Top 10 Things to Do On Leap Day

Do you find yourself wishing there was more time in the day? More time in the week? Managing a choir can leave you feeling like there’s never enough time to get everything done. Each day we decide what is today’s top priority and what must wait until tomorrow — and let go of some things that will never get done.

The good news is today you have an EXTRA WHOLE DAY to catch up on things you’ve been putting off. And since Leap Day only happens once every four years, we’ve made a list of 10 things to choose from.

Here are the Top 10 Things to do on Leap Year Day:

10. Clean your desktop.

Does your computer desktop look like a mosaic of PDFs, JPEGs, Docs, spreadsheets, and more? When was the last time you cleaned up the many random files sitting on your desktop? Spend some time today sorting and organizing your desktop. Tired already? Just move everything into a folder called “Sort These.” Leave it on your desktop.

9. Clean your actual desk top.

What’s on your actual desk? Can you even see the top of your desk? Grab trash and recycling bins and your shredder and get to work. Sort that stack of papers that needs to be filed, shred that stack marked for shredding, open that old mail, drop old music copies in the recycling bin, etc. You’ll be glad you finally faced all those piles. And now you can start clean fresh new piles!

8. Watch those saved webinars.

Managing a nonprofit makes us feel like we have to be experts at just about everything — from fundraising to finance to marketing…the list goes on and on. We’re always looking for free(!) resources to help us succeed. Webinars offer best practices, new ideas, and inspiration that we need for our personal development and to stay motivated — that is, if you actually get around to watching the recording.

Watch one of those webinars today (if you can remember what it was about and find the link in your email) and take some notes. Don’t get too ambitious! It’s okay to feel inspired and plan to maybe implement one or two of the ideas. That’s plenty. You are already doing great.

7. Analyze that data.

No, that survey data won’t go away even though you’ve been ignoring it since your last grant writing cycle (or longer!). Take some time today to analyze it and then draft a narrative on the findings. Then you can wow board members at your next board meeting with anecdotal evidence and impactful comments from your audience. And you’ll have updated stats for your next grant period or meeting with a donor. You’ll sound super smart and informed. Good job!

6. Organize your grant materials.

Whew. You made it by the deadline (why is it on Monday morning at 8:00 am?!!!). All those drafts and materials can frankly jump off a cliff as far as you are concerned, and happily be ignored until next year.

Whoa whoa whoa. Maybe take a minute today and organize the materials so you can better find them (and understand what the hell you were just talking about) for next time. Your current notes might not make any sense to you in a year. You will be very glad you did this. For reals.

5. Organize the music library.

Okay, okay, maybe this isn’t your job. But also maybe you share space with the library and even if you don’t, somehow music keeps finding its way into your office. It’s everywhere. It’s in brown paper grocery bags, reusable bags from Trader Joe’s, a takeout bag from a random restaurant, in stacks on the floor, in boxes, in singers’ folders! (haha got you)...it’s everywhere it’s not supposed to be.

And it’s all staring at you, reminding you it doesn’t belong there. Enlist your librarian (do you have one!!) or a volunteer and crank through filing it away. You’ll be so glad you can move around your office without worrying about being featured on an episode of Hoarders.

4. Plan a month or two of social media content.

Is this you? “If only I had some time to map out our social media content for a month at a time. Or for an entire season! It would be so much easier to stay on top of it.”

What if you were to let yourself off the hook for content planning this season and focus on a plan for next season’s content instead? It’s not just working ahead, it’s giving yourself a head start for next season (when for some reason you seem to think you’ll actually be caught up hahahahahaaaa).

If you want to try this fool’s errand (because whoever actually follows a content plan, amirite!), let your current season’s content serve as a guide of the kinds of things you’ll need to post.

But whatever you do, just remember to put next year’s social media plan somewhere you’ll be able to find it later. Otherwise what are you even doing?!

3. Organize the Google Drive.

This might be the worst one. Oh dear, I’m so sorry I put this on the list. Google Drives are the worst. Everyone uses it and everyone disagrees on how to name files, where the files go, what department they belong to (yes, even though you are a one-person show, you have departments).

Do you have board members constantly asking for materials? Staff that can never find what they need? Also YOU have no idea where things are either? Spend the afternoon getting your Google Drive (or other shared drive) organized. Also, think about how you use your shared drive with your team in a collaborative way, individually, and by department. And have you ever thought about what to name your digital files?? I just had a conversation about this and think that year, month, day for files that need to be marked chronologically is the way to go. Disagree? Fine. It works for me. If you have a better idea, please share it with the rest of us!

Also, I’m not sure I like #3 for any of us as a way to spend the day. Maybe the dysfunction of Google Drive is its best feature. The confusion it generates bonds us together in a shared cultural experience of words we have all uttered: “Where is that doc, I mean sheet, sorry, hold on a sec…” So, I guess, never mind.

2. Update policies and procedures.

Review your existing policies and procedures. Or write the ones you’ve been putting off. Or write some if you have none. Hahahahaaa… NO SERIOUSLY, if you have been putting this off, take time to work on these. This is serious. For the health and well-being of your choir, write this stuff down.

It does no good for policies and procedures to exist only in your head and if you get hit by a bus (wait, why are you near a bus?! The cardinal rule of choral administrators is to STAY CLEAR OF BUSES), how will your organization survive? Oh it will survive but you will leave a wake of confusion and frustration for your choir that will be felt for too long. Also, write it down so you don’t have to carry it around in your head anymore. Why do you have attendance codes memorized? You need to save room for punny quippy pithy writing for social media. Write your procedures down. In an Operations Manual. Oh, you don’t have one of these? Shoot. Okay, mark that one as #1.5 on this list.

1. And the #1 thing to do with your Leap Year Day:

TAKE THE DAY OFF.

Go to the beach. Go to the mountains. Stay in bed all day. Binge a new show. Screw it. Your work will all be there tomorrow anyway.

Honorable mentions — here are a few items that didn’t make the list:

• Review your Strategic Plan. If you don’t have one, research and draft a plan to conduct a strategic planning session next season. Here’s a resource to get you started.
• Dedupe the data in your CRM (Barf. Maybe see if a volunteer might do this for you?)
• Clean out the supply closet. (This could help clear your mind too!)
• Clean out your email inbox. (Nevermind. Forget I said it.)
• Write next year’s marketing plan. Or a development plan. (Or don’t, that’s okay too.)
• Research all the things you’ve had to put off. Like, should you go digital with your concert program book or keep printing a booklet? Or, find out how to answer this question so you don’t have to think about it because you get asked this weekly. (Or just see #1.) 

What will you do on Leap Year? What have you put off until today? Tell us in the comments below.