“Ruthless” is not a word you often hear in the nonprofit sector. Yet, it’s a necessary approach if you want to be productive as a nonprofit professional. 

In my upcoming webinar, I’ll be discussing how being more ruthless with your time and energy will help you advance your nonprofit’s mission, work more effectively, and avoid the ever-so-common nonprofit burnout. 

In other words, I’ll be sharing some ideas on how you can practice essentialism. 

What is Essentialism?

Essentialism is a framework for filtering tasks and to-do lists in a way that narrows your focus and improves productivity. It involves identifying your highest point of contribution and eliminating roadblocks. 

Although it’s not a new concept (when have we not prioritized more important work over less important work?), this methodology was introduced by Greg McKeown in his Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, where he makes a compelling case for achieving more by doing less.

Nonprofit professionals wear so many hats every day that you might not think it’s feasible to set aside work you do in favour of other tasks. Yet, the way of an Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s not about getting less done. It’s about getting only the right things done, in the right way, at the right time.

Join me for a webinar on March 17 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET to learn how to invest your time in the best way possible to further your mission while producing high-quality work. 

This webinar is for you if you constantly struggle to prioritize tasks and do more with less. Because when you permit yourself to stop saying yes and trying to do everything all at once, you can make a difference in the things that really matter.

About the Essentialism: Ruthless Prioritization for Ultimate Productivity Webinar

4 Steps to Everyday Essentialism

As nonprofit professionals, it’s our nature to want to help others, but you can help others better by first helping yourself.

The next time you start work on a Monday and are greeted with a never-ending to-do list of action items, stop and evaluate before diving in. Essentialists consider and assess what’s on their plate before committing to fewer efforts. In contrast, most of us would just agree to take on new work because it’s “helping out a colleague” or “being passed down from someone more senior.”

What you need to ask yourself is, “will this activity or effort make the highest possible contribution toward my goal?”

Here are four steps to approaching your priority list. 

Step 1: Do the Task

If the task you’ve been assigned will take you two minutes or less, complete it and get it out of your way. This is an easy way to narrow down your list to those harder-to-complete or potentially higher-priority tasks.

Step 2: Delegate the Task

Delegation can be a challenge—whether you lead the team or ARE the team. However, delegation is one of the most important things you can do to keep things moving along. Work that can be done by someone else with comparable skills on your team should be assigned over to them. 

If there’s anything you’re waiting on from others, get it off your list and do what you need to do to remember to come back to it later. This could be an automated slack reminder, a calendar notification, or a good old-fashioned sticky note on your desk.

Step 3: Delete the Task

Next, look at your list with a critical eye? How long has “revamp flyer language” been on your priority list? Are you doing direct mail drops right now? Did the person who assigned it to you move on to a new outreach campaign? These types of tasks can be deleted and left at the bottom of the proverbial prioritization pile. If it’s essential, someone will follow up.

If you don’t want to forget a task that you’re deleting, you can move it to a separate pile for “someday.”

Step 4: Analyze your Deferred Tasks

Once you’re finished doing, delegating, or deleting the tasks on your to-do list, you’re left with a more realistic overview of what you should be focusing on.

Your journey to being an essentialist begins on March 17 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET.  In this upcoming webinar session, you will learn how to ruthlessly prioritize your tasks and determine the few things you need to do to make the most impact daily.

 

Tasi Gottschlag is the COO of Keela, a comprehensive nonprofit software platform that gives you powerful, intelligent tools to manage your donors, mobilize your volunteers, market your nonprofit, and raise more money. Tasi has an MBA from SFU and built and sold her first SAAS tech start up in 2018. A true geek she is a passionate builder of businesses, loving all the moving pieces, intricate dynamics and systems that produce the results we see. In her free time she loves to race sailboats, read inspiring business books and has two amazing daughters who ensure free time is kept to a minimum.