that today’s episode will give you some inspiration to maybe change some habits that you’ve developed over the past few years. 

Nothing I’m gonna share today is rocket science, but it’s always something we need to remind ourselves of again and again and again, our own personal wellness and how to take care of our bodies so that we are ready to do the kind of work, the helping profession we’re all a part of.  

So before we get started, I also wanna mention that our Volunteer Management Fundamental Certificate course is coming up again. We just finished, or are in the midst of finishing. By the time this posts, we will have finished our summer cohort and we’re going to start our fall session in mid to late October. So I wanted to remind you of that if you’re interested.  

You know, people are really having a tough time engaging volunteers. It seems to be getting harder and harder to find new volunteers, to reengage former volunteers, to keep existing volunteers active and productive. But I am also hearing time from time to time from people who are knocking it out of the park.  

So it’s not that it isn’t possible to really have a robust volunteer team, but you need a very solid system in place in order to find success and we’ve got to modernize. And if you’re wondering what that means, we break it all down into our signature Volunteer Management Fundamental Certificate course. We take you through five weeks step by step through our Vlunteer Management Success Path. It’s our proprietary system built off of years, decades of my work and nonprofits, what I believe are essential elements of success in today’s world. 

When it comes to engaging volunteers, we want you to move forward without the frustration, you know, the endless worry and trial and error tactics that slow you down. You know, you can nitpick around and search for stuff on the internet and it takes forever to land on something that works. Rather, you can spend five weeks with us and get the blueprint you need. 

So enrollment for our next session opens in late September for the session that opens in mid to late October. To get on the wait list now, and to get your personal invitation, please go to VolPro.net/begin, and just get on our wait list and we will let you know. Get ready to crush your nonprofit’s most ambitious goals with a solid plan for engaging, committed, volunteer talent. 

That’s what we’re all about here. Getting results, taking action and getting traction. So I hope you’ll consider joining us. It’s a lot of fun. We have a good time with our students and you have lifetime access. So you can come back to our coaching calls and you can go to the course platform as many times as you need. 

All right. So with that, let’s get started with today’s episode about wellness and managing our energy and managing our time. So I have a confession to share. I’m just gonna put this out there. I’m gonna be a little vulnerable here. But, you know, I’m known for my high energy and ability to produce high levels of content.  

I’ll talk to people. They’re like, how do you and your team do it? You’re pumping out podcasts every week. You’re writing blog posts every week. You’re leading a community. You’re leading courses, you’re doing coaching, you’re teaching and you’re speaking gigs. I’m doing things I’m all over the map, right? 

Not really though. I’ve got a plan of action under it all. And I have a way that I keep myself healthy, but I really haven’t been very disciplined with my personal wellness. I have not been dedicated to my plan for keeping myself healthy lately. And I was struggling recently with my energy levels. You know, it came on very slowly. 

It didn’t happen overnight. At some point, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was slowly but surely losing energy. And then all of a sudden I realized, wow, I have no energy left. And I had a hard time concentrating. I was starting to dread my Monday mornings and that’s just not like me. I love the work I do. 

I love helping the helpers like you. So there’s no need for me to be dreading Monday morning because I love what I do. So that was a, a really a wake up call for me. I was looking at my calendar, my to-do list and it just made me tired. I thought, I don’t know if I can do all this. I had completely fallen off track with my normal way of being, and it was like I said, a huge wake up call. 

And I don’t know if you are a person that’s experiencing this as well. This is sort of why I’m doing this episode, because I think the last couple years has really been tough on people that we’ve had a tough time keeping our energy and our inspiration and our vigor for work. It’s just been hard for people. 

And I’ve heard from many people, it might have happened early in the pandemic. It might be happening to you now, and you may be feeling stuck. And so today I wanna give you some advice I’ve learned as your personal crash test dummy. I have been through it. I am rebuilding and I’m seeing results really quickly. 

So you can hear in my voice, I’ve got energy. I’m enjoying life today. And there’s some things that I’ve done that I’ve helped me turn around really, really quickly. So I wanna share them with you guys. I’m lucky. I have a fantastic business coach. I have a support network of close confidants who helped me see what I’m missing. 

And so I was able to really understand pretty quickly what I, where I had fallen off the tracks, you know? So. You know what I realized what that was, as I said before, that I’d given up on most of my self-care routines over the course of the pandemic. Slowly one by one, they fell to the wayside. So it wasn’t surprising when I was not feeling quite like my high energy self. 

