A daily to-do list I’ve stuck with for 6 months. Might work for you too.

I came across the 1-3-5 to-do list on the great productivity/creativity blog 99u (a lovely, quick daily read if you’re a productivity/creativity nerd like me).

Here’s how it works: The method assumes that every day you have enough time/energy for 1 big thing, 3 medium things, and 5 small things.

For me, I approach assigning the size of a task with both how much time it will take me and how much energy it will take. Some things that won’t take long but I’m absolutely dreading might be a 1. Some things that take a bit longer but are super easy and fun may be a 5. There’s lots of room for personal customization in this system.

So, everyday I write down

1
3
3
3
5
5
5
5
5

and draw up my daily list.

On the schedule for today:
1 Music night (time with friends counts too!)
3 Read Engaged City Task Force final report, and draft a response
3 Lunch with Meriko
3 Draft notes for an AGM I’m taking part in next week
5 Move notes from my desktop into proper files
5 Review a pile of old articles from my Masters research for potential blog posts
5 Scrub bathroom floor
5 Go for a run
5 Reply to an internship applicant who wanted feedback on their interview/application

Some days I don’t get everything done — I’m exhausted or I have an unexpected visitor, etc. So some things carry over into the weekends. Unless absolutely necessary, I try to not to schedule work-like things (basically anything that requires me to be at a computer) for the weekends, but if I’m not as productive during the week, I might have to.

Alternatively, sometimes I get more than the list done. Today for example, I had a phone call with Port Coquitlam mayor Greg Moore to talk about a potential event for Canadian Women Voters Congress. I also wrote this post, which is actually something I meant to do yesterday.

My daily to do list is one of the few things that I keep on paper. Here’s what a week of to do lists looks like (the few notes at the top are *ahem* carry over from a lazy end to the week last week):

20140417-140247.jpg

I draw all of my to-dos from my big MASTER to do list, which I keep on a free online tool called Workflowy. More on the amazeballs that is Workflowy in another post.

Some people start their weeks looking at their master to-do lists, and choosing 5 big things, 15 medium things, and 25 small things to do throughout the week. you can find templates for this online if you search for it. I like more flexibility.

How do you coordinate your to-do lists?

How to decide what your organization should STOP doing

If your organization has limited resources (people, time, money, etc.) but wants to achieve success in its programming, this resource is for you.

According to the MacMillan Matrix, a tool developed by Ian MacMillan at the Wharton School of Business, there are four criteria used to determine whether to grow, stop, or share a program: mission and ability fit, program attractiveness, saturation, and competitive advantage.

I’ve adapted the MacMillan Matrix and share it here as a decision tree. You can also download the full resource (3 page PDF).

MacMillan Matrix as decision tree

Women: please steal this idea

I have way too many ideas that I don’t set free. Here’s one I know I won’t get to, but would love someone else to take on.

The nominators

The nominators is a group of diverse women (though not necessarioy just women) who dedicate time to nominating women for awards and speaking engagements. So many awards and panels and keynotes are dominated by men, and it perpetuates a cycle of a specific segment being seen as the “best” or as the “expert”.

Many people who hold conferences and awards lament that the reason we don’t see more women is that women are just not putting their names forward.

There are obviously many complexities that influence this issue, and many angles at which to attack this issue, but one approach is to straight up nominate more women.

I imagine a group of women spanning a variety of sectors and stages of career. They compile awards and key conferences in their professions, communities, etc. And on an ad-hoc basis, with the women of the group who know the award/conference theme well, they take these opportunities one by one and set plans forward to nominate multiple women.

I’m not (only) talking about awards and conferences that are designed for women (e.g. the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards), I mean all awards and conferences. And the group also needs to be conscious of promoting all types of women – no need to reproduce inequality by only putting forward white women, using the same excuses of “but we don’t get applications from women of colour/Aboriginal women/immigrant women [insert any marginalized group]”.

This requires nominees to be on board. It feels uncomfortable for some of us, but we need to convince more women for the sake of the “movement”.

I was nominated for a few things earlier this year, and have often complained about (or boycotted, looking at you TEDxVancouver)  events that are dominated by men. To be the change I wish to see, I’ve started taking a few actions personally – e.g. when calls for speakers come out, I put forward my own name along with a list of other possible women. For examples, I’m excited to see many fantastic women speaking at the upcoming Digital Nonprofit conference in Vancouver – kudos for Eli for pulling together a great line up.

