Ugh. Interruptions! They would linger at my door, peek 👀 in, and ask if they could ask a quick question...45 minutes later, I'd be trying to figure out where I was on the report, which took another 15 minutes to get settled back in, only to be interrupted again. You've been there, too, even if it is virtually. The rings, dings and pings never stop and constantly distract you. As a leader, your team relies on your guidance and support. However, frequent interruptions from team members seeking advice or addressing concerns can disrupt your workflow. Creating an environment that allows you to focus and be uninterrupted is essential for maximizing your productivity as a leader in a nonprofit organization. Here are some effective strategies to help you minimize and eliminate distractions. 1 - Address Urgent Client Needs Let's address this first. In small nonprofit organizations, clients in crises often require immediate attention. While it's crucial to prioritize their needs, it's equally important to establish your boundaries to prevent them from becoming constant interruptions. Where possible, designate specific times during the day to address urgent client matters and communicate these time blocks with your team and clients.
Empower your team to handle initial client inquiries. This allows you to focus on more complex or high-priority cases.
2 - Set your boundaries Get clear that you're unavailable and for how long ⏳
3 - Communicate your boundaries to your team
👽 BONUS: Check out the CHATGPT-generated email at the end that you can use as a draft to communicate to your team)
4 - Reinforce your boundaries Set up your workspace in a way that discourages interruptions. Use visual cues to communicate your availability and to signal your focused state.
5 - Deal with interruptions Not all interruptions are avoidable, so handling them effectively is important. Before allowing someone to interrupt your focused time, assess the urgency and importance of their request. This post might help you: When interruptions come, don't let them in:
6 - Be strict ---> with yourself. You are your own worst enemy. Recognize that your internal distractions can often be more challenging than external ones. Your ability to stay focused requires willpower and self-discipline. Be mindful of your tendencies to get sidetracked and implement strategies to combat them. Recognize that your internal distractions can often be more challenging than external ones. Your ability to stay focused requires willpower and self-discipline. Be mindful of your tendencies to get sidetracked and implement strategies to combat them. Your lack of focus comes more often from inside than outside. Focus requires an incredible amount of willpower. Read these blogs to discover more about staying focused. Moving Beyond Procrastination: 3 Powerful Strategies to Empower You to Take Action 3 Productivity Hacks for Leaders that are Guaranteed to Boost Your Mood Get rid of the distractions in your line vision
Deal with your phone Your phone can be a significant source of distractions. Take control by:
By distancing yourself from your phone, you create a physical separation that reduces the temptation to engage with it and allows you to focus more fully on your work. Remember, creating an environment that minimizes distractions requires conscious effort and consistent practice. By implementing these strategies, you can establish a productive work environment that empowers you as a leader in a nonprofit organization. Check out this letter to help you communicate your boundaries👇🏻
BONUS: CHATGPT Generated Email to send to your staff Do you need help communicating your boundaries to your staff? Use the following CHATGPT Generated Email to send to your staff as a draft to help you send a clear message. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Subject: Establishing Focused Time for Enhanced Productivity and Reduced Interruptions Dear [Team], As we continue our mission to positively impact the lives of those we serve, I wanted to share an important update that will help us enhance our productivity and efficiency while addressing interruptions effectively. Recognizing the value of uninterrupted work time, I am implementing a new practice of setting aside dedicated, focused time for each of us to tackle our tasks and responsibilities without unnecessary interruptions. This will enable us to dive deep into our work, foster creativity, and accomplish more meaningful results. During these focused times, I kindly request your cooperation in refraining from interrupting one another unless it is an urgent matter that requires immediate attention. By respecting these boundaries, we will be able to maximize our productivity while ensuring that critical client needs are met in a timely manner. To support this initiative, here are a few guidelines we will follow: 1. Clearly Communicating Availability: Each team member will communicate their preferred focused time slots, which will be shared with the entire team. This way, we can plan our schedules and interactions accordingly, reducing unexpected interruptions. 