It just wasn’t surprising. Right. So I started investigating and paying attention to what might help me get over the hump. Again, I also have a network of people, close friends and a business coach, and my hubby who also can give me feedback and can help me make my way. So I had that in my favor. So today again, I’m gonna be that crash test dummy for you. 

I’m gonna share both what I know and what I’m doing to build back the energy that I’ve lost. And you may have lost over the past couple of years. You know, it’s all about becoming a better steward of your most valuable assets, your time and your energy. It’s all about becoming a better steward of your two most valuable assets, your time and your energy. 

So you can give more and not feel depleted. This isn’t about necessarily giving less. It might be giving more, but to the right people, or it might be giving more and less time, but it’s not necessarily about giving less. So if you’re struggling, I hope this helps you in some small way. I know if you know someone else who struggles with managing time and energy, I hope you share this with them as well. 

So let’s do this. Let’s talk about how do we rebuild. When we’re feeling a little crispy, little burnt out, what do we do? I mean, there, there was a point earlier this summer where I was on the internet, on the interwebs, searching for how do I overcome burnout? How do I do it? And I had, you know, a good conversation with my business coach and she said, well, it’s not, it’s not rocket science. 

You need to go back to your daily ritual. So we’ll talk more about that. So the first key to managing your time and energy, I’m gonna share this with you right now. It’s admitting you can’t manage time. Here’s the deal. Every human on the planet is given the same number of minutes in the day. We all have the same number of minutes in the day. 

We can’t manage how fast or slow the globe rotates on its access. We, we can’t do that. We can’t manage time. The idea that we could manage time, we’re not managing the solar system. We’re not managing our planet, not for this anyway. So you can’t manage time, you know, just ask yourself, how is it that everyone has the same number of minutes in the day, but some people manage to get more done. 

Some people manage to be happier at work. Some people manage to be able to be more effective and get more results. How is that? Well, they are doing something right, right. So it’s not about managing the minutes in the day or managing time. You can’t control how the earth spins on its access. You just can’t. 

What you can manage is what you do with the time you’re given. And what’s essential to using each precious minute is your level of energy. Your level of energy is what you should be managing for – not time, not minutes. Your level of energy, your level of energy is what helps you stay focused, work productively and have fun doing it. 

In other words, getting in the flow and working smarter, not harder. So, you know, I suggest we stop talking about time management. It’s not time that we’re managing, it’s our energy, it’s our energy that we’re managing. So let’s talk about what it means to manage your energy, because I’m been doing this for a long time. 

And again, I still get a lot done, even when I’m low. So we have to understand that it takes a different way of being to get to another level in our lives. If you wanna get to a different level, you have to do something differently. You cannot get to another level of functioning, whether it’s, you know, figuring out a better way of self care, a way to have more energy, a way to spend your energy better or deploy your energy better. 

You can’t do it by doing the same things you’ve always been doing. It’s just, there’s like a physics to it. You know, it’s like personal productivity physics. You cannot, I’m sure it’s not physics. My husband’s a scientist. He would be cringing if you heard this right now, be like that. It’s not physics anyway. 

So you have to change something. What you have to change are your habits, your habits. There’s no miracle pill for this. There’s no, lots of people are taking lots of meds and I’m not against meds at all. Meds have helped me a lot throughout my life. Get through, get over the hump on all kinds of challenges I’ve had around mental health, et cetera, sleep, you name it, but there’s no miracle pill that helps you manage your energy. 

Overall, I wish we had something like that, but that’s not what it. Sometimes mental health and medical support is needed. Medication may be needed. That’s absolutely the case. So I don’t wanna say that that’s not the case. So in your situation, it might be, I’m gonna post in the show notes, SAMHSA’s National Helpline for treatment, referral and info for people with mental health or substance abuse issues.  

Just in case you are that person that you’re saying to yourself, you know what? I need more help than just changing my habits. I have absolutely been, I have absolutely needed help to crawl out of a deep hole I was in. Absolutely. So what I’m talking about today though, is when you are feeling crispy, but you’re not already needing help. It’s before that, before you’re really needing mental health support. 

Now you could also layer these onto your mental health support as well. So you could do both. That’s also very helpful. So let’s talk principles for effectively managing time and energy. And remember, we’re not really managing time. We’re managing our energy. The first group is around wellness, our own wellness. 

