Test Hanbook 2020

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 101  Core Task Category  Importance  Urgency  Effort  ● High  ● High  ● Fundraising  ● High  ● Medium  ● Medium  ● Research and  ● Mediu ● Low  ● Low  feedback  m  ● Pilot with  ● Low  evaluation  Compliance    Follow these rules as you implement the grading framework:  ● Avoid tasks that do not directly contribute to a core task defining the  success of your organization.  ● Prioritize tasks with high importance and high urgency.   ● Do not neglect tasks with high importance but low urgency.  Importance trumps urgency.  ● Tasks with low importance and low urgency can often be postponed.  Tasks with low importance but high urgency are suitable to be  delegated.  ● Effort is generally less important than importance and urgency. Yet  among the important/urgent tasks, you want to prioritize those with  the lowest effort first. Pick these low-hanging fruits.  Here is an illustration of sample tasks assessed by importance, urgency, and  effort. This assumes that you already confirmed that each task aligns with at  least  one  core  task  category  such  as  fundraising.  You  first  prioritize  importance/urgency.  In  each  cluster,  you  then  give  priority  to  low  effort  tasks. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 102    2. CHECK WHETHER SOMEONE ELSE CAN DO IT AND  DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL    Are you really the best person to implement this task? Your co-founder  might be better suited and once you have employees you should try to  delegate as much as possible anyhow (with clear task descriptions,  responsibilities and deadlines). 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 103  Outsourcing is another option that often gets forgotten.  No need to spend the weekend reviewing hundreds of field expenses when  you can delegate this to a contractor. You can easily find affordable remote  freelancers on a platform such as Upwork.com. This works well for tasks such  as simple review activities, basic bookkeeping, web research, or IT-related  tasks (from developing Google Scripts to updating WordPress). In terms of  more expensive contractors such as lawyers, you might be able to find pro  bono options (e.g. through​ ​TrustLaw)​ .  If you end up being the one implementing the task, make sure to check for  existing advice and templates on the internet. For onboarding, you might  consider looking at templates before drafting an​ ​Employee Handbook,​ for  instance. Entrepreneurs love to set up things from scratch but often building  on existing templates and guidelines can be more productive.  3. USE A TASK MANAGEMENT TOOL  Don’t be that person who jots down tasks on a random printed out paper - or  worse, tries to remember the task without documenting it somewhere. There  are simply too many tasks in the life of an entrepreneur to remember them  and it is not the best use of your brainpower.  Using a shared Google Doc or Spreadsheet can be a decent way to track tasks  and discuss them with your colleagues. However, this system faces severe  limitations too due to the lack of reminders and workflows.  It  is  best  to  use  a  proper  task  management  tool  and  implement  a  simplified  version  of  G​ etting  Things  Done  (GTD).  As Katriel Friedman of Charity Science Health has pointed out in an  unpublished talk for CE, the key principle of GTD is to avoid “open loops”.  These are tasks that are uncategorized, not written down, or without a clear  path to completion and therefore may overwhelm and distract you. Create  “buckets” that collect all your tasks in a few places (e.g. a notebook and the 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 104  inbox of your task management app). Place new potential tasks in those  buckets immediately, rather than trying to keep track of them using your  memory. This way, rather than constantly carrying the mental load of many  small tasks, you can review these buckets on a daily or weekly basis.​ ​Daniel  Kestenholz​ a​ nd​ P​ eter Hurford​ ​have written up great summaries of how they  use a simplified GTD system in practice.  Here we outline an even simpler form that works for those using a task  management app.  HOW TO DEAL WITH TASKS (EMAIL AND ELSEWHERE)  Type  Action  Meeting  Add to Google Calendar  Unimportant  Archive in Gmail  email  Important  Document it (e.g assign to project folder/label in Gmail or  email/article  save in related GDrive folder) before archiving  2-Min Task  Implement it immediately  Task (no  Keep the task in the inbox of your task management tool, i.e.  time to  you write down the task without indicating an assignee or  assign)  deadline 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 105  Task (time to  Assign in task management tool to yourself or someone else  assign)  and include a deadline. Provide additional context and links  if necessary.    As you can see, this list already takes into consideration that many tasks will  arrive in the form of emails. Instead of using your email inbox as your  to-do-list, you are much more productive if you adopt​ I​ nbox Zero​ a​ nd move  any tasks immediately into your task management app. The Inbox Zero  approach also rightly states that you only need to check your email client a  few times per day to avoid distraction while implementing your tasks (see  Deep Work below).  In terms of tools, you get a discount for​ A​ sana​ ​as an effective altruist  organization (through the​ ​EA Hub)​ . Asana works great for a large  organization. For personal usage or side projects,​ ​Todoist​ i​ s a strong option.  Check out this​ ​review​ i​ f you would like to consider different apps. In the end,  it is less important which tool you pick but rather that you and your team  stick to it.  4. BOX YOUR TIME   