Seriously, anyone want to take this on in Vancouver or elsewhere?

A new way to think about to-do lists and moving important things forward in your life

Lately, when people have asked me what I’m up to, I often talk about my “productivity experiment”: for six weeks I focus on six areas of priority in my life. I read about this method from the book “Necessary Endings” by Dr. Henry Cloud, and I’ve been enjoying the practice.

What this involves:

  • Pick six areas of your life that you’d like to move forward. Areas you’d like to focus on and pay closer attention to.
  • As much as possible, use any available time to focus on these areas.
  • Say no to everything else.

The first six weeks I tried this, my areas of focus included:

  1. Intentional connections: reaching out to people from my past (past jobs, volunteer experiences, conferences, etc.) that I want to stay in touch with, but haven’t connected with recently.
  2. Book interviews: identifying interview subjects and conducting a first round of interview for my ‘quiet’ changemaker book.
  3. Board strategic planning and recruitment: working on these two areas for the board that I chair.
  4. Yoga: using a pass that I hadn’t been using as much as I could.
  5. Travel: winding up a series of blog posts from my trip to Central Asia in 2010, finishing a scrapbook for a trip to SW USA from 2003, and sorting and posting photos from some past trips.
  6. Business file cleanup: sorting through and deleting/cleaning up business files, profiles, etc. Everything from Twitter lists to email folders to computer files.

In addition to these areas, I did other things of course. I spent time with friends, did client work. Did any other fundamentals that I was already commited to. But I said no to many events and meeting requests. I also put a lot of stuff on my to-do list for later, after the six weeks, without guilt (e.g. spring cleaning).

Why this is awesome?

So often, our time is spent doing things that are urgent, but not necessarily important. We have important things that we want to do but never dedicate the time to, and when we do have time, we fill it instead with piddly stuff that doesn’t add much value to our lives. I wanted to get rid of some mental clutter, some stuff that was holding me back, some stuff I felt guilt for not doing already. I wanted to move forward in areas that are important and enjoyable for me, but for I which needed a little push to do.

Will this work for you?

I’m not sure how this would work for someone holding down a full time job–I’m self-employed and work from home so have very high control over my daily life. It might translate well to 6 weeks/6 areas at work, or 6 weeks/6 areas at home. Or 6 weeks/3 areas at home. Or some other combination. It’s not a one-size-fits-all model–make it work for you.

How did I do?

  1. Intentional connections: Reached out quite a bit, had  very enjoyable conversations. But, I didn’t follow up with people I didn’t hear back from the first time.
  2. Book interviews: Reached out to a very targeted group of people, conducted 10 interviews, learned a lot about how I want to reach out and conduct interviews and research moving forward.
  3. Board strategic planning and recruitment: This was probably the area I spent the least time on. I did lots of board work, but not focussed enough on this area.
  4. Yoga: Went to 3 classes out of the 6 I was hoping to get to.
  5. Travel: THE BEST!! Got everything done I wanted to. Finished the scrapbook, finished old blog posts, sorted through tonnes of photos and shared them.
  6. Business file cleanup: Also did well. Fell back in love with Twitter because of how I arranged my lists and apps. Deleted a lot of old email (cut > 50% of my Gmail file space use) and files that I wasn’t going to reference again. Deleted website pages that were just clutter.

Wanna try? 4 tips for success

  • At the beginning of the six weeks, spend time outlining what you’d like to achieve in each of the six areas. It’ll help you use time wisely throughout the six weeks
  • Include a breadth of areas. i.e. if all of the areas focus on reading, or on manual labour, there won’t be enough diversity to keep you interested.
  • Really do say no to things. Meetings, events. Does the fridge truly need to get cleaned now?
  • If you are a part of a group (e.g. colleagues at work, or with family at home) gain the support of others so that you can say no to thing guilt-free (or guilt-less). I work and live alone so I had a lot of flexibility.

So what’s next?

I’m totally doing this again. The mix of the six (as was last time) is 1 “home/personal,” 1 health/fitness related, and the others are a mix of volunteer and business priorities.

