My Favorite Tools for Keeping My Cool During Summer Fundraising Season
I am lucky. I live year-round in a beach community. For most of the year, it’s like living in a small town–saying hello to people you know at the grocery store, holiday pageants, rarely encountering traffic. But in the summer, it all changes. Seasonal residents, week-long vacationers, and day trippers help our population increase five-fold. Everyone’s busy seeing people they only see when they’re here, visiting their favorite beaches and restaurants, trying to cram in as much fun as they can.
Those of us who fundraise for our community’s nonprofits easily get swept up in all the activity, and the feeling that we’ll never get to everything that’s on our summer fundraising to-do lists.
“Smile, breathe, and go slowly.”
When I am frustrated and stressed out about it all, I turn to these tools to help me keep my cool.
One App
Aura has the widest range of meditations, life coaching tips, mental health advice I’ve seen. There are soundscapes, stories, and live coaching sessions in a wide range of timeframes. Whether you have 5 minutes or an hour, Aura has just the thing to help you relax and reset.
Two Music Sources
When I’m working on a particularly intense project, I like to have calming music playing in the background. I particularly like the Peaceful Focus and Chill Mix playlists from Apple Music; they rotate songs every week or so. On Spotify, I’m a fan of the Peaceful Retreat (10 hours) and Massage Music (5 hours) playlists, particularly if I want the mood to carry through the whole day.
One Activity
Because we are usually working with intangibles–meetings, proposals, strategy sessions, etc.–it can be beneficial to take a break and make an actual thing. I’m a calligrapher, so I often use work breaks to make art of words. During the pandemic, I created over 90 “words of the day”. You can check them out here.
Before your season gets too wild, take a minute or two to think about what tools you’d like to have on standby when you need a stress-relief break. And if you’ve got some you’d like to share with all of us, drop them in the comments below!