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 106    ​Defining your high-value activities and turning them into tasks is important  but not sufficient. Let’s say you have to finish a grant application in the next  three days. You’ve got a critical task at hand with a clear deadline. The  implementation, however, very much depends on the time needed to  complete the task.   Timeboxing  (also  known  as  timecapping)  allows  you  to  estimate the required time and book it in your calendar.   In  the  example,  you  might  reserve  a  slot  in  Google  Calendar  one  afternoon  from 2 pm to 6 pm to finish the grant application.  Timeboxing works for any task: from r​ esearch and decision-making ​to daily  operations. It has a range of advantages. Timeboxing...  ● Assigns a concrete time value to your task.   ● Helps you avoid overspending time. You realize from the beginning  that your time is limited, so you focus and stay within the timeframe.  Hence, timeboxing is an excellent tool to force you to implement the  80/20 principle at the individual task level as well. Instead of going off  on tangents, you remain focused on the core deliverable.  ● Prevents paralysis and indecision. You have clearly defined how long  you spend on something. Sure, you might have to update your estimate  but this is very different from conducting tasks without any time  estimates or deadlines.  ● Gives you control. You are the one to define how much time to allocate.  This enhances your feeling of a​ utonomy,​ one of the key drivers of job  happiness.  ● Enhances transparency in your team. Your co-founders see what you  are working on and understand why you are busy. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 107  Here are a few best practices in implementing timeboxing:  26. Use one calendar for all your assignments and meetings and share  the calendar with your team.  27.Work at least two hours per day on your top goal, ideally more. Pick  times when you are most productive, say, in the morning.  28.If you use ​Calendly​ for scheduling meetings, restrict slots to times  when you have less energy, for example, late afternoons.  29. Combine similar shorter tasks into one block (e.g. review  applications for an intern and a full-time position).  30.Include breaks and logistical slots such as lunch and transit. You are  not a robot and your calendar should reflect that.  5. REVIEW YOUR PROGRESS    Each day - and more extensively each week - check your  progress on task management by going through this  checklist. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 108  26. How much time did I spend on the different tasks?   1. For this purpose, you compare the time “boxed” with an  estimate of the actual time spent based on your calendar. You  planned, for example, to spend three hours on updating your  monitoring and evaluation strategy but exceeded that slot by  two hours. If you systematically under- or overestimate time for  certain tasks that gives you helpful guidance. For example,  preparing a 1:1 meeting with an employee usually takes me  around 30 not 15 minutes. Advanced users can use a time  tracking app such as C​ lockify.me​ to get accurate numbers of time  spent per task/category.  27.Is the actual time spent in line with your focus on high-impact tasks?  Check against importance, urgency, and effort again.  1. You might reassess a task after realizing how time-consuming it  is (effort). Other developments at work might have corrected the  task’s importance upwards or downwards.  28.Is there nobody that could help with or finish this task for me?  1. Based on your progress, you might reconsider delegating a task  or getting help from a contractor/freelancer.  29. How do I need to change the deadlines and assignments based on  this in my task management app?  1. The progress made and your re-evaluation of the task define  whether updates regarding assignee and deadline are necessary.  30.What are the implications for timeboxing for the next day/week?  1. Finally, the re-evaluated task with an updated deadline gets  more or less time allocated in your calendar. In the case of an  important task for which you continue to be the lead, you might  timebox larger slots to meet a deadline. In another case, you 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 109  might delete a timebox, as you decided to delegate finishing a  task.    6. WORK IN DEEP MODE      Working on your fundraising strategy, responding to emails while helping  out your new colleague over instant messaging. Does this sound like your  typical workday? Then you better consider​ D​ eep Work​, as presented in the 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 110  classic by Cal Newport. The basic message is one that resonates intuitively  and has been proven in studies:  Multitasking and distraction are undermining productivity  (and flow experiences that contribute to a fulfilled work  life).  