Up next are:

  • Running: Every 2 days. I use a “couch to 10K” app.
  • Home improvement: Spring cleaning. Fixing my hissing toilet. Making plans for kitchen renovations. Refinishing a banquette. etc.
  • Board reduction: Reviewing all of the goals I personally have for the board, and identifying the ones that are not truly the responsibility of a board chair. Either
    1. do them (if it’s an area of interest to me)
    2. find someone else interested in leading the task, or
    3. make note of it for future chairs, but forget about it.
  • Thought leadership: In the areas that my business conducts research and strategy, writing and publishing some white papers and resources to share among my “market.”
  • ‘Quiet’ changemaker visibility and credibility: similar to above, but create and seek opportunities to build myself as a thought leader specific to the book topic.
  • Green listening and learning: I’ve been asked to run for CEO of a federal Green Party riding (kind of like a board chair), and the next six weeks are not about taking action, but learning about the current people and plans.

Would love to hear what you think, and what you would/will focus on!

What’s another way to introduce the idea of introverted changemakers?

So I’m writing a book. Right now I’m identifying and interviewing introverted changemakers.

But I have a problem.

Whenever I pitch the idea to people in the social change/non-profit/social innovation space who I think might consider themselves to be introverts, I often get this response:

Oh, but I’m both.

or…

I did that test and I was right in the middle.

And then they go on to talk more about how they work — and they describe introverts to a T. Is it about not knowing much about introversion/extroversion? Or is it about a discomfort with coming out as an introvert?

Here’s the complicated background. Because I’m a certified facilitator of the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the main assessment that covers introversion/extroversion) there is some underlying theory to the whole introversion thing I find hard to let go of when I talk about introversion.

  • Introversion and extroversion is not about how outgoing you are or can be, it’s about where you get your energy from (time alone vs. being around people).
  • Introverts can and do enjoy interacting with people. Often however, we prefer interacting with small groups/with one other person, and we especially like interacting about things that we find important/interesting.
  • Everyone is capable of doing both “introverted” and “extroverted” things. It’s what makes us able to function in the world. However, deep down we have a preference. Kind of like left vs. right handed. Even ambidextrous people usually have a go-to hand.
  • Introversion and extroversion is not about what you do for work, or what your family is like, or how you imagine you would like to be. Again, deep down we have a preference.
  • There is no “I’m in the middle”. If your results showed you as being “in the middle” it doesn’t mean that you are equally introverted and extroverted, it means that you aren’t clear on what your preference is deep down (often because of some of the items listed in the previous point).
  • The Jungian theory behind the MBTI suggests we are born with our innate preferences. While we might develop various skills throughout our lives, and enjoy the benefits of using those other skills, our innate preferences don’t change over time.

So, help me. How would you introduce this book idea? How can I connect with people who are introverted but who, for whatever reason, are hesitant to label themselves as one?

Social innovation webinar February 13

Next week I’ll be presenting a webinar that reviews the report I released last year for HRSDC (now ESDC) on how individuals are contributing to community, beyond giving and volunteering. Join me and SocialFinance.ca next week for this FREE presentation!

Social Finance Connects: Beyond Giving and Volunteering

Le français suit l’anglais

While levels of volunteering and donating remain relatively stable in Canada, individuals are finding new ways to advance social good. They are applying the practices most commonly found in consumerism, use and development of technology, investing, and business owner practices in innovative ways to support vulnerable populations.

In partnership with Community Development and Partnerships Directorate within Employment and Social Development Canada, Trina Isakson conducted a study in 2013. “Beyond Giving and Volunteering: How and why individuals are exploring new ways to advance social good” explores this emerging trend wherein individuals are both demanding and innovating new ways to use time and money, creating opportunities to multiply their impact above and beyond traditional methods of giving and volunteering.

The objectives of the report are:

  1. to provide an overview of the current state of the emerging actions Canadians take to support socio-economically vulnerable populations in their communities;
  2. to identify the potential for these activities to make a positive impact on vulnerable populations;
  3. to identify the barriers to and the drivers of these activities; and
  4. to determine opportunities for government and other actors to take action and to make investments designed to further support these activities.

This webinar will feature important findings from that report.

Date: Thursday, February 13, 12:00 noon EST

Format: 30-minute presentation followed by 30 minute Q&A session

Registration Info: To register (FREE), please visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/social-finance-connects-beyond-giving-and-volunteering-tickets-10255142407

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Financement social : Au-delà du don et du bénévolat

Bien que les niveaux de bénévolat et de dons de bienfaisance restent relativement stables au Canada, les citoyens trouvent de nouvelles façons de promouvoir le bien de la société. Ils mettent à profit de manière innovatrice des pratiques généralement caractéristiques du consumérisme, de l’utilisation et du développement des technologies, de l’investissement et des pratiques des propriétaires d’entreprises pour offrir de l’aide à des groupes vulnérables de la population.

