12 steps to avoid Community Manager burnout

1. admit you are doing it all on your own, that you have been for too long, and that this might not be the best thing for your company. Dedication to your job doesn’t have to equal no sharing and unhealthy, unsociable, stressful behavior
2. try to do one thing at a time, like dealing with emails in turn, oldest to newest, people will phone you if it’s urgent
3. see the funnel, be the funnel … realize that it’s OK to not know all the answers to all the questions, your job is a funnel or more likely one of those Willy Wonka contraptions for collecting and getting information from one place to another and connecting people or questions with the right people or answers
4. create a system for keeping up with who you’ve asked for more information from
5. believe, really believe, that asking for help or an assistant is not admitting failure, and ask for it
6. look at your book or your husband as the last thing you see before you go to sleep at night, not your iPad
7. identify something you can do for yourself – actually doing it probably occurs in the next 12 steps! But identifying it is half the battle.
8. walk to work or walk to get your coffee, fresh air is your friend
9. make a connection or friends with another Community Manager
10. call your mother
11. accept that just because you don’t get praise very often that you’re still doing a good job, your peers just honestly can’t see all the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep a community busy and happy
12. book at least one day’s vacation, even if that’s a weekend day.

milliontreesnyc.org

Also got to see proof that Triburbia as Tribeca is often colloquially referred to because it’s one suburb on Manhattan that attracts families is true! All these strollers parked outside a Tribeca cafe at brunch time!

Another great cup of Joe

The gluten free peanut butter cookie was SO good – no flour meant it was probably all peanut butter and sugar

Joe’s Coffee, 1045 Lexington Ave, New York @joecoffeenyc

The place was tiny! No-one was in there which is pretty rare for the good New York places so we didn’t have to wait long for our 2 individually made flat whites. They were good. Good strength, Ethiopian which was ok but no so malty or with the caramel edge we like but I appreciated the strength. There was a tiny window seat and a couple of iron chairs on the stoop but it was such a fine day that we decided to take our coffee and wander down to the park to drink it.

Another great option in the area. It was lovely just sitting in little park in the sun.

Laughing Man, 184 Duane Street, Tribeca, New York @livelaughingman

I’d been harboring a quiet hope that we’d be going near Laughing Man (another new place in the neighborhood to try) on our trip to Wholefoods so I was already in the mood for coffee – 7pm local time but only 4pm San Francisco time and the only coffee I’d had that day was half a dozen sips of airport coffee at 7am in San Francisco. We were talking about this at the counter when the barista said “With accents like that would you like flat whites?” Yes please! He was a lovely chatty guy, just returned from helping a kiwi set up a cafe in London so was very interested in where we drank coffee in New York and San Francisco.

His flat white was eye-rollingly good. Perfect gulping temperature and milk like velvet right to the last mouthful. The beans were from Intelligentsia – full of malt goodness. We noted a limited breakfast menu that offered another option for our next 2 early mornings that would take us up to Midtown for the Accounting Technolgy Show and Conference we were in town for (Xero had an exhibition stand there).

I love the little sheep in the cafe – I should’ve asked the relevance of them – larger ones in the window, tiny fellas on the shelves – I patted as many as I could that first visit. Over the next 4 days we were in town we went in every day – to grab coffee before the conference and on Saturday I went in with my book while The Mister sat with the tomato sauce bubbling on the stove for a home-cooked meal we were making for the Cousin Grant household. The cafe is quite dark, the ambiance they’re going for I guess, lit by candles even during the day, however it’s spacious enough that they’re not rushing you out the door. Their cranberry pound cake and homemade granola bars are really good.

Here’s my sheep friend who kept me company by my chair when I was reading my book in the window of the cafe. I enjoyed watching the little dogs out for their Saturday afternoon walks who came up to the window to say hi to the sheep – one little sausage dog got quite a fright!

Kaffe 1668, ~ 401 Greenwich Street, Tribeca, New York @kaffe1668

From IMDB