And these are some things that I’ve learned over the years. Again, I’m your crash test dummy. I’m not a mental health professional. Uh, I’m not a doctor, but I can tell you it’s worked for me in terms of being a leader and being able to manage my energy and all the wellness areas. These are not gonna be rocket science. 

You’re gonna be like, I already know this. I’m just gonna remind you though. Okay. Cause we all need to be reminded. First of all: sleep, obviously getting at least eight hours of sleep or seven hours of sleep getting regular good sleep, quality sleep, that’s gonna be important. And it’s going to impact whether or not you’re tired. 

That’s sort of a no brainer, right? But I thought I’d mention it anyway. Okay. Nutrition. Absolutely. And you know, you do, you, you know, you, you know, you, you know what. Works for you and what does not work for you? We all know if we pay a little bit of attention, you know, and I’ve done a lot of work on nutrition over the years. 

I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. And I fall off the wagon all the time, but I do know when I’m breaking my own rules. And I know when I’m eating things that are going to deplete me of. So what’s important, I think, with nutrition is to understand when you’re breaking your rules and to be clear about what your, what your consequences might be. 

And for some of the things that I decide to eat, that I shouldn’t be eating in terms of, you know, some things have to do with medical issues, some things have to do with food sensitivities, whatever they are, the first thing to do is to be become aware. And just to know what you’re doing and, and making a choice. 

I think it’s very important to make a choice when you’re eating something that, may have a negative impact on you, you know, and sometimes you can get away with it a little bit. Sometimes you, if you eat too much or drink too much, you know, you’re not getting away with it. So anyway, so nutrition, and again, you do you, you know, what is best for you? 

Hydration. Hydration. Making sure you drink enough. You know, I was reading a study the other day and it was like 78% of adults in the US are dehydrated. Can you imagine? And I am sure I’m one of those people. This summer, I started going to bed and my feet would cramp and I’d be like, what is this? And my doctor said, you’re dehydrated. I’m like, oh yeah, I’m working so hard. I’m not drinking water. So drinking at least half your body weight every day can be very helpful.  

Rxercise. This is, again, this is a no brainer, right exercise. We need to be exercising either, you know, gently, uh, whether it’s stretching and, or moving our bodies, whether it’s cardio lifting weights. 

Again, you do you, you do what works for you, but we need to have four to five days of exercise of at least 30 minutes a day. Again, this is hard. It’s hard to fit into your busy schedule, but if you want to get past the hump of feeling low energy, I can guarantee you exercise does a lot for you. Boost serotonin, all kinds of things it does for you.  

Anyway exercise and then mindfulness. Mindfulness. So for me, mindfulness means meditation. It means becoming aware moment to moment what’s happening, which is hard during the day when you’re busy, but that’s why I meditate every morning so I can keep mindful and remind myself and train my brain. 

You know, some different things I work on. You’ll hear me talk about on the podcast from time to time I’m working on rewiring my brain. Eliminate my negativity bias, for example, or I’m working on being in the moment or I’m working on gratitude or I’m working on whatever it is, right? So some type of mindfulness, 

The reason mindfulness or meditation helps is it helps you notice what’s going on in your body. You need to be able to stop and notice so that you can stop doing whatever’s hurting. Right? That’s in terms of wellness. That’s one of the things I like about mindfulness for myself now, again, I’m not a mindfulness expert. I’m not a meditation teacher. I’m not a physical therapist. I’m not any of those things. 

I’m simply a person just like you, a crash test dummy who’s going through life and trying to figure how to have the most energy and vigor for her work. So these are the things I’m understanding and learning as I go. So mindfulness is all about both shifting your mindset or your, and you know, really addressing any limiting beliefs you might have about your capabilities and converting those two enabling beliefs. 

But it’s also about really being aware of things that are happening in your body that you want to address. That you want to address. And so mindfulness is super helpful. So for wellness, sleep, nutrition, hydration, exercise, and mindfulness, all really important. Now I’m gonna take a break and after the break, I’m gonna talk about self-management. 

You know, we have the whole realm of mindfulness that’s often something people talk a lot about. We all know it. We’re like, you didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, Tobi. That’s true. I’m just reminding you. But I also wanna dig a little bit deeper and talk about self-management as leaders. 

So let’s take a break and after the break, I’ll dive into each of the principles I mentioned for managing time and energy. So don’t go away and I’ll be right back.  