2. Utilizing Email and Collaboration Tools: Non-urgent queries or updates can be effectively communicated via email or collaboration tools like Slack or project management platforms. This way, we can address them at a time that is most suitable for our focused work. 3. Prioritizing Urgent Matters: For urgent client or organizational matters that cannot wait, we will maintain open lines of communication. However, I encourage everyone to assess the urgency and importance of requests before interrupting a team member during their focused time. 4. Empowering Autonomy: Let's foster a culture of autonomy, encouraging each team member to solve challenges independently whenever possible. This will not only build our problem-solving skills but also reduce unnecessary interruptions for guidance. 5. Respect and Support: As we embark on this new practice, let's demonstrate respect and support for one another. Celebrate achievements and milestones while understanding that focused time is crucial for personal growth and delivering exceptional results. By embracing these guidelines, we will create an environment that supports our collective success and allows us to meet the needs of our clients efficiently. I trust each one of you to contribute to this initiative and maintain a positive and productive work environment. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns regarding this new approach, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Your feedback is always valued and appreciated. Thank you for your commitment to our organization and your dedication to making a difference in the lives of those we serve. Together, we will achieve remarkable outcomes and continue to be a force for positive change. Warm regards, [Your Name] [Your Position]
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Moving Beyond Procrastination: 3 Powerful Strategies to Empower You to Take Action Are you like me? Do you delay, prolong and stretch out some tasks? We all do it. We even joke about procrastination. We tease others about it. However, when procrastination seriously gets in the way of our productivity, it hinders our ability to positively impact our team and the work our organization does. Yet, in some ways, we seem resigned to dealing with procrastination. It's just a part of life. Right? It doesn't have to be. Let's look at 3 common reasons why we procrastinate and three strategies to deal with three types of procrastination. Which one of these is you? The reasons we put off task fall into three categories. Review the following to discover which reason matches your current procrastination slump and find a strategy for dealing with it. 1️⃣ We procrastinate because: The task makes us feel uncomfortable In this situation, the job in front of you feeds your resistance.
🟡 The Strategy for Overcoming Procrastination If the task in front of you makes you uncomfortable, name it to tame it.
🟢 It is your emotions that stop your actions. Naming the emotion you feel allows you to deal with your resistance to the task in front of you.
2️⃣ We procrastinate because: The NEXT task makes us feel uncomfortable Try finishing these sentences:
What emotion did the next task bring up for you?
The subsequent feeling about what happens next has you procrastinating on the current project. 🟡 The Strategy for Overcoming Procrastination Take time to recognize the links. Notice what is coming up after the task you are procrastinating on. 🟢 Make notes of your fears and your anxiety about the next step. Then, go back to the first strategy. Name it to tame it. Naming the emotions allows you to get a handle on it. Being in control of your emotions puts you back into motion. 3️⃣ We procrastinate because: We are depleted The most often overlooked reason we procrastinate is that we are truly depleted. We are like cell phones. We run out of charge. The problem is that most of us only plug back in briefly. Bumping back up to a 10% charge prevents us from functioning adequately. Before long, we are feeling drained again. When you're running on empty, it's extremely difficult to focus and use brainpower. 🟡 The Strategy for Overcoming Procrastination If you are truly depleted, it's time to fill your cup back up! Take time to:
The 3 strategies: Employing these strategies to move through resistance will put you back in control.
Are you ready to transform your approach to time management? Join "The Emotions of Time Management" course designed exclusively for women leaders in nonprofit organizations. In it, you'll: 1- Master Proven Time Management Strategies: Learn 3 powerful time management strategies 2 - Identify Hidden Roadblocks: Uncover the emotional barriers holding you back from effective time management 3 - Create Lasting Change: Learn practical tools and actionable steps to integrate time management practices into your daily routine Learn more about The Emotions of Time Management here As a woman leading in the nonprofit sector, I know your days are filled with endless meetings, tight deadlines, and a never-ending to-do list. I've been there, and I know it's not always easy to stay motivated and positive when facing these challenges. When I get behind, I get irritable 😤 Any interruptions will annoy the crap out of me. The thing is, not only do I get short with others, but I also beat myself up.
