My favorite nonprofit productivity tips for 2023
Survival mode is not sustainable. Not for your health. Not for your relationships. And certainly not for your organization.
If you’re operating from the hamster wheel, here are some of my favorite nonprofit productivity tips for the New Year.
1 ➜ make space
Clear your physical workspace
Every night, I try to dedicate time to cleaning up my workspace so I come back refreshed in the morning. A clean desk means a clear mind. Get your workspace feeling decluttered, organized, and ready for the day.
Clear your digital workspace
Cleaning up goes for your digital workspace, too. According to Harvard Business Review, people lose up to two hours a week searching for digital documents and files. (Maybe a good reminder to reorganize the dark void—I mean Google Drive).
Clear your inbox.
Clear out ALL of your emails. I mean everything. Hit Archive on your read emails, unread emails, everything. Start fresh.
2 ➜ reduce distractions
According to a study by DScout, the average person touches their phone over 2,600 times a day. Not only that, but most of us check email 74 times and receive 46 notifications… EVERY DAY.
Imagine how much more you would get done if your phone was off in the other room!!?!?
Here are a few ways to reclaim your time:
Turn off notifications
I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve heard this tip, yet you STILL get Instagram and email pings on the regular…don’t you? 🤔
If you follow any of the tips from this episode, let it be this one. Shut those notifications down.
Researchers at the University of California found that each time someone received a notification, it took another 23 minutes to return to the task that the notification interrupted.
I’m not messing around here.
Turn off social media and email pings
Turn off Slack pings
Turn off news pings (for the love of mint chocolate chip ice cream, WHY do you still have those on!)
Make “Do Not Disturb” your friend
Speaking of pings… we need to talk about texting.
Texts are not emergencies. Add family and friends to your favorites so that if an emergency does come up, they can call you. Otherwise, keep that phone on silent during the day.
That meme your best friend sent you sure was fun, but you were in the middle of deep work. Now that you picked up your phone, suddenly you’re on Instagram. Then your email inbox. And, oops, now you’re back to texting.
It is a slippery slope. No wonder EDs are feeling depleted.
Close that email tab
If you keep your email tab open in your browser all day, you WILL check it dozens of times. You’ll leave the task at hand to respond to an “important” email (aka an email that could’ve waited another 3 hours to be taken care of).
Connect intentionally
Make intentional time in your day to check texts, emails, social, and Slack. Don’t have the pings hitting you all day long.
Living in your inbox is NOT any way to get things done. I’d recommend only checking your email 2-3 times a day.
I KNOW. This might feel uncomfortable. I get it. But sometimes I realize that I’ve had my email open up as one of those tabs and I am constantly switching from tab to tab. I end up spending all this extra time looking at my email but not being intentional about what I’m actually doing. Those are the days I get nothing done.
All your notifications are FULL of other people’s priorities. Check only a couple of times a day so you can focus on those big priorities that’ll move your mission forward.
3 ➜ reclaim your time
Be intentional about your calendar
You are in charge of the meetings you accept and when people can schedule a time to meet with you. Schedule your calendar around what times you do your best thinking. Practice saying “let me get back to you” before agreeing to meet with someone.
Better yet, get comfortable with saying “no” and keeping certain blocks on your calendar SACRED.
Think about it…
➡️ If 9am meetings stress you out, why do you have set meetings every day at 9am?
➡️ If you do your best thinking between 2-4pm, why do you have back-to-back meetings during that time most days?
I get it; there are times you need to work around a lot of people’s schedules to get a meeting on the calendar. But that doesn’t mean you need a team meeting every Monday at 8:30am.
Use tech to save time
You need to sign up for Calendly and Loom right this very minute. These are two tools I absolutely cannot live without (and once you start using them, you won’t be able to either!)
Calendly is a scheduling tool that syncs with your calendar. You get to mark what times are available for meetings, and when it’s time to schedule a meeting with someone, you just send the Calendly link and they schedule a time to meet. DONE.
No more back and forth to schedule through email (more wasted time). No more creating a brand new Zoom meeting and sending reminders to participants. This is all automated through Calendly. Sign up now. You will not forget it.
Loom is a video recording tool that allows you to create and send videos. They’re the BEST meeting replacement. I use Loom ALL of the time.
Say there’s a new process you want to train someone on. Or you want to walk through an idea you have for a campaign and show some examples. All you do is hit the record loom button and it records your face and screen. Then you send a link to the viewer and VOILA. You spent 5 minutes recording instead of 45 minutes on a call.
Time, reclaimed 😍
Set a timer
Speaking of time… When all else fails, use a timer. Setting a timer comes in handy when you know you’re spending too much time on any given task. Get competitive with yourself and see if you can get the task done before the alarm rings.
I’m just as guilty as the next ED. When I want to put something out into the world, I spend too much time editing and re-editing my stuff. When I tumble down the overthinking rabbit hole, I know it’s time to give myself some limits.
Instead of spending 2 hours on a 30 -minute task, set your timer and focus ONLY on that task. An easy example: I set a timer when I’m checking my email so I don’t spend all day in my inbox.
Commit to trying just ONE THING this week
No one is expecting you to be perfect with this. When you’re back at your desk after the New Year, pick one of the tips and try it out for the week.
If you’re not sure where to start, hop into the productivity challenge. At the very least, you’re going to learn a couple of ways to prioritize and make sure you run your calendar (not the other way around). Sign up today!
Happy New Year and see you soon!