Tiffany Nyklickova
Here’s the latest installment in our series on the “Day in the Life” of nonprofit communicators, where we ask you to describe your day in your own words.
Working in many different sectors ranging from large, for-profit corporations to small grassroots initiatives, Tiffany’s professional experience is in starting projects from scratch and finding the means to do it effectively. Currently as the Project Specialist and Communicator of a grassroots organization, Tiffany wears many hats. She specializes in finding the unfindable and solving problems for small charities around the world. She also shares stories of her work and experiences through blogs and other social media. Her motivation is for an effective, sustainable civil society in Canada and abroad which is built upon partnership and collaboration.
Here is her typical day:
Before 8:00 am: I work from home so there is generally no commuting time. I start work at 8 am, everything before this time is personal preparedness, which includes reading the newspaper.
8:00 am – 10:00 am: Review and read emails, Facebook newsfeeds, Twitter, and read any relevant blogs, news articles, etc. relating to work.
This is when I get caught up on what everyone else is doing.
10:00 am – 12:00 pm: Work on a project — it is my goal to get one (significant) thing accomplished from 10 am – lunchtime.
On Wednesday, from 10-12:30 pm it was work on the copy for a client’s website — home page and about us page.
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm: During these two hours, I hopefully have lunch and a 20-30 workout, and back at work by 1:30, but this is more of a great intention than reality. More often than not, there is usually some sort of curve-ball like an unexpected phone call, email, or deadline to deal with.
On Wednesday, 12:30-1 pm was lunch, 1-1:15 a walk, 1:15-2:00 I filled out an application for a speaking opportunity.
2-2:30 pm I created a graphic for Volunteer Week (I thought it was the following week, how did I miss this!!!)
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: For some reason 2-4 pm are not productive hours for me to focus on work so I plan meetings or phone calls for this time.
On Wednesday from 2:30-3:15 pm I spoke with a client about their communication plan and we worked through their editorial calendar. 3:15-3:40 I made some changes to their plan and updated my notes.
After 4:00 pm: Maybe it’s the pressure that the end of the day brings but 4-5:30 pm brings on a burst of motivation, energy, and creativity. This is when I work on the second project of the day.
On Wednesday, from 3:45-5:30 I did some research and drafted a blog for International Worker’s Day.
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