The impact of less-than-productive days You, too, likely feel irritated on less-than-productive days. You also know the consequences of how an unproductive day can spill into your evening. Being short with your staff is certainly not optimal, but a cutting remark with your child can leave you feeling inept in the parenting department. I'd had enough of it! This all-too-familiar cycle was the norm for me for years. The more determined I got in the last few years to do meaningful work, the more necessary it became to be productive. Changing a few things has made an incredible difference for me. I still have less productive times, but they are fewer and farther between. I end most weeks ticking everything off of my weekly list. When you decide it's time to be more productive...this ↓ ✅ Being more productive will help you take that weekly and daily to-do list and get them done. That way, you can shut off at the end of the day, knowing you completed what was needed. ✅ Being productive at work frees up your mind and energy to shift into the rest of your life. Feeling upbeat when you come home at the end of your workday results in a much more enjoyable evening with your loved ones! Let's dive into the three powerful productivity hacks that enhance efficiency and boost mood👇🏻 3 Productivity Hacks for Leaders that are Guaranteed to Boost Your Mood 1 - Prioritize Self-Care As a dedicated nonprofit leader, it's natural to put others before yourself. However, taking care of your well-being is essential for maintaining a positive mindset and achieving productivity because: 👉🏻 It's hard to focus when you are hangry. 👉🏻 It will take you way longer to create the document when you haven't left your desk for 3 hours straight. 👉🏻 You'll find burnout knocking at your door if you don't take proper care of yourself. If you neglect self-care, you're more likely to be unproductive, experience heightened stress levels, and eventually face burnout, just like my client Nancy. NANCY'S STORY 🙋🏻♀️ Nancy was neglecting her physical and mental well-being, feeling exhausted, and struggling to be productive.
Nancy started with wanting to carve out time each day for self-care activities that rejuvenate her, like a morning meditation or an evening walk with the dogs, but she didn't always have the motivation to do that. Many of my clients have high aspirations like this but struggle to get there. To get moving in the right direction, I encourage them, like I encouraged Nancy, to start small and work to add micro-moments of wellness throughout her day. WHAT WORKED FOR NANCY Nancy began working through the course Wellness AT Work and learned how to add micro-moments of wellness into her work day. She immediately found she was feeling healthier and more productive! 👉🏻 DO THIS: Add micro-moments of wellness into your day Think about what you can do in one minute or less:
Learn more about the Wellness AT Work COURSE 2 - Master Time Management As a nonprofit leader, learning effective time management is a game-changer. Learning to manage your energy and priorities helps you have increased productivity and allows you to maintain a positive outlook. Here are the basics: ✔️ Take time to plan your week, determining the top projects and tasks needing to be done. ✔️ Break your projects into tasks which makes them more manageable. ✔️ Each day, identify your top priorities for the day ✔️ Create time blocks in your calendar to work on allocating tasks ✔️ Embrace technology tools such as task management apps, calendars, and reminders to stay organized and on track. By maximizing your time and staying focused, you'll accomplish more while reducing stress, undoubtedly boosting your mood. However, time management strategies alone won't be the simple answer. 🤔 You'll also need to manage what's happening in your head when you think about those tasks. ❗️ Just because you put "performance review" on your agenda doesn't mean you'll eagerly jump into it at the allotted time. If you are uncomfortable with conflict and know this review will be challenging, you may put it off unconsciously. Seeing it pop up on your list week after week requires you to start looking at the unconscious thoughts getting in the way. 🙋🏼♀️ SASHA'S STORY Sasha knew that she was struggling with more than time management.
WHAT WORKED FOR SASHA For example, Sasha kept putting off the annual report. It had been on her list for a month, and now the pressure was on to finish it. As she worked through the exercises...
