Easier? For many, working at camp is a dream come true. Working at camp is a mission to enrich other people’s lives, to make lifelong friendships and memories. Sounds great, right? If you’ve been experiencing guilt or trying to shame your way into getting the job done, news flash, that’s not going to work. Chiding yourself for struggling while working at a summer camp is something that many have experienced. All occupations, including dream jobs, have their own set of challenges. Here are 5 ways to make working at summer camp easier.
These tips are compiled from the reading of two books. (Yes, words on a written page.) The first is Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal and Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck. If you find any of the following information useful, consider adding these books to your shelves for further perusal.
Tip #1: Bring Play into Your Camp Workday
You work at camp! Who says you can’t bring play to the administrative side of things? In his book Feel Good Productivity, Abdaal has an entire section dedicated to exploring ways to make your work more playful.
The secret to productivity isn’t discipline. It’s joy – Ali Abdaal
His work shows that approaching tasks with a sense of adventure and curiosity makes you more productive and engaged in your work. Here are a few ways to include an element of play in your work.
Gamify your to-do list
If you complete a task, you get a small reward or a certain number of points towards a larger award. You can also race against the clock.
Listen to an Epic Soundtrack
Pirates of the Caribbean or a personal favorite, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, should get the blood flowing and help focus your mind.
Make staff meetings more fun
Open with an ice breaker or an award for MVP of the week. The meeting info stays the same, just include something at the beginning that creates energy at the start.
Switch up your environment
Instead of staying glued to your desk, step outside for a task. If you’re at camp, go to a different building or hit up your favorite coffee shop or local library. This breaks the mental association between specific tasks and feelings of dread.
Create an experiment
No, you don’t need to head to a science lab for this. Frame tedious tasks as something you’re testing rather than enduring. Is there a way you could make the task go faster? What about if the order was switched or if you grouped things differently?
Tip #2: Lean on Your Camp Team
Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert or something in between, according to Abdaal (and some good ol’ fashioned science), being a part of a team is energizing. The best teams focus on “our success” rather than on “my success,” something that is already encouraged at summer camp. You don’t need to work on the same task with someone to get the benefits. Working alongside others creates accountability and momentum for what you’re doing. Implement some of these practices.
Body-doubling
If you’ve been anywhere near the ADHD side of social media, you’ve probably heard of this before. The good news is that it works for pretty much everyone. Body-doubling is existing with someone else while you both work on something. It doesn’t have to be the same something, but it creates accountability for both of you. (Kinda like a campified study hall)
Shared work sessions
Inevitably, there will be a big, hairy, scary task to do that gets pushed further and further down on your list. Consider getting your team together for a set amount of time and tackling it together. Misery loves company, right?
Get specific
When it comes to celebrating your staff, get specific with it. Instead of a general “great work, everyone,” mention the specific contributions that your team has made. This improves your team’s outcomes and reminds you that you’re not in this alone.
Ask for help
Camp culture tends to glorify the work of those who put their head down and get it done. If that’s your camp, it’s time to fix it. Not only is that behavior a fast track to burnout, but it also models unhealthy behavior to the rest of the staff. A great place to start is asking for help yourself. Something like “Hey, can I have your help thinking through this?” Normalize collaboration.
Tip #3: Reframe Failure as a Learning Opportunity
Things go sideways at camp. The true test comes from how you respond to the difficulty. In her book Mindset, Dweck’s research shows that people have either a growth or a fixed mindset.
Those with a fixed mindset view their experiences as proof of their ability and value; their response to failure is to give up entirely. Those with a growth mindset believe that their skill level is a starting point that can be improved on. To them, failure, while still painful, is part of the learning experience.
Okay, great, what does that have to do with camp, though? Build a culture that supports creative thinking, one that is unafraid of failure. The best way to start this is by changing your own mindset, take the chance. If it went well, great, and if not, use it as a learning opportunity. Create time to assess what’s going well personally and as a group. Embrace trying new things and normalize failing forward.
Tip #4: Embrace a Growth Mindset at Camp
“We’ve always done it this way” is a nonstarter. A growth mindset begs the question, “What if we tried this differently?” Just because what you’re doing has worked in the past doesn’t mean it’s right for your current version of camp.
Challenge yourself and your staff members to propose new ideas about the running of your camp. You’d be surprised how many staff have something to say about possible camp improvements. When the fear of being shot down is removed from the equation, you’d be surprised at how many ideas take shape. The most impactful summers are built by those who believe that this summer can be better than the last.
Tip #5: Reconnect with your Camp Mission.
Abdaal identifies three kinds of burnout in his book, they are: overexertion, depletion, and misalignment. Camp professionals are especially vulnerable to misalignment burnout. When the frenzy of registration hits and the paperwork starts piling up, it can be hard to remember why you chose this specific version of torture. The best course of action when facing burnout is to find the main source of the problem and address it.
Create strategies for yourself and with your team on ways to include enough time to recharge throughout the day, mixed with longer periods of complete full-body rest. Connect to the mission of camp as often as possible, write reminders to yourself, or create a code to support and remind those around you to keep mission first. You can’t contribute to the mission if you’re spent.
Bonus Tip! Use A Camp Management Software (like UltraCamp)
Come on, y’all. We had to include this one. We know that using UltraCamp makes working at camp easier. Our goal is to alleviate the pressure of busywork so that you can get back to the mission and passion of camp.
UltraCamp is an all-in-one camp management platform built to take the administrative weight off your plate. Registration, payments, session management, staff tracking, and reporting all live in one place, so instead of spending your energy hunting down information, you can spend it on the people and the mission that made you choose camp in the first place. What are you waiting for? Book a demo to see how it works.
Very few people got into camp because they love working on spreadsheets. You got into this for the mission, so stop letting the admin get the best of you. Bring joy into your workday, lean on your people, and let the right tools handle the rest. Go make this summer the best one yet!