En collaboration avec la Direction du développement communautaire et des partenariats à Emploi et Développement social Canada, Trina Isakson a mené une étude en 2013. « Au-delà du don et du bénévolat : Comment et pourquoi les personnes explorent de nouvelles façons de promouvoir le bien de la société » explore cette tendance émergente en vertu de laquelle des particuliers exigent et innovent en trouvant de nouvelles façons d’utiliser temps et argent, de créer des débouchés afin de multiplier leur impact au-delà des méthodes conventionnelles de don et de bénévolat.

Le rapport vise à :

  1. fournir une vue d’ensemble de l’état actuel des nouvelles mesures que prennent les Canadiens pour soutenir les populations socialement et économiquement vulnérables dans leurs collectivités;
  2. déterminer la possibilité que ces mesures aient des répercussions positives sur les populations vulnérables;
  3. relever les obstacles à ces mesures et leurs éléments moteurs;
  4. établir les possibilités pour le gouvernement et d’autres acteurs d’intervenir et d’effectuer les investissements nécessaires pour appuyer encore davantage de telles activités.

Ce webinaire portera sur certaines des grandes constatations issues de cette étude.

Date : Le jeudi 13 février, à midi (HNE)

Format : Exposé de 30 minutes suivi d’une période de questions de 30 minutes

Pour s’inscrire (gratis) : https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/social-finance-connects-beyond-giving-and-volunteering-tickets-10255142407

Everyday Political Citizen shortlist + my focus on community engagement

Late 2013 I was notified that I had been nominated for Samara’s Everyday Political Citizen project, in which Samara sought nominees from every federal riding in the country.

The Everyday Political Citizen project showcases a more human side to politics, and provides role models for those who are considering engaging politically themselves.

I had the best intentions of nominating some amazing people in my life, but, alas, I was in the throes of pneumonia at the time, and well, I didn’t. I still don’t know who my nominator was, but I have a few suspicions. To the anonymator (a new word I just made up), thank you.

Miriam Lapp nominates Trina Isakson
Source: Samara

And today, Samara announced that I have been shortlisted as one of 13 Canadians. Miriam Lapp, Assistant Director, Outreach and Research at Elections Canada, was the juror that selected me, and I am… well, I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s definitely an honour, but I’m generally not one who likes to talk about myself (I’m more likely to talk about my work or the organizations I work with) so being nominated as a individual is kind of cool but also uncomfortable. (But the fact that Rick Mercer has probably read my name, even just in his own inner voice, is pretty exciting.)

Which is why my focus on community engagement is largely about helping and promoting others, and staying out of the spotlight myself (though I am happy to speak publicly about issues and knowledge that are important to me). This is a trend I see pretty clearly as I look back on some of the key jobs and projects I’ve been involved in over time.

When explore what drives me, my purpose is clear.

I challenge the status quos of how people contribute positively to their communities.

I call this a blend of social innovation and community engagement. My consulting work (i.e. how I earn a living) focusses on things like emerging trends in volunteer engagement, ways individuals are using consumerism, investing, and technology to help vulnerable Canadians, explorations of community-university engagement, and critiquing how young people are investing in their communities (and vice versa). My volunteer work involves getting more women engaged in the electoral process through campaigning or advocacy, and helping nonprofit organizations rethink the ways they engage the people that support them. My side passion project at the moment is writing a book on how introverts can and do create social change.

I will admit I’ve thought about a future involving elected politics (i.e. the “spotlight”), but in reality, I know this is not for me. For one thing, I’m quite clearly introverted and I love my quiet days spent at home alone reading, writing, researching, strategizing, and thinking, scattered with the odd phone call, meeting, or event. I see my mark being made through strong (and fairly silent) ripples.

So providing new venues for people to do in the world, that’s me. Congratulations to the other shortlisters!

PS. There is another great opportunity to nominate (women) community leaders with the deadline this Friday.

2014 is a historic year on Prince Edward Island, a year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference, and the resulting vision that led to the formation of Canada. The Charlottetown Conference was a meeting which enabled 23 men to create a bold vision, form relationships and begin conversations about what our country could be.

We want to know what 23 women will do with that opportunity.