💡 These two insights helped Sasha add some client stories to the report and ask for help with the software. She then reengaged in the task and completed it on time with a sense of pride rather than frustration. 👉🏻 DO THIS: Master your inner critic Work through The Emotions of Time Management to help you apply the time management strategies despite your sabotaging thoughts. Learn more about The Emotions of Time Management COURSE 3 - Make the best use of your productive times 🙋🏼♀️ MY STORY A few years ago, I took a deep dive into productivity. As an overachiever with high expectations of myself,
🟦 Identify your most productive times
🟦 During peak times, do the projects needing intense focus What are the things that require a level of diligence and focus? reading over and digesting a report
WHAT WORKED FOR ME 🟦 Use your willpower wisely Willpower is the age-old skill of self-control, restraint, strength, and determination. Willpower happens in your head. 🗣️ Our mind chatter tries to get us to avoid pain. 🗣️ That inner dialogue suggests to us, subconsciously, that doing a particular project on our to-do list hurts. 🗣️ Our inner voice says that if we do the task in front of us, it will be painful, hard or troublesome. So instead, that little gremlin 🗣️ inside suggests we check email again, move to a different project or head to Tik Tok, LinkedIn, or your favourite social media newsfeed. 👉🏻 DO THIS: Learn to manage your willpower Honestly, learning about willpower helped me the most with productivity. It takes resolve to push past that and get to work, especially agonizing jobs. To stay on task, get done the important work and leave feeling productive at the end of your day, you must activate your willpower. Start by: ✅ Understanding what willpower is and what it isn't ✅ Learning how to stop depleting your willpower unnecessarily. ✅ Learning how to get more willpower quickly when you need it most. I took what I learned and put it into the course Willpower Essentials: Getting Done What Matters Most Learn more about the Willpower Essentials COURSE Remember, boosting your mood and enhancing your efficiency go hand in hand. Prioritize self-care, master time management, and learn to manage your willpower, and you'll find yourself accomplishing more while enjoying the journey. Here is the thing, as a leader, you can inspire other women leaders in the nonprofit sector with your positive energy that will undoubtedly create a ripple effect within your organization and community. The choice is yours! You may have noticed that I linked three different courses above. All of them are instantly accessible to you, plus many, many more, when you join The Training Library for $19.97/month. 🤔 How much do you pay for your Prime, Netflix, Google or Apple membership? Is your growth and development (also your sanity) not worth that much too? Joining The Training Library gives you the tools to lead and live your best. I hope I'll see you in there soon! Are you a nonprofit leader who finds you intend to get a lot done each week but mournfully realize that when Friday hits, you've barely touched your to-do list? 😒 Instead, you accomplished a lot of things that other people added to your to-do list. While reacting to everyone else's demands, you didn't complete the assignments you wanted to work on. Miserably, you note that some of the unfinished items on your list were crucial tasks to move important projects forward that were truly important to you and your team. Trust me. You are not the only one who feels like this at the end of your week. Too much REACTING rather than responding Leaders spend more time acting on requests from others than completing their own priority tasks. The urgency to solve everyone else's problems leaves a manager feeling like they spend their days chasing fires and never getting anywhere 😫 If you want to get off that hamster wheel and do more of your essential work, you must be more intentional about what you do with your time rather than reactionary. ⭐️ It is critical to begin with planning You must start each week by planning your week. Before you get caught up in chasing everybody else's plans and agenda for you, you must reorient yourself to what are priorities for you. By setting aside time each week to lay out what you want your week to look like, you will have better control over what happens 👏🏻 You must get perspective 👀 Weekly planning sessions allow you to pull your head out of the sand. While putting your head down and getting work done at times is crucial, a leader's critical function is to lift their head (and their organization's head) and get a bigger picture view repeatedly. Weekly planning time is this head-up, expansive view of the bigger picture. This time allows the leader to put things into perspective for them and their organization. You need to refocus your time and priorities Weekly planning allows you to get projects, plans, and tasks into focus again. From this outlook, you can choose how to respond to your week rather than frantically reacting to whatever shows up in your inbox, at your door or desk. Creating a habit of weekly planning puts you back in control and moving forward rather than running around and around 🙌🏻 3 Steps to Creating a Weekly Planning Habit 1️⃣ Schedule a weekly time slot into your agenda First, set aside time each week to do your planning. Schedule it into your agenda and stick to it. You will need 20 minutes to an hour, depending on your responsibility level and style. Find a time that works best for you.