Deep Work suggests building your whole day around carrying out important  tasks without interruption: “Instead of scheduling the occasional break from  distraction so you can focus, you should instead schedule the occasional  break from focus to give in to distraction.”  Timeboxing, introduced above, is a key tool to arrive at deep work. You  should also stop checking your email and turn off notifications from instant  messaging such as Slack as you focus on the activity at hand.  Another key concept is productive reflection whereby you give yourself time  to think about a certain problem. This is not your typical work task, as it is  less linked to a specific outcome such as writing a report. Yet it is also not  leisure, as you contemplate a work challenge from various angles. Productive  reflection can take place in relaxed settings, say, on a walk or under the  shower. For some, this comes naturally. If, however, you find yourself  running from one task to the other and lack time for thinking through  problems creatively, make sure to dedicate at least one to two hours per week  to productive reflection. As an example, your outreach to fish farmers might  not have been as successful as hoped for. In productive reflection, you  approach the problem from a high level (Why do you need to talk to fish  farmers? What are all the theoretical ways to reach fish farmers?) and  consider different alternatives (what if we set up a hotline instead of sending  email newsletters?). The goal is to consider many options in brainstorming  mode and follow​ ​first principles​.  7. REDUCE OR STRUCTURE MEETINGS 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 111      M​ eetings  are  often  not  the  setting  to  create  the  building  blocks  for  your  charity  startup.  Or  when  was  the  last  time  you  created  an  M&E  strategy  or  fundraising  plan  in  a  meeting?  As  Paul  Graham  points  out  in  M​ aker’s  Schedule, Manager’s Schedule  frequent meetings can interrupt quiet work on the  outputs you need to deliver.  Nobody would dispute that meetings are essential for some coordination or  even some creative problem-solving tasks. But in many work settings, they  still take place too frequently and in an unstructured manner.  Here are some basic guidelines for getting the most out of your meetings:  ● Apart from weekly team meetings and o​ ne-on-ones​ generally don’t  schedule regular meetings where there is no obvious need for  in-person coordination. Team meetings and one-on-ones have an  important social component so it matters less if there are no important  topics for discussion. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 112  ● At least, prepare an agenda before the meeting and document  decision-points after the meeting. These decision points can be turned  into tasks in your task management app.  ● At best, someone prepares options for decision before the meeting and  shares them with all participants. An extreme form of this is practiced  at Amazon where employees write m​ ulti-page memos​ ahead of  meetings.  ● In terms of meeting scheduling, a best practice is to schedule for 25  and 50 minutes. This allows you to switch location and refresh after  each meeting.  8. DON’T FORGET THE OTHER (MORE) IMPORTANT  STUFF    This  article  covers task management and productivity in a relatively narrow  sense.  The  focus  is  on  the  immediate  work  setting  and  delivering  results.  While  the tools presented here are impactful, more holistic strategies might  even  be  more  important.  The  good  news  is,  you  are  already  fully  aware  of 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 113  them.  You  might  just  need  to  commit to implementing them more (see this  summary of​ ​Atomic Habits​).  ● Sleep well  ● Eat well and plant-based  ● Spend time with friends and family  ● Exercise or at least move (as a workaholic consider Steve Job’s famous  walking meetings)  ● Outsource chores (e.g. see this t​ imesaving assessment​ by Joey Savoie)  ● Take weekends off and schedule vacations during which you  completely disconnect  ● Practice mindfulness/meditation (indeed, it would not be an article  about productivity without at least one reference to meditation)  As  you  implement  most  or  some  of  the  practices  introduced  in  this  article,  you have every right to add the title Pareto Productivity Pro to your business  card  and  LinkedIn  profile.  You  might  not  yet  be  an  ordained  monk  in  the  order of productivity but you are slowly getting there.  SUMMARY  41. Focus on high-impact tasks only: Prioritize tasks that give you 80% of  the return with 20% of the input. First, make sure each activity is  directly linked to at least one of your charity’s core success factors (e.g.  fundraising). Second, classify tasks according to their importance and  urgency. Third, consider effort as an additional criterion to identify  low hanging fruits.  