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Work in progress and Networking questions

Sunday, February 21st, 2016

Major things accomplished this week which is a miracle in itself because the week was again really busy. Worked a little on my vision board, it's a work in progress at least.

On Thursday I was in Leadership Prince William. For those of you who may not know what it is, here's a link so that you can check it out. http://leadershipprincewilliam.org/ Absolutely phenomenal program that I highly recommend to everyone. It's honestly the best thing I've ever been a part of. So, Thursday was our Heath and Human Services day. This couldn't have come at a better time because it really made me look more at charities in our area and gave me ideas to help figure out which charities I want to support. It's really difficult because if you have a charitable heart and mind, you want to help every single one you hear about. They're all so amazing and do so many good things that you'll find yourself thinking "I want to help them. Then you hear about another one, Oh, I want to help them too. Then you hear about a need in the community and you think I can help with that. Then another need, I can do that too." Before you know it, you're overwhelmed and not able to full commit to any one charity.  I truly want to help our local community, so I'm still narrowing it down and trying to figure out which ones mean the most to me, personally. It's a difficult process because they're all so worthy.

The last thing I want to talk about this weekend is Networking. How much of it is enough and how much is too much? How do you decide how many groups to belong to? How much of your time during the week is spent networking?

Here's where I currently stand with my groups. I have 2 groups that meet twice a month. I have 3 groups that meet once a week. I have one group that meets 1 whole day per month, and I'm a chamber member, which means that I attend 1-3 various functions each week. On top of that I have random coffee and lunch appointments with business partners throughout the month.

Here is my schedule so far this year. This doesn't include travel time or meetings with business partners.

January
Week 1 - 9.5 hours
Week 2 - 9 hours
Week 3 - 7 hours plus one whole day event
Week 4 - 8.5 hours
February 
Week 1 - 8.5 hours
Week 2 - 8 hours plus one whole day conference
Week 3 - 7 hours plus one whole day event

That's more than one whole day per week. Probably about 2 1/2 when you add in travel and other 1 on 1 meetings. Unfortunately everything is spread out throughout the week so it's not like I have 2 1/2 whole days of continuous "working time." Thankfully, my amazingly awesome employers allow me to do everything at home that I can do in my office, so when I do a lot of events close to home, I work from home before, after, or in between.

I'd really love to know how everyone else manages their networking schedules. What works and doesn't work. How do you handle being on the board of your groups? To this point, I am limiting my board participation to 2 groups, and presidency to only one board at a time. That way, the group I am president of gets the most of my focus.

Maybe reading through what I do will force you to sit down and figure out what you do, so you can respond with what works for you and why/how you choose the groups you commit to. This is an ongoing challenge for everyone I know, so all thoughts are welcome.

Until next time.

MW

Copyright 2016


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