Summer is officially here when the backpacks haven't moved in 2 weeks, the bundles of school work have finally moved off the dining room table (even if they haven't been sorted, they are put away somewhere). The morning flurry of action and rush to the bus has been calmed, the corn is high and summer has arrived.
Summer is supposed to be lazy and energizing, and the lack of morning craziness and the drive to start the day into ACTION takes the wind out of my productivity and I like it. But I will pay a price come fall when the activity suddenly picks up and I'll feel like I'm waking up from a three month slumber and it will be a mad dash until Christmas.
I think I need to open my calendar a bit and think about Fall. I think I need to harness this laziness toward a purpose. But it's harder to just make things happen, when you're not constantly bumping into the people you need to work with in the school corridors, at bus stops or at school events. And with everyone scattered all over enjoying family plans and their own summer of wonder, how's a lazy mom supposed to get anything done?
One of the big projects I have is installing a new school demonstration garden to be designed, built and implemented by the time the kiddos go back to school in the Fall. My co-chair and I have been talking back and forth, but this summer kid business and personal summer laziness has kept us from focused action. Everyone is everywhere, and I feel like I just need to set up the action steps toward completion in mid-August, and fortunately, I have just the tool to help me get there - VolunteerSpot.
Normally I would be running into all the people I need to be working within work at the school, but in summer, that gathering point has disappeared. Instead, I'll just setup a planning meeting and ask for signups - in VolunteerSpot. I'll also set up the work days in VolunteerSpot, email out the invites, and see who's coming. I'm actually going to need chain saws (yeah for dads with power tools!) for part of the work -- I'll just throw that in the To Bring list.
To set up the entire summer calendar for the project - about 7 different meeting and workdays -- will take about 15 minutes - tops. Everyone gets an invitation to participate for all the aspects of the project build, and wherever they are enjoying their lazier summer days, they can check their calendars, find a time to help, and suddenly, my summer's become very very productive -- with just a small investment of time in VolunteerSpot. When the meetings and workdays start rolling around, I can check VolunteerSpot to make sure enough people are coming, and VolunteerSpot will automatically send the reminders via email to all the people who've signed up to attend. That's a pretty neat trick as I sip ice tea at a summer barbecue -- all this work getting done for me, and I still get to feel lazy.
Happy summers everyone!
