Looking after yourself as a community manager

This lesson is about the person everyone forgets: you. Community work has no natural end to the day. There's always another reply, another report, another idea. Plenty of good community managers burn out in their first year, not because they did it wrong but because they tried to do all of it.

Set office hours

Decide when you check the community and when you don't, and tell members: "I usually reply within a day, but not at weekends." People adjust to clear expectations much better than to an always-on host who suddenly disappears.

Turn off most notifications

You don't need a ping for every like. Keep notifications for reports and direct messages, and check everything else on a schedule. When I did this for my own accounts, I stopped scrolling the feed in bed at midnight.

Share the load and the hard parts

Moderation decisions and difficult members weigh on you more than you notice. Talk them through with someone: a co-host, a helper or peers in the Community Managers Circle. It also helps to save the kind messages members send you somewhere you can find them again. On thankless weeks, reread a few.

This week's task: write your office hours, post them where members can see them, and switch off every notification you don't need to act on within an hour.