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All righty, we are back! Before the break, I talked about some principles around wellness and how it can help you address managing time and energy and getting more of it. Now let’s dig a little bit deeper into self-management and consider this a little bit of a checklist for yourself as a leader. These are things that, again, I’ve learned through the years that have really helped me become a better leader, become a stronger business owner, et cetera. 

So let’s talk about self-management for a minute. Self-management. What do I mean by that? Well, self-management is how you manage your mind action connection. That’s the way I see self-manage. How you manage your mind action connection. And what I mean by that is what we think and believe is what we do. 

So our mind absolutely, your mind absolutely tells you and directs you and influences what you do with your body, what you do with your body. Whether that’s communicating with a volunteer, addressing a conflict, writing an email, setting up a recruitment campaign, whatever it is…your mind is in charge, right? 

So you, your self-management can help that mind action connection be optimized, right? So what we think and believe is what we do. So let’s start with mindset in that sort of self-management mind action connection arena.  

So mindset. What is your inner monologue telling you? Are you converting, limiting beliefs into enabling ones? You know, we can reprogram our brains. Our brains are, I think I’ve mentioned this on an earlier podcast. One third of our brains, you cannot change. They are the way they are. They’re not changing from birth. I mean, they grow into the full-size brain, but that’s about it. But two thirds of our brain are neural pathways can be remapped simply by the way we, by replacing certain thoughts with other thoughts. 

By changing our habits of mind. It’s mind blowing, really. I think it is the next level of human evolution to become the stewards of our own minds, to be very purposeful about what we want our minds to do for us. It’s pretty crazy. So, you know, when we think about our self management, we’ve gotta think about our mindset and just pay attention. 

What is your inner monologue telling you? Is it beating you up all the time? Is it telling you that, you know, you’re worthless or is it telling you that you have capacity and that you have power and that you have inner strength and can help you get through anything? Is it telling you that it’s okay to make mistakes, but you’re still gonna learn. 

Is it telling you that you can do hard things? So there’s all those types of things that self-talk that really can have an impact on what you’re gonna achieve as a leader. Second area of self-management, I think super important daily rituals. I just, I talked about a little bit before the break, but try this out. 

If you, you know, aside from your daily ritual of, I need to get up at this time to get to work, that’s not a daily ritual. I’m talking about routines that are focused on self-care that are dedicated to self. So, uh, exercise meditation, setting intentions, you name it for my morning routine and, and you can have a morning routine or app. 

You know, you can have a starting work routine, an ending work routine, an end of the evening routine. There’s lots of ways to do routines, but it’s important that you have them. That your brain can know what to expect and that you are constantly filling yourself, your pot of self-support, your resources for self-support to build your resilience. 

And so, you know, I, as I mentioned earlier and admitted, I had let go of my daily ritual and my daily ritual, you know, a few years ago, my brother said to me, I told him, you know what, I need to go have, have some time alone. He goes, oh, you need some Tobi time. And I was like, what? And he’s like, oh yeah, you always need your alone time. 

He knew better than I did what I needed. I’m like, okay, thanks brother. So I call it my “T” time now, just “T”, the letter “T” Tobi time. So I call it “T” time. And every morning I do my “T” time and I just started doing it again because I, as I said, I was losing energy. I was losing my vigor for work. I was feeling slightly depressed. 

I’m like, what’s going on? I said, you know what? And my business coach said, you need to get back to your daily ritual. So I immediately started it and I, when I restarted it, I felt like I was coming home. It was really crazy. I just felt like I was coming home. It’s like, oh, this is something I know this is comforting to me. 

This feels good. And so I spend every morning doing my “T” time. I’ll do my meditation. I’ll do my exercise or physical therapy, whatever I need to do at the time. I will sometimes think about my gratitudes or set intentions. I’ll take care of little house chores around the house, whatever it is, but the time is completely dedicated to me and I spend no, none of that time, the only rule is I cannot spend any of that time worrying about anything else that’s gonna happen in the day. 

Now I can set intentions for the day. That always helps. Like what kind of day do I wanna have? How do I wanna show. But I can tell you, after only less than a week of returning to this, I’m already feeling better. It is almost an instant, but you’ve got to have a routine in the first place that your body remembers. 

So if you haven’t had a regular routine, you need to start one. And then if you happen to fall off of the wagon and not, not be returning to your routine, when you do return to your routine, your body remembers. It’s crazy. Your body will remember so much and it will feel comforting, too.  