42. Check whether someone else can do it and don’t reinvent the wheel:  Others might be better suited or have more capacity to carry out tasks.  This includes co-founders, employees or freelancers/contractors. The 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 114  latter can be hired on platforms like Upwork.com and do well at basic  IT- and quality review tasks.  43.Use a task management tool: With a task management app such as  Asana or Todoist you can easily implement a basic form of Getting  Things Done where you are on top of all your high-priority activities.  This ties in well with Inbox Zero, which avoids abusing your email  inbox as a task management hub.  44. Box your time: Timeboxing puts your top tasks as reserved slots  right into your calendar. This forces you to implement individual tasks  with an 80/20 mentality to remain within the given timeframe. Other  advantages are increased transparency in the team (everyone sees  what you are working on) and a sense of autonomy (you are the one to  reserve the slot for each task).  45. Review your progress: Each day - and more extensively each week -  check your progress on task management by going through a simple  checklist. The basic idea is to compare the time you spent on a task  with its priority and reassess importance, assignee, and deadline if  necessary.   46. Work in deep mode: Focus on one task at a time and avoid any  distractions, e.g. by turning off instant messaging notifications. Plan  for at least 1-2 hours of reflection per week during which you ponder a  business challenge in brainstorming mode.  47.Reduce or structure meetings: Key work usually does not take place in  meetings, so keep them limited and - if necessary - structured with a  clear agenda (or even preparatory memos) and a decision-making  framework as output (who is doing what by when?).  48. Don’t forget the other (more) important stuff: The most important  productivity hacks are closely tied to personal wellbeing. Yes, you  know the drill: sleep well, eat well, exercise, ... 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 115  READING LIST  Internal Resources  ● Six ways your charity startup might fail - and how to prevent that  External Resources  ● How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive  (HBR)  ● The Importance of Time Capping​ (Joey Savoie)  ● Minimalist time-management system​ (Daniel Kestenholz)  ● How to prioritize your time​ (Y Combinator)  ● Increase your productivity using an effective-altruist approach​ (Tanja  Rüegg)  ● Inbox Zero​ (Merlin Mann)  ● Timesaving Activities​ (Joey Savoie)  ● Productivity 101 for Beginners​ (Peter Hurford)  ● How I Am Productive​ (Peter Hurford)  ● 100 Most Useful Productivity Tips​ (Filtered)  ● Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule​ (Paul Graham)  ● How to Use Gmail More Productively​ (Andreas Klinger)  ● The Great CEO Within​ (Matt Mochary)  ● The Complete Guide to Deep Work​ (Doist)  ● Atomic Habits: Summary​ (Nate Eliasson)  ● The Best To-Do List Apps for 2020​ (PC Magazine)  ● First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge​ (FS) 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 116  Simple Task Management and Productivity  Rules That Go a Long Way Invented by  Patrick Stadler When He Was Waiting for  Amazon Delivery        The art of task management can seem elusive, with monk-like adherents  following complex sets of belief systems to arrive at the holy grail of  maximum productivity. While advanced users of task management and  productivity techniques might indeed beat the average entrepreneur by far,  the​ ​Pareto principle​ ​applies here as well: 20% of effort may give you 80% of  the benefits.​ ​Pareto Productivity​ p​ resents simple task management guidelines  that go a long way. So feel free to cancel your 21-day productivity retreat and  return the fancy sleep tracking ring. This will get you covered in much less  than one​ P​ omodoro​ ​slot.  49. Focus on high-impact tasks only  50.Check whether someone else can do it and don’t reinvent the wheel  51. Use a task management tool  52.Box your time 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 117  53. Review your progress  54.Work in deep mode  55.Reduce or structure meetings  56.Don’t forget the other (more) important stuff  1. FOCUS ON HIGH-IMPACT TASKS ONLY    \"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving  things  undone.  The  wisdom  of  life  consists  in  the  elimination  of  non-essentials\" (​The Importance of Living)​ .   ​Before jumping into managing tasks, it is key to select only  those with high priority - and leave the others undone. In  other words, you apply the 80/20 principle to sorting out the  small minority of tasks you should actually work on.  