Supercharge Your Productivity

Nonprofit leaders have a significant, ever-changing workload, lots of personal and professional commitments, and the weight of their organization on their shoulders. Understandably, time is scarce and the need for streamlined productivity is heightened.

On this episode, we'll share a few time management techniques that can help drive your productivity, including:  

- Pomodoro Method
- Eisenhower Matrix
- Time Blocking
- Day Theming
- Pareto Principle
- ABC Method
- Eat the Frog
- Two-Minute Rule
- Getting Things Done System
- ALPEN method

Connect with host Jill Fowler on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This episode was brought to you by Songbird Leadership -- Amplify your organization's mission through outcome-based executive coaching, strategic planning, and capacity building.

Transcript

Thank you for joining us today. I’m your host, Jill Fowler of Songbird Leadership.

A common theme I see among my executive coaching clients is a lack of time. These folks have a significant, ever-changing workload, lots of personal and professional commitments, and the weight of their organization on their shoulders. Understandably, time is scarce and the need for streamlined productivity is heightened. 

Today, I wanted to share a few time management techniques that can help drive your personal productivity. There is no silver bullet, but maybe you’ll hear something, even if it’s just one small part of a larger method, that sparks a new habit and helps you find more time in your day. 

To kick things off, we’ll start with the Pomodoro Technique. This technique was developed in the 1980’s by Francesco Cirillo. He used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to break his work up into intervals. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato, by the way. The Pomodoro Technique helps when you’re unfocused and distracted or overloaded and overwhelmed and not sure where to start. Here’s how you do it:

Select one task from your list. Set timer for 25 minutes and focus only on that task, working continuously. Then, take a five-minute break. Spend this time wisely. Get out of your chair, have a snack, meditate. Do not get on your phone/computer. The goal is to give your brain a rest to be ready to start your next task. Do this three more times and then take a longer break of 15-30 minutes. If you’re interrupted, start over. If you finish the task before the time is up, start another.

This will not only help you focus and get things done, it will also help you become more aware of how you spend your time and how much time you may be wasting in your day on inconsequential things. Be sure to communicate with your team so they know you’ll be unavailable while you’re focusing. How frustrating would it be to have avoidable interruptions and then have to keep starting over?!

Another option for when you don’t know where to begin or have trouble prioritizing is the Eisenhower Matrix. Based on President Eisenhower’s method of managing his own responsibilities, the Eisenhower Matrix involves plotting your tasks on a matrix to determine priority. Here’s how to do it:

There are Eisenhower Matrix apps, but let’s start simply by writing a big plus sign on a piece of paper, dividing it into four quadrants. On the top left, write urgent, and on the top right, write not urgent. On the left-hand side, write important at the top and not important at the bottom. You can also color-code the squares if you like. Now, start adding your tasks to the quadrants.

Tasks in the top left quadrant are both urgent and important and you’ll want to tackle those first. These are tasks with deadlines and have consequences for not doing them, such as submitting a grant proposal or responding to a major donor’s email.

Tasks in the top right quadrant are not urgent, but still important. These are tasks with unclear deadlines, but they are still important to your organization, such as attending an event or registering for a leadership mastermind. Schedule these tasks for later, as they are not your first priority.

Tasks in the bottom left quadrant are urgent, but not important, such as administrative tasks. They must get done, but don’t require involvement from someone at your level or affect your long-term goals

Tasks in the bottom right quadrant are neither urgent nor important, such as attending a status meeting or reading a listserv. Quickly delegate these tasks and move on to more important matters. 

Don’t put any more than 10 tasks in each area each day to keep from becoming even more overwhelmed. It’s also a good idea to create your matrix the night before so you can come in fresh and get right to work on it in the morning. Try this daily for a week and then evaluate. 

Another popular productivity booster is time blocking. Time blocking is helpful if you have trouble making time for things or spend too much time in “reactive mode.” The origin of time blocking dates back to when calendars first began, but Benjamin Franklin is credited for the start of the modern method.    

When time blocking, you literally schedule out every minute of your day in blocks, such as 9-10 email, 10-12 work on budget, 12-1 lunch, 1-2 grant review, 2-4 meetings, 4-5 prep for tomorrow, etc. To reiterate, your entire workday calendar should be filled with something, even if it’s a break. This improves organization, and boosts productivity and focus.

Start by identifying your tasks and then grouping them by theme or priority. Color coding can also be helpful here. Create a schedule for your blocks that works for your needs and then stick to it consistently. At the end of each day, review what you didn’t get done and adjust your blocks for the rest of the week accordingly. 

A similar exercise is Day Theming, in which each day is devoted specifically to one type of activity. For instance, Monday is an administrative day, Tuesday fundraising, Wednesday personnel, etc. 

The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 Rule, helps prioritize tasks by creating focus on what truly matters and deprioritizing the small stuff. There’s a whole mathematical explanation behind this one. I have never liked math and that I’m not going to get into it. Basically, the Pareto Principle asserts that the effort associated with 20% of your tasks will result in 80% impact. Note, this doesn’t mean give less effort. You’ll still give 100%, but through prioritization, you’ll be laser-focused and experience a greater return.

The execution is simple with this one. Make a list of your tasks for the day and identify which will have the greatest impact and focus your efforts there. Boom, you’re productive. Obviously, it takes practice and commitment to see results, but if you’re looking for a productivity practice that’s easy to implement, the Pareto Principle may be for you.

Some other easy-access productivity enhancers are as follows:

The ABC method, which is a slightly simpler version of the Eisenhower Matrix and similar to the Franklin school of thought. Basically, you assign an A, B, or C to all of your task list items for the day. A items have the utmost of urgency and a hard deadline. They must be completed immediately. B items are important, but there’s no deadline involved. C items are the least important. They can be completed as you’re able to do them or, better yet, delegated, but there is no urgency.

Eat the Frog is also easy in theory, and it helps when you’re feeling frozen due to overwhelm. Start by identifying the “frog,” your single hardest, most important task in your day. Then, eat it! Complete that task first thing each day and don’t give yourself the chance to put it off for later. It’s sort of like the Band-Aid approach to starting your day and it’s perfect for procrastinators like me.

Finally, the Two-Minute Rule also helps with procrastination and promotes deep work in the long-term. It’s based on the theory that to start a new habit, you should only spend two minutes on it. So, to put it in terms of productivity, boil each task down to a small dose and just start there. For instance, if you’re planning your annual meeting, brainstorm for two minutes about the venue. Or, if you’re budgeting for next year, spend two minutes reviewing this year’s budget, and then move on. This microfocus will lead to good habits over time. You’re just dipping your toe in the focus pool here. Obviously, the Two-Minute Rule is the long game, but if you’re having trouble getting started or with consistency, this can help.

Obviously, all of these productivity-boosting methods involve more theory and specifics than the basics I mentioned here. I have listed those with books or websites devoted to them in the show notes. Hopefully, some small aspect of one of them spoke to you. And there are many others out there, so if these didn’t speak to you, maybe try the Getting Things Done System or the ALPEN Method or something else that suits your fancy. Whichever you try, be consistent, give it time to become a habit, and show yourself some grace in the process. You aren’t going to immediately become a productivity whiz kid overnight with any of these options, but through practice, you may just find a new trick for your productivity toolkit that makes a real difference in your day.