Personal Organization System for Non-Profit Leaders

Those of us working moms (especially leaders in non-profit organizations) who are trying to “fit it all in” have no choice but to have really strong personal organizational systems. While maintaining a tight system for managing to-dos might seem like it turns you into an uptight person who can’t enjoy life, I actually find it’s the opposite! The more I get things out of my brain and into a system and the more I plan strategically and block out personal time, the more I can be spontaneous and joyful in the time I free up. This post is all about my personal organization system as a non-profit leader.

History of My Personal Organization System

My personal organization system has undergone so many iterations over the years! I’m generally a person who prefers paper-based systems, and I was able to use one for many years. Here’s a peak at what my system looked like when it was totally paper-based. When I was a teacher, a paper-based system was helpful because I could carry it anywhere. If I had a random thought that I didn’t want to forget while I was at the overhead projector (yes, that’s how old I am!), I could write it in my system without pulling out my phone or laptop.

Once I became the leader of a non-profit organization, I had to move to an all-digital personal organization system. I still carry around a notebook which is my brain outside my body, but that’s a story for another day. It’s easy for to-dos to die in a notebook. If I write a next step in my notebook, I try to move it into my system as quickly as possible.

Personal Organization System for Non-Profit Leaders

My life revolves around my Google calendar, which is why it’s so much more efficient to just centralize everything on my laptop. Before I get into a step-by-step overview of my personal organization system as a non-profit leader, please know that I’m only sharing this for potential inspiration—not from a place of thinking others will replicate my entire system. Each person has to put together their own system that makes sense to their brains. If you are a teacher or a non-profit leader, I highly recommend going to one of the Together Teacher or Together Leader workshops. I have gone to several, and they are magical. Maia is such an inspiration. I recently went to one for a second time, simply because I wanted to sit in the back and do a tune-up on my system.

My personal organization system as a non-profit leader is a combination of the following things:

• OneNote downloaded onto my laptop
• Google Drive
• Google Calendar

How I Use OneNote as Part of My Personal Organization System for Non-Profit Leaders

I like OneNote because I’m a paper-based person at heart and I can create things like tables and tabs in OneNote. It’s the closest thing to my old Life Binder (featured in the link above).

I have three separate tabs in OneNote that subdivide into additional tabs:

1. Tasks
   1. Weekly Action Plan
   2. Monthly Goals
   3. Yearly Goals
2. Gifts: This is where I keep track of ideas I have throughout the year for birthday gifts and Christmas gifts.
3. Notes: This is where I keep random things that I need to reference later.

An additional reason I like OneNote is that I can add things even when my computer is not connected to the internet. I don’t like stressing about whether my computer is connected to wifi, which is why this matters to me. I also have the OneNote app on my phone, so theoretically I can add things to my system when I have my phone but not my laptop. In all honesty, I don’t do that, but I should!

Yearly Goals

I have one organization system for my personal goals and one for my professional goals. Every January, I set my personal goals, whereas my non-profit organization sets its goals in May for the upcoming school year. I keep my personal goals on a tab in OneNote, and I keep my yearly professional goals in a Google Sheets document.

Quarterly & Monthly Goals/Actions

Professionally, my team and I break our year goals down into quarterly benchmarks and leading indicators. We keep those in the same spreadsheet with our yearly goals and dashboard.

I also keep a “Monthly” tab in OneNote that has a list of recurring actions that need to happen each month professionally and personally. So I take my personal yearly goals and translate them into smaller monthly actions. My personal monthly list is a mix of recurring things (like starting to plan Tate’s birthday party every June) and year-specific things. For example, this year I wanted to build a tread mill desk in my office, so I wrote that in February.

These bigger picture goals, interim goals, and recurring monthly tasks then feed into my Weekly Action Plan.

Weekly Action Plan: The Workhorse of My Personal Organization System as a Non-Profit Leader

This is the tab I have open in OneNote all the time and use on a daily basis. It includes a column to keep a list of tasks that pop up throughout the day. The column is labeled, “Immediate To-Dos.” I add tasks into this column if they will take less than 30 minutes. My goal is to block off about 30 minutes per day to tackle the “ticky tacky” things that make it onto this list. If something absolutely needs to get done that day and my block of time has already passed, I will highlight it bright yellow. I usually look at the list one more time before I close my computer for the night at 8pm.

Here’s what the template looks like in OneNote:

Immediate To-Dos

Examples of things that go into my Immediate To-Dos (both personal and professional):

• Schedule a call with a colleague to ask them questions about Montessori materials
• Send out the video of a sample reading lesson to teachers
• Schedule a meeting with one of my colleagues to hear her thoughts about how we should improve operationally for next year
• Schedule a dentist appointment

Right next to my “Immediate To-Dos” column is the “Later List” column. I add things to the “Later List” that are likely to take 30 minutes or more.

