Do you know how much your time is worth?
If you have that clarity, then you’re on your way to finding ‘work-work’ balance.
Work-work balance is the art (or science) of effectively prioritizing all your responsibilities, with the clarity of the value of your time.
The theory, if you get it right, will rocket power your efforts and give you peace of mind at the same time.
Sound too good to be true? Probably.
Work-work balance may be the unachievable holy grail that only bloggers write about. And nobody has ever achieved it. But there is hope.
We can use simple tools that can dramatically improve our productivity and the prioritizing of our time. We may not achieve the utopian work-work balance, but getting 10% better at this would be worth it, wouldn’t it?
A great start point is an online tool called Toggl. Toggl tracks the time you spend on everything.
After just a few days or so of using Toggl, I saw a truer picture of what I was using my time for. And what I wasn’t!
When I on-boarded a client to Toggl, after checking in how it was going, his response was, “It’s actually pretty great although a bit scary as it shows how unproductive I am.”
Getting this data will allow you to make significant small (and sometimes large) shifts in the way you work.
That can be literally ‘life work’ changing!
The great thing about Toggl is it makes time tracking so simple that you’ll actually use it.
You can start tracking in your browser, stop the timer on your phone – all your time entries are synced between the phone apps, desktop apps, the Toggl Chrome extension and the website.
And with that, it will help you make smarter choices. Toggl will crunch the numbers so you can focus on making the change.
So how do you start tracking?
First you need to define what you want to track. Which areas of your life need clarity?
For example:
- If your goal is to spend more time in fundraising. Or less. You can do a simple tracking of just how much time you actually spend in your fundraising.
- If you want to go deeper, you might want to see how you break up your fundraising time. You can make categories and track within your fundraising work how much time you are spending with New Donor Development, Existing Donor Development, and Donor Meetings/Calls.
For a client last week, we wanted to gain a more comprehensive look at how he uses his time. We made the following categories in Toggl to reflect the main areas of his work-work responsibilities:
- Fundraising
- Cash Flow Management
- Managing Yourself – E.g., responding to emails
- Government Compliance – Facilities and operations
- Issues relating to upkeep of building etc.
- Staffing
- Parent Communication
- Events and Marketing
- Community Relations – With shuls and other schools
- New Parent Meetings and Tours
After a week or so we’ll look at the data. Then we’ll be able to understand how valuable his efforts and outcomes are for the time investment.
Either we make some simple shifts in prioritizing his efforts and focus. Or, and this could likely be the case, we’ll find ways to superpower the efforts he’s already making. We’ll literally create hours in his week.
And BTW, I don’t get a commission from Toggl for this! The tool is free. Give it a try. And let me know how you get on.
Email me at avraham@avrahamlewis.com to share your feedback, chizuk and ideas.
B’hatzlacha raba raba,
Avraham
P.S. A few spots are soon opening up to work with me on Jan/Feb 2021 Online Matching Campaigns and ‘1 on 1’ Fundraising Coaching. Email me to schedule a call.
Avraham Lewis is ‘The Fundraising Coach‘ for Jewish leaders – with too much on their plate – to accelerate their fundraising success.
See past fundraising posts or learn more at avrahamlewis.com