For a business startup, this is straightforward and means understanding the  needs of the customers and acquiring more of them, as this​ Y​ Combinator  talk​ ​on managing time outlines. In the case of a charity, it is slightly more  complex as the financial resources and the beneficiaries represent two 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 118  distinct dimensions. In essence, there are four core task categories that  directly contribute to a charity startup’s success:  ● Fundraising to obtain the financial resources to operate  ● Applied research and direct feedback from beneficiaries to design a  promising program  ● Running a pilot program with solid monitoring and evaluation to  understand your impact  ● Operating a financially and legally compliant organization  Avoid any tasks that do not fall under these categories at all or only very  indirectly. If you have a basic website, for example, updating or redesigning  it is not a direct pathway to attracting more grants. Instead, the number of  grant applications sent and warm introductions obtained are much more  impactful. Similarly, at some point,​ d​ esk research has marginal returns​ ​and  you better talk to potential beneficiaries in the field and run a pilot with a  strong monitoring and evaluation component. Finally, you might operate the  most effective charity in the world but if you get into trouble with tax or  other government authorities your future is uncertain.  Feel free to change the list of core task categories to make them more  applicable to your context, but resist the temptation to go above five  categories or make them too broad. If you need an additional perspective to  define success factors, consider the​ m​ ost common ways charity startups fail​.  The​ E​ isenhower matrix​ s​ uggests prioritizing tasks according to importance  and urgency. We extend this model by including the core task categories  from above. This forces you to assign each task to a substantial success  factor. This is a first filter against tasks not directly contributing to your  charity’s success. Moreover, we add effort, as this helps you identify low  hanging fruit.   

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 119  Core Task Category  Importance  Urgency  Effort  ● High  ● High  ● Fundraising  ● High  ● Medium  ● Medium  ● Research and  ● Mediu ● Low  ● Low  feedback  m  ● Pilot with  ● Low  evaluation  Compliance    Follow these rules as you implement the grading framework:  ● Avoid tasks that do not directly contribute to a core task defining the  success of your organization.  ● Prioritize tasks with high importance and high urgency.   ● Do not neglect tasks with high importance but low urgency.  Importance trumps urgency.  ● Tasks with low importance and low urgency can often be postponed.  Tasks with low importance but high urgency are suitable to be  delegated.  ● Effort is generally less important than importance and urgency. Yet  among the important/urgent tasks, you want to prioritize those with  the lowest effort first. Pick these low-hanging fruits.  Here is an illustration of sample tasks assessed by importance, urgency, and  effort. This assumes that you already confirmed that each task aligns with at  least  one  core  task  category  such  as  fundraising.  You  first  prioritize  importance/urgency.  In  each  cluster,  you  then  give  priority  to  low  effort  tasks. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 120    2. CHECK WHETHER SOMEONE ELSE CAN DO IT AND  DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL    Are you really the best person to implement this task? Your co-founder  might be better suited and once you have employees you should try to  delegate as much as possible anyhow (with clear task descriptions,  responsibilities and deadlines). 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 121  Outsourcing is another option that often gets forgotten.  No need to spend the weekend reviewing hundreds of field expenses when  you can delegate this to a contractor. You can easily find affordable remote  freelancers on a platform such as Upwork.com. This works well for tasks such  as simple review activities, basic bookkeeping, web research, or IT-related  tasks (from developing Google Scripts to updating WordPress). In terms of  more expensive contractors such as lawyers, you might be able to find pro  bono options (e.g. through​ ​TrustLaw)​ .  If you end up being the one implementing the task, make sure to check for  existing advice and templates on the internet. For onboarding, you might  consider looking at templates before drafting an​ ​Employee Handbook,​ for  instance. Entrepreneurs love to set up things from scratch but often building  on existing templates and guidelines can be more productive.  3. USE A TASK MANAGEMENT TOOL  Don’t be that person who jots down tasks on a random printed out paper - or  worse, tries to remember the task without documenting it somewhere. There  are simply too many tasks in the life of an entrepreneur to remember them  and it is not the best use of your brainpower.  Using a shared Google Doc or Spreadsheet can be a decent way to track tasks  and discuss them with your colleagues. However, this system faces severe  limitations too due to the lack of reminders and workflows.  It  is  best  to  use  a  proper  task  management  tool  and  implement  a  simplified  version  of  G​ etting  Things  Done  (GTD).  As Katriel Friedman of Charity Science Health has pointed out in an  unpublished talk for CE, the key principle of GTD is to avoid “open loops”.  