Advancement Services professionals are often the quiet engine behind fundraising success — managing data, processing gifts, supporting colleagues, and absorbing constant requests. When workloads feel overwhelming, the instinct is often self-blame: work harder, respond faster, push through.

But overwhelm isn’t always a personal productivity problem. Often, it’s a systems design issue.

This session explores how the Advancement Services team at Harvey Mudd College redesigned its approach to task management to prioritize clarity, visibility, and team well-being. By reframing task management as a shared systems strategy — rather than an individual endurance test — the team reduced reactivity, strengthened collaboration, and built a more sustainable foundation for growth.

Participants will gain: A new framework for understanding burnout and capacity, six principles for well-being–centered task management, Practical strategies for improving intake, prioritization, and visibility, and ideas for using task data to advocate for resources and recognition

Grounded in Advancement Services but applicable to any team navigating growing demand and limited capacity, this session offers a fresh lens and practical tools to help teams move from chaos to clarity.