I guarantee this and people will say, I don’t have any time for a daily routine. You can certainly go to bed 30 minutes earlier, yes? And get up 30 minutes earlier. Right? Well, I have this and that. Well, you’ve got to figure out, is it important? What percentage of your time do you deserve of your own time? And what’s the consequence if you decide, or just don’t take advantage of taking care of yourself, what’s gonna happen pretty soon. 

You’re not gonna be there for anybody else either. And so it’s really important to have those daily rituals. I’ve found this has been one of the number one things that has helped me. Another thing is weekly time blocking. This is a self-management tool that I use weekly time blocking, which I create a calendar every week with blocks for certain things.  

So daily rituals. So I talked about my daily rituals. Meetings. So when I have my standing meetings and I only set meetings on certain days of the week, there’s certain days of the week where I reserve almost entirely for deep work. There’s other days where I’m filled with meetings from morning to evening. 

There’s other days where I’m doing coaching and training almost all day. And so I, in my weekly calendar, I set aside theme days for each type of work. Now you may say, well, I’m a volunteer manager. People are coming in my office all the time. There’s no way I could do this. And I will say, well, if you say so.  

I actually think you could, you can set boundaries with people. t’s about boundary setting. So, for example, when people book time with me on my calendar, using my links on my website, there are only certain days available, because those are the days that I take calls and it’s a way to manage my time and manage my energy.  

I also, you know, book time for lunch. Book time for specific things that I know I have to do, but I usually, because each week is a little bit different and I have different things to do each week. I will set aside time for deep work and just leave it. I don’t have to say exactly what I’m gonna do during that time block.  

All I know is I’m going to be developing slides, creating workbooks, creating curriculum, developing programs, whatever I’m doing, doing client work, whatever I’m doing during that time block, doesn’t have to be necessarily specifically determined, but I just set it aside as deep work and then other times for meetings, et cetera. 

So, see if you can try it out weekly time blocking, set aside days where you have time for deep work set aside other days for meetings. Now, again, you don’t always have all a hundred percent of the choice, but once your standing meetings have been established, and sometimes they’re established by other people, then you can create your weekly time blocking around those standing meanings and see if you can, you know, carve out a little extra time for yourself. 

So you also have to say no. You know, when you say yes to something, you say no to something else. So that’s the fourth area of self management that I wanna talk about and that’s commitments. So when you say yes to one thing you say no to another.  

This is tough. It’s okay to slow down and let go of urgency if you are not feeling up to par. You are not all of a sudden going to get more energy. You might short term with a little adrenaline and cortisol in your body. You might, I’ve been running on cortisol and adrenaline for a couple years now. And I finally, my body said, Nope, not anymore. 

Right? So it really requires a mindset of abundance to let go of urgency to let go of. You can check out my episode number three of this podcast, and I’ll link to it in the show notes, “Moving From a Scarcity Mindset to Abundance” for more on how to cultivate this idea and mindset of abundance. But you know, you’ve got to decide consciously that every minute of your workday is precious. 

Every minute is precious. You need to use it purposefully. You don’t wanna just waste it. And there are times that need that those minutes need to be reserved entirely for you. It’s just, you have a right to that. Everyone has a right to that, right? And so sometimes you have to politely decline stuff. Now, again, you don’t always have the ultimate decision. 

You know, you may not be the decision maker, but when you can be clear about your commitments and whether or not you have capacity to follow through on a commitment, if you don’t, don’t say yes to. It just creates a worse feeling when you’re not following through. 

Let’s say you have a value. Most people in our field do have a value of integrity that we, they wanna live in integrity. They wanna do what they say and say what they do. They wanna do. They wanna be in integrity with who they are. They wanna do their best work. Well, when you say yes to a commitment that in the end you can’t follow through on, that creates a dissonance in yourself and you start to disrespect who you are and what you’re doing. 

You start to create some mindset and some self talk. That’s not helpful to you. It does not serve you. So you need to think about when you make a commitment that you’re making it in integrity with your own values of following through. And if you don’t think you can follow through, don’t make the commitment and you can let people know, like, look, I wish I could, but I simply, if I were to make this commitment, I can tell you right now, I wouldn’t be able to follow through on it. 

And that would make me feel horrible. And I don’t wanna leave you in a lurch. So I’m not able to follow through on this for you. I’m not able to commit to it. Maybe another time though, right? Okay. So self management’s all about mindset, daily rituals, weekly time blocking commitments. And you all also wanna think about your wellness domains of sleep, nutrition, hydration, exercise, and mindfulness. 

