Oftentimes, nonprofit leaders find themselves stretched thin, most especially small and medium-sized non-profits, they might need to wear different hats to get things done. Right from keeping the board engaged to making sure programs are successful, raising money, supervising staff, recruiting volunteers, to doing 100s of other things that may require their attention.
It's often difficult to remain productive in this situation, and this situation can be worrying for nonprofit leaders as they have the desire to get things done and serve the cause, following these five tips can make you become more productive and develop a deeper focus as a nonprofit leader.
Plan your week ahead
Planning your week ahead is important to have a productive week, you do this by organizing your tasks and priorities for the week and setting achievable goals.
Planning the week in advance can help you boost productivity and stay organized. When you normalize planning your week, you will be able to start your week intentionally by knowing what to do and what you are set to achieve, rather than doing anything that jumps your way.
Create a year-long schedule.
By this I mean creating a year-long schedule or calendar of important tasks, for example, a grant request opens May 1st and closes May 15th, you can set a schedule to begin writing the proposal on May 2nd, and set May 10 to review it. You can set this schedule for all annual/recurring grants so you don't miss out on any. This can also be done for all important events within and outside the organization you don't want to miss out on and this should be done ahead of the new year or your organization's calendar year.
Categorize some of your days.
You should do this set some days to review some particular aspect of the organization, for example, you say the 10th of every month is finance day, on this day you just review all that is related to finance, financial statements, your budget comparisons, your cash flow, 15th could be to review programs and events.
Review your weekly progress
Reviewing your previous week's tasks is as important as planning your new week tasks, this gives you an opportunity to reflect on your last week's tasks and activities and see what challenges you encountered and what you can do to improve, some tasks might not be completed in the previous week and might need to be rollover into the new week if it's of high priority. Taking your time to review your weekly progress increases motivation, and gives you momentum to stay on track.
Get help when needed
As a nonprofit leader, you might get overwhelmed with so many tasks, and this makes you lose focus on what is really important. When this happens, you should consider delegating tasks for someone else to free up time so you can focus on tasks that require your expertise. You might need to hire a virtual assistant to get professional help on some of your tasks so you can free up time to do the actual work that needs your attention and expertise.
Collective Impact is dedicated to providing resources and access to professionals in our network to help our community run successful nonprofits. If you’re ready to hire a virtual assistant to help with your productivity, schedule a consultation with us. https://calendly.com/collectiveimpact/app-consultation
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