These are tasks that are uncategorized, not written down, or without a clear  path to completion and therefore may overwhelm and distract you. Create  “buckets” that collect all your tasks in a few places (e.g. a notebook and the 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 122  inbox of your task management app). Place new potential tasks in those  buckets immediately, rather than trying to keep track of them using your  memory. This way, rather than constantly carrying the mental load of many  small tasks, you can review these buckets on a daily or weekly basis.​ ​Daniel  Kestenholz​ a​ nd​ P​ eter Hurford​ ​have written up great summaries of how they  use a simplified GTD system in practice.  Here we outline an even simpler form that works for those using a task  management app.  HOW TO DEAL WITH TASKS (EMAIL AND ELSEWHERE)  Type  Action  Meeting  Add to Google Calendar  Unimportant  Archive in Gmail  email  Important  Document it (e.g assign to project folder/label in Gmail or  email/article  save in related GDrive folder) before archiving  2-Min Task  Implement it immediately  Task (no  Keep the task in the inbox of your task management tool, i.e.  time to  you write down the task without indicating an assignee or  assign)  deadline 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 123  Task (time to  Assign in task management tool to yourself or someone else  assign)  and include a deadline. Provide additional context and links  if necessary.    As you can see, this list already takes into consideration that many tasks will  arrive in the form of emails. Instead of using your email inbox as your  to-do-list, you are much more productive if you adopt​ I​ nbox Zero​ a​ nd move  any tasks immediately into your task management app. The Inbox Zero  approach also rightly states that you only need to check your email client a  few times per day to avoid distraction while implementing your tasks (see  Deep Work below).  In terms of tools, you get a discount for​ A​ sana​ ​as an effective altruist  organization (through the​ ​EA Hub)​ . Asana works great for a large  organization. For personal usage or side projects,​ ​Todoist​ i​ s a strong option.  Check out this​ ​review​ i​ f you would like to consider different apps. In the end,  it is less important which tool you pick but rather that you and your team  stick to it.  4. BOX YOUR TIME   

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 124    ​Defining your high-value activities and turning them into tasks is important  but not sufficient. Let’s say you have to finish a grant application in the next  three days. You’ve got a critical task at hand with a clear deadline. The  implementation, however, very much depends on the time needed to  complete the task.   Timeboxing  (also  known  as  timecapping)  allows  you  to  estimate the required time and book it in your calendar.   In  the  example,  you  might  reserve  a  slot  in  Google  Calendar  one  afternoon  from 2 pm to 6 pm to finish the grant application.  Timeboxing works for any task: from r​ esearch and decision-making ​to daily  operations. It has a range of advantages. Timeboxing...  ● Assigns a concrete time value to your task.   ● Helps you avoid overspending time. You realize from the beginning  that your time is limited, so you focus and stay within the timeframe.  Hence, timeboxing is an excellent tool to force you to implement the  80/20 principle at the individual task level as well. Instead of going off  on tangents, you remain focused on the core deliverable.  ● Prevents paralysis and indecision. You have clearly defined how long  you spend on something. Sure, you might have to update your estimate  but this is very different from conducting tasks without any time  estimates or deadlines.  ● Gives you control. You are the one to define how much time to allocate.  This enhances your feeling of a​ utonomy,​ one of the key drivers of job  happiness.  ● Enhances transparency in your team. Your co-founders see what you  are working on and understand why you are busy. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 125  Here are a few best practices in implementing timeboxing:  31. Use one calendar for all your assignments and meetings and share the  calendar with your team.  32.Work at least two hours per day on your top goal, ideally more. Pick  times when you are most productive, say, in the morning.  33. If you use ​Calendly​ for scheduling meetings, restrict slots to times  when you have less energy, for example, late afternoons.  34.Combine similar shorter tasks into one block (e.g. review applications  for an intern and a full-time position).  35.Include breaks and logistical slots such as lunch and transit. You are  not a robot and your calendar should reflect that.  5. REVIEW YOUR PROGRESS    Each day - and more extensively each week - check your  progress on task management by going through this  checklist. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 126  31. How much time did I spend on the different tasks?   1. For this purpose, you compare the time “boxed” with an  estimate of the actual time spent based on your calendar. You  planned, for example, to spend three hours on updating your  monitoring and evaluation strategy but exceeded that slot by  two hours. If you systematically under- or overestimate time for  certain tasks that gives you helpful guidance. For example,  preparing a 1:1 meeting with an employee usually takes me  around 30 not 15 minutes. Advanced users can use a time  tracking app such as C​ lockify.me​ to get accurate numbers of time  spent per task/category.  