Time Management Essentials for the Busy Girl Scout Volunteer

On Monday, October 10 the Volunteer Training and Resource team hosted the first Volunteer Connections (Live Meeting) of the 2022/2023 Girl Scout year! The purpose of the monthly live meetings is for volunteers to learn how their efforts fit into the Girl Scout Movement, while supporting their own personal and professional development.

At this meeting, the team connected with volunteers from all different service units to discuss Time Management Essentials.

What is time management?
Time management is a person’s ability to prioritize, plan, and manage the hours in their day effectively. It’s all about making the most out of the time we have available!

Some ways to effectively manage time are to:

• Analyze how you’re using it. Identify the biggest “time-stealers” throughout the day, like scrolling through social media! Look for opportunities to save time and to, “work smarter, not harder.”
• Prioritize your responsibilities. Sort through the activities and tasks that you have going on in your life. Rank your tasks by urgency and importance. Also, determine which tasks can be delegated to other people or eliminated.
• Set goals for completing your tasks. Setting goals is a best practice in time management because it helps you stay focused. You can determine if you want to set goals on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
• Create a schedule. Commit to your goals by scheduling and blocking out the necessary time you need to complete a task or activity.

During the meeting, volunteers engaged in conversation about the resources they used to help manage their time. We found that volunteers have had success with the following resources:

• Using planners and calendars to lay out their schedule. Some volunteers used both paper planners and digital calendars to ensure they are sticking to their schedules.
• Color coordinating their activities and responsibilities. Using their favorite colored pencils or pens, volunteers add their upcoming troop meetings and appointments to their calendars. They shared that using fun colors and special pens made organizing more enjoyable!
• Implementing time-blocking. Using a timer or setting an alarm has helped volunteers schedule time so that they can devote their undivided attention to their tasks.
  

A major takeaway for volunteers is that time management is a continual process. For us to be successful, we have to make a regular habit of analyzing our time, prioritizing our tasks, and creating a schedule for ourselves.

Overall, this was a great first meeting! Volunteers not only had the opportunity to interact with each other and the Volunteer Training and Resource team, but they learned new ideas that they can now incorporate into planning their own Girl Scout troops calendar!

We hope you consider joining the Volunteer Training and Resource team at next month’s meeting, where we will talk about the professional benefits of volunteering! Learn more about or register for our November 2022 Volunteer Connections Live Meeting.