I’m an advocate for time blocking: making appointments with yourself to work on a task. However, I’ve used the tactic mostly as a productivity (reactionary) tool. I like this video from Fast Company because it advocates for carving out non-reactionary windows of time for things “you want to make an impact in over the long-term.”
In a month when my “To Do” list seems to experience a growth spurt, I needed a book that would help ease and focus my mind. October, I’m learning, is an overwhelming mix of events, deadlines, anxieties and exhaustion at the end of a particular work cycle. Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less, with it’s soothing green cover and simple table of contents, seemed to promise a light at the end of the tunnel.
Marc Lesser, author of Less and Z.B.A – Zen of Business Administration: How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life, is a Zen teacher with an MBA. I certainly thought I could learn a few things from this guy!
Right now, my favorite life and career resource is Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd. The subtitle is “A practical course in career design for artists, innovators, and others aspiring to a creative life” and does not short shrift those of us who can’t master watercolors or work up the nerve for live performance art, but who nonetheless identify as creative.
Fast Company magazine suggests enlisting a celebrity spokesperson for your charitable cause. The article offers valuable and interesting advice…if you have a multi-million dollar budget and friends in high places. That isn’t to say small non-profits don’t have friends in high places, but if you’re feeling awfully far from Hollywood, consider local celebrities.
We can all read about how charitable giving and spending is down in this recession and not many non-profits are able to hit their fundraising goals. I have a few suggestions to make.
Yes, continue to send out your annual appeal or sell your wares. But consider shifting your organizational focus to two places until all your donors return to the fold: providing services and growing and loving your staff, customer, volunteer pool.