32.Is the actual time spent in line with your focus on high-impact tasks?  Check against importance, urgency, and effort again.  1. You might reassess a task after realizing how time-consuming it  is (effort). Other developments at work might have corrected the  task’s importance upwards or downwards.  33. Is there nobody that could help with or finish this task for me?  1. Based on your progress, you might reconsider delegating a task  or getting help from a contractor/freelancer.  34.How do I need to change the deadlines and assignments based on this  in my task management app?  1. The progress made and your re-evaluation of the task define  whether updates regarding assignee and deadline are necessary.  35.What are the implications for timeboxing for the next day/week?  1. Finally, the re-evaluated task with an updated deadline gets  more or less time allocated in your calendar. In the case of an  important task for which you continue to be the lead, you might  timebox larger slots to meet a deadline. In another case, you 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 127  might delete a timebox, as you decided to delegate finishing a  task.    6. WORK IN DEEP MODE      Working on your fundraising strategy, responding to emails while helping  out your new colleague over instant messaging. Does this sound like your  typical workday? Then you better consider​ D​ eep Work​, as presented in the 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 128  classic by Cal Newport. The basic message is one that resonates intuitively  and has been proven in studies:  Multitasking and distraction are undermining productivity  (and flow experiences that contribute to a fulfilled work  life).  Deep Work suggests building your whole day around carrying out important  tasks without interruption: “Instead of scheduling the occasional break from  distraction so you can focus, you should instead schedule the occasional  break from focus to give in to distraction.”  Timeboxing, introduced above, is a key tool to arrive at deep work. You  should also stop checking your email and turn off notifications from instant  messaging such as Slack as you focus on the activity at hand.  Another key concept is productive reflection whereby you give yourself time  to think about a certain problem. This is not your typical work task, as it is  less linked to a specific outcome such as writing a report. Yet it is also not  leisure, as you contemplate a work challenge from various angles. Productive  reflection can take place in relaxed settings, say, on a walk or under the  shower. For some, this comes naturally. If, however, you find yourself  running from one task to the other and lack time for thinking through  problems creatively, make sure to dedicate at least one to two hours per week  to productive reflection. As an example, your outreach to fish farmers might  not have been as successful as hoped for. In productive reflection, you  approach the problem from a high level (Why do you need to talk to fish  farmers? What are all the theoretical ways to reach fish farmers?) and  consider different alternatives (what if we set up a hotline instead of sending  email newsletters?). The goal is to consider many options in brainstorming  mode and follow​ ​first principles​.  7. REDUCE OR STRUCTURE MEETINGS 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 129      M​ eetings  are  often  not  the  setting  to  create  the  building  blocks  for  your  charity  startup.  Or  when  was  the  last  time  you  created  an  M&E  strategy  or  fundraising  plan  in  a  meeting?  As  Paul  Graham  points  out  in  M​ aker’s  Schedule, Manager’s Schedule  frequent meetings can interrupt quiet work on the  outputs you need to deliver.  Nobody would dispute that meetings are essential for some coordination or  even some creative problem-solving tasks. But in many work settings, they  still take place too frequently and in an unstructured manner.  Here are some basic guidelines for getting the most out of your meetings:  ● Apart from weekly team meetings and o​ ne-on-ones​ generally don’t  schedule regular meetings where there is no obvious need for  in-person coordination. Team meetings and one-on-ones have an  important social component so it matters less if there are no important  topics for discussion. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 130  ● At least, prepare an agenda before the meeting and document  decision-points after the meeting. These decision points can be turned  into tasks in your task management app.  ● At best, someone prepares options for decision before the meeting and  shares them with all participants. An extreme form of this is practiced  at Amazon where employees write m​ ulti-page memos​ ahead of  meetings.  ● In terms of meeting scheduling, a best practice is to schedule for 25  and 50 minutes. This allows you to switch location and refresh after  each meeting.  8. DON’T FORGET THE OTHER (MORE) IMPORTANT  STUFF    This  article  covers task management and productivity in a relatively narrow  sense.  The  focus  