Here’s the deal gang, your body and your mind are your vessel for getting things done in the world. You’ve got to take care of it. And so many people are suffering right now from burnout, but you don’t have to, it’s not a foregone conclusion. You can make decisions. Now, if you’re really feeling burnout or crispy or you’re feeling depressed, you may feel like it’s hard to take the next step forward. 

I’ve been there where I’m like, I don’t even know. There’s two things I do in that situation. Number one, I will tell myself, and this is a Buddhist philosophy of equanimity and also mindfulness meditation. Folks talk about equanimity. That things will not always be the same, that things are always changing. 

That things are always changing and that you can go with the flow that you can accept that things will change. So when something is really feeling hard, you just wait for the next day and I’ll just tell myself today is hard, but tomorrow might not be. So I don’t accept ever that my current reality will be my future reality. 

I don’t. I know that’s not the case. If you think about your life, it’s never the case your life is in flux, always. So today’s real will probably not be exactly like tomorrow. The second thing I always try to do is just take baby steps. The tiniest baby step, all that matters is that you continue to move forward. 

If it’s one different thing you can do today, you don’t have to tackle it all. If you’re exhausted, then you’re not gonna be able to tackle it all physically or emotionally. So just one baby step at a, at a time, all you need to do is to break that, you know, that roadblock of movement forward. So here’s the deal. 

The key to recovery and resilience is this, you know, over the long term, taking care of yourself around self-care dedicate the appropriate amount of self-care each week, each week, you know, based on how you feel. Now, I have a specific time in mind when I’m doing my “T” time. You do, you, you figure out your specific amount of time. 

Sometimes you have to adjust that time. Sometimes your life doesn’t allow for, you know, an hour of self-care you only have 15 minutes then 15 minutes, but it has to be something or you’re giving up on yourself. You’re giving up on yourself and you’ve got to put yourself first. You’ve got to put yourself first. 

If you burn out, you can’t help anybody else. So take baby steps, dedicate yourself to a weekly routine. Be mindful of what’s happening with your body. Know and believe for sure that you have the power to change your situation. You must believe this. You have the power to change your situation. You have an internal locus of control. 

A lot of people say it’s because of the outside. They have external locus of control. Somebody on the outside, the environment, the context, the, the people who are irritating me, they’re causing this space for me. Couldn’t be more wrong. It’s all about what you think. You create your own reality. And so you can change. 

If you are feeling burnout and crispy, you want to better manage your time and energy. It absolutely can be done. I’ll say this. Does it happen overnight? No. Does it take practice over and over again? And will you make mistakes and fall off the wagon? Like I do. Yes, you absolutely will. Most people will. 

That’s okay. If you keep getting back up, keep trying, you can change your current reality. So, that’s my plan. That’s what I’m gonna continue to do. I’d love to hear what your plan is for managing your time and energy. Go ahead and post it on social and tag us at VolPro.net or post in the comments. We’d love to hear what’s your plan for selfcare. 

Now you don’t have to be crispy and burned out to feel like you need a plan. You could be proactive too, and knock it off at the pass. You know, that’d be good too. So I, I hope that, you know, today’s crash test dummy advice will help you. I wanted to be a little bit vulnerable and share with you some of the things that I’ve struggled with, as a business owner, as a person working in the nonprofit sector. It can be tough, but it’s also so, so rewarding. 

So I want you to stay in the game. That’s why we’re talking about this. I want you to stay in the game. It’s important that you’re here. It’s important that you’re here to help others. It’s important that you’re engaging your communities to make change happen because without them, it just doesn’t happen. 

And we gotta have you in the game. So self-care number one, you’re number one, before everybody else put on your mask before putting the mask on anybody else. You always hear that saying about flying in the air. I’ve heard it a million times. So I probably even shouldn’t even say it again because we’ve all heard it a million times, but it’s so true. 

Right? You wanna take care of yourself first, so I’ll leave you with that. That’s it for the show this week. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Volunteer Nation. If you liked it, I hope you’ll share it with a friend. I hope you’ll rate us. We’d love to get those five star ratings and reviews 

Subscribe, of course, because you never know when we might throw out a bonus episode and only our subscribers will get it. So subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and we’ll see you next week. Same time, same place. Thanks for joining us on the Volunteer Nation. 

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate and review so we can reach people like you who wanna improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. We’ll see you next week for another installment of Volunteer Nation.