Set clear boundaries
❌ Do NOT book anything else in that slot. 2️⃣ Develop a list of action items for the week A) Review annual goals
📝 Write those down as action items. For Example: Your company is looking at reducing short-term disability. Perhaps you need to schedule a meeting with the working group for the short-term disability strategy. B) Review quarterly projects Next, look at the quarterly projects you have on the go. Where are you at with each of those? What needs to be done to move the project forward? 📝 Write those down as action items. For Example: If you are planning your annual staff retreat, you might have to research venues. C) Review last week's meetings Look at the previous week's schedule and identify items needing carrying forward into this week. 📝 Write those down as action items. For Example: You may have met with someone and meant to connect them to another person. Note the need to send a connecting email to the two on your to-do list. D) Review your upcoming appointments Finally, look at the upcoming week. Review your meetings that are coming up and conversations that need to happen. Once again, continue adding to your to-do list. 📝 Write those down as action items. For Example: If you have a staff meeting on Thursday, you may need to compile the agenda to send out to the attendees. Dealing with the big list of items ✅ ✅ ✅ You should now have a list of things you want to tackle in the upcoming week. For some of you, this feels overwhelming. For others, it might be refreshing. One way to look at it is that you now have everything out of your brain and in one place. There will be less chance of forgetting or losing things in the shuffle. Dumping everything onto this list, from this big-picture perspective, is, in itself, helpful.
3️⃣ Creating your plan From this list of action items, create your plan for the week.
Make weekly planning your priority Setting aside time to plan your week puts you on track to having a more productive week. Choose when you want to do this, then schedule planning time weekly into your agenda. Review your annual goals, quarterly projects, the previous week's appointments, and the upcoming week's schedule during the identified time. ☑️ From this analysis, list tasks you want to accomplish. But it won't work 🤦🏼♀️ If you read this and thought, that's lovely, but it doesn't work that way in the real world, I'm with you 💯 Even with the best of intentions, things have a way of getting in the way 😕 But is it things...or yourself? In The Emotions of Time Management course, you'll learn why those strategies alone won't work for you. ✔️ We'll uncover the emotions that hold you back and help you make those strategies work for your unique situation. ✔️ You'll discover how to overcome hidden commitments that get in the way of getting done what matters most so that you can get done what matters most. Learn more about The Emotions of Time Management here. You can do this! 🙌🏻 You can get more organized, on top of things and get done what matters most. However, it will take a bit of intentional digging into what gets in your way, and that's often what's happening inside you. Thus, you must do the inner work! Start with the system, then notice what gets in the way of the system working. That's where The Emotions of Time Management come into play. It's the inner work you must do to be the best leader you can be! Are you a nonprofit leader tired of looking at your to-do list with a sense of dread? Trust me. You're not alone. We all have a love/hate relationship with those seemingly endless lists. They can be overwhelming, but at the same time, they're essential for keeping us on track and ensuring we get things done. 👉🏻 If you want to transform your TO-DO list into a truly productive tool, it's time to make it more manageable. 🤔 Are you wondering....How do you trim your TO-DO list? The wrong thing to put on your list To tame your TO-DO list, you must remove repetitive items. When you stop entering tasks on your list that you complete regularly, you will see your list shrink dramatically. Doing this lets you find that your TO-DO list becomes your trusted friend instead of a daunting foe. You can do what Sarah and Maria did 👱🏻♀️ My client Sarah manages a group home. She used to have tasks like "prepare program schedule every week" and "review budget once a month," constantly cluttering her to-do list. Realizing that these were routine items, Sarah entered them directly into her schedule. This simple change made a massive difference in how she approached her daily tasks, allowing her to focus on more pressing matters and be more productive. 