To Be or Not to Be: What Goes in This Year’s Nonprofit Work Plan?
I’m wagering you’re too busy.
That means you’ve little space for adding new projects to your work plan for the coming year.
Never fear. Help is here!
First, let’s clear out some space.
I’ve participated in many a planning session, and seldom do I recall – if ever – really focusing first on what we could stop doing to make room for new endeavors. If this sounds familiar, you’re likely also familiar with the unfortunate consequences.
There are some things that really should not be part of your work plan moving forward. Or, at the very least, they should be pared down. Quite. A. Bit.
Here’s how you know you need, as Marie Kondo might say, to tidy up.
- Do you try to stuff too much into your work plan and end up doing nothing as well as you’d like?
- Do you allow daily clutter to crowd your inbox so you’re often responding to the little issues rather than the big ones?
- Do you keep working on things that no longer have the payoff they once had, causing you to miss out on newer and more cost-effective opportunities?
- Do you allow inertia to divert your focus towards ‘make work’ transactional stuff that satisfies your need to feel ‘busy,’ while you know it’s not really transformational work?
- Have you allowed your job to become overloaded with tasks you don’t enjoy, to the point where you feel a bit like a lobster in a pot?