Later List

Examples of things that go onto my Later List:

• Research how the Daily Five approach to literacy works
• Create a job description for a Data and Tech person
• Put together a funding proposal for a particular funder

Right next to my Later List, I keep a list of my priorities for the year. These are all the various “buckets” that I need to keep on my radar. For example, here’s 2018-19:

1. Bilingual Model Planning Committee
2. Talent Task Force
3. Montessori For Equity
4. Advancing Equity in Public Montessori
5. SEL Working Group & SEL at Magnolia
6. Literacy Project
7. Identity Affirmation Groups
8. Adolescent Community
9. Piloting New Tutoring Program
10. Intervention
11. Hiring
12. Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist Work
13. Fundraising
14. Board Development

Throughout the year, I add additional priorities (like supporting the Campus Improvement Planning process starting in April or helping the team select a new reading intervention program).

I keep these priorities right next to everything else so I keep them top of mind when I am planning out my week. I look at each bucket and think about whether I need to advance anything forward in the upcoming week.

Follow-Up

The final column I have in my Weekly Action Plan table (in the top row) is “Follow Up.” I make note of things that I need to follow up with people about. I use this when there’s something that someone else needs to do in order for me to move forward on something. Rather than just put the ball into someone else’s court, I have to make sure it comes back to me!

I have separate rows when there are things I want to talk to individual people about. For example, if I want to check in with my development person about getting started on our holiday card, I will write a quick note under her name and then reference my list when we are in our next check-in together.

Putting It All Together

I have a series of meetings with myself on a yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis to make this system work. In order to remember what I’m supposed to do in each of those meetings with myself, I have agendas inside a Google Sheet called “Reflection.” I keep the link to this document on my task bar, so it’s easy to find and click.

During my quarterly meeting with myself, I break down quarter goals into week-by-week actions. I put all of them in a document called ProjectHub.

During my Monthly meetings with myself, I work through the agenda below. You can see that I’m not as consistent as I wish I were! #reality

Weekly Meeting

The weekly meeting is the key to making this system work. I set aside an hour each week to have this meeting with myself. I typically have this meeting on Sunday from 7pm-8pm, but I’m trying to switch to Friday mornings, so my Sunday doesn’t feel so stressful.

The weekly meeting is a recurring event on my calendar, so I hold the time sacred. I also have meetings scheduled for my quarterly and monthly meetings with myself. I basically just extend the length of my weekly meeting to accommodate the extra agenda tasks.

Agenda of a Weekly Meeting

In the weekly meeting, the first thing I do is clean out my e-mail inbox. It usually contains action items that need to be scheduled to work on the following week.

The next thing I do is clean out my “Immediate To-Dos.” If there’s still stuff in that list, it either means I’m never going to do it (which means it gets deleted) or it means I actually need more than 30 minutes to do it. In that case, I move it to the “Later List.”

Once my inbox and Immediate To-Do list are cleared out, I make my plan for the upcoming week. I keep my plan in Google calendar. My Google calendar is what I keep open all day every day to know what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s a combination of meetings and work time.

To decide how to populate my “work time,” I read through my “Later List” first. I make time for the most urgent things from that list. Next, I look at my ProjectHub to see what I’m supposed to be moving forward for the week. I add time blocks for those as well.

Here’s what it looks like (note: this calendar is for this week and we don’t have work on Friday):

Weekly Calendar

My weekly calendar gives me a clear picture of what I’m supposed to work on, when, and for how long as part of my personal organization system for non-profit leaders. If something doesn’t get finished, I try to move it later in the week, or I reschedule it for the following week. If something urgent comes in during the week, I will again try to move something to later in the week or reschedule it for the following week.

What you do not yet see on my calendar is: my weekly meeting time (7:30am-8:30am on Friday morning) or my 30 minute daily time for my “Ticky Tacky Tasks.” Those are improvements that I just made to my system based on Maia’s workshop, but they do not yet fit into the upcoming week.

Conclusion

Phew! That was a lot! Half-way through this post, I considered whether or not to delete the whole thing! I hope this has been helpful. I know it’s a lot, but this kind of personal organization system for non-profit leaders is what I need to balance all the priorities I’m trying to push forward professional and personally. This is how I remember and fit in things like Saturday Suppers, birthday rituals, Halloween parties, and annual vacations! My goal for next year is to reduce the number things I’m trying to push forward. Easier said than done. Definitely let me know if you have any questions! I love talking about this stuff.