Create a habit.
Set the time aside.
You can do great things in just five minutes a day, twice a day. For instance…

We recently launched verified groups in our Yammer network. The moderators of our verified groups watch conversations closely so that every post is sure to get a response, and users can easily and effectively engage with the information being shared. All the files are carefully curated so valuable resources easy to find and easy to share. There is a check mark next to the group name to clearly indicate its verified status for our users.

Our verified groups are no different from any other successful online space. Whether work is happening in Facebook, a Twitter chat or even an email group (please, don’t collaborate with a large team in email), people are going to want to engage in the digital space more deeply and effectively when they know their questions will get answers, and information will be easy to find.

And every verified group needs a moderator, or a team of moderators. The moderators of our first verified groups have been doing a great job. They are learning new skills and engaging users in new, innovative ways. We created a private group in our Yammer network just for verified group moderators to connect and share challenges, best practices and overall commiseration.

Sometimes though, moderating a verified Yammer group is seen as an unwelcome burden. One more thing to do, one more place to check, and more skills and techniques to learn. As the administrator of the network, I have the sometimes unwelcome job of reminding our moderators what they need to do.

“Please don’t forget to change that file name.”

“I see a post in your group from several days ago that doesn’t have a response.”

“Do you need help adding hashtags? I don’t see any hashtags.”

I hope that more group moderators in our Yammer network will see the verified groups, and will want their groups to be verified too. I want them to put the time in to bring their groups up to verified group standards. Topics added to posts, file names curated, posts responded to. In order to establish that goal, we need our existing groups to maintain an acceptable level of activity and excellence. I don’t like being the one to remind our moderators what they need to do, and our moderators are very busy professionals, and they don’t like being reminded what to do.

Then I got a nice surprise. I was talking to one of the verified group moderators who seemed pretty unfazed by added responsibility. She did not mind having to learn new skills, and she did not mind the extra work. “Why not?” I asked, thinking to myself that if I was her, I would not like the extra work very much at all.

She explained to me how she makes it a point to spend five minutes in the group at the beginning of the day, and at the end of the day. Easy. Simple. Done. Just five minutes, twice each day. Create a habit. Twice a day…get the work done.

Moderating a verified group is a very important responsibility. A verified group moderator in our Yammer network is taking ownership of an online space with hundreds, sometimes thousands of users. Work is being done, and professional networks are being expanded. This is big stuff, but just because it is big stuff does not mean it needs to take big amounts of time.

This moderator has realized that if she checks once a week or less, it will take much more time to catch up on the work that needs to be done. By investing only a small amount of time into the task every day, she gets a lot done, and has plenty of time for her other work.

Take a look at what you do each day. How can you break big responsibilities down into small tasks? What else could get done in just 5 minutes twice a day?