👩🏻 Another client Maria, a Program Coordinator, used to dread the monthly task of compiling statistics and preparing quarterly reports. It was a time-consuming chore that she would often leave until the last moment, sacrificing her personal time to get it done. However, after learning to treat routine tasks as appointments with herself, Maria scheduled a specific time slot every month to tackle the statistics. Not only did this help her prioritize the task, but it also freed up her evenings and weekends for personal activities. ❌ Removing the routine items By removing routine items from your to-do list and scheduling them in your agenda, you're making a commitment to yourself to complete these tasks during designated times. 📆 Book appointments with yourself Most leaders only use their agenda for meetings and appointments with others. They may list other things they must do during the day in their agenda, but only as bulleted points. Instead, you should enter routine items into a time slot in your schedule with a beginning and ending time. The routine task should be entered into your schedule as an appointment with yourself. 📊 The dreaded monthly stats task Let me give you an example. Many managers need to do monthly statistics and quarterly reports. This means you pull together charts, forms, and spreadsheets every month. Laying them all out on your desk, you compile data into a report that goes off to the powers that be. For most leaders, this data compilation is a challenging task. Leaders put it off and delay doing it until the last moment. I venture to guess that most leaders tend to get it done by either staying late or finishing it on the weekend. That's certainly how I used to get it done 🤦🏼♀️ This chore gets done on a manager's own time because the manager never prioritized it. Oh, they may put it at the top of their TO-DO list! But that didn't mean it came before other fires needing put out. Since the monthly statistical collection wasn't put in as an appointment, it was not completed during the regular daytime hours. 🙋♀️ How I do it: I now have a standing appointment with myself to do it each 📆 Monday morning. Yes, you read that right. It's part of my weekly review that gets prioritized before anything else! Move it from TO-DO list to your agenda Tasks that are routine things need to be put into your agenda. Schedule a regular appointment with yourself to get done the things that need to get repeatedly done.
How to Set Routine Tasks as an Appointment Most leaders only use their agenda for meetings and appointments with others, but it's also important to include routine tasks. Rather than simply jotting them down as bullet points, I encourage you to allocate a specific time slot in your schedule with a defined start and end time. Treat these routine tasks as appointments with yourself. ✔️ Appointments with yourself get entered into your agenda and are blocked off as busy times. ✔️ No one else should be able to book an appointment with you during this time. ✔️ Treat those times just like you would treat any other meeting:
But what if something more important comes up? We all know that unexpected things can arise, and priorities can shift. If you cannot complete a task during the scheduled time, don't just erase it and forget about it. As author Jay Papasan says: "If you erase it, then you must replace it." 📚 Papasan co-authored the book The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results, and I highly recommend it if you want to become more productive. Rebook it if you can't do it That means if you can't do the work as planned, find another suitable time slot in your calendar to reschedule it. Don't let routine tasks pile up and follow you home as unfinished business. They are an integral part of your workload and deserve the same level of attention as anything else ⭐️Compiling timesheets, writing reports, and reviewing budgets are all part of your workload. They are not extras. You need to treat them with the same importance as anything else. ✅ Your TO-DO list taming HOMEWORK: 1️⃣ During your weekly planning, review your TO-DO list. 2️⃣ Put a ✔️ checkmark beside anything that is a regular or cyclical task. 3️⃣ Take those items and 📆 schedule the appropriate amount of time into your agenda. 4️⃣ Stick to those times and complete the task in that time slot 💪🏻 5️⃣ If you can't do it, re-book it 📆 A manageable-looking TO-DO list This leaves a manageable TO-DO list for you to prioritize. It won't be quite as scary to look at the items left 👀 Keeping your TO-DO list manageable requires being mindful of what you enter into it. Schedule routine items into your agenda. That way, regularly occurring tasks will get done on time. This will also leave your TO-DO list smaller, more inviting to scan and way easier to keep up with 👏🏻 I'm curious. Comment below:
Need more help prioritizing? If you need even more help to tame your to-do list and get done what matters most, start The Emotions of Time Management today and learn time management strategies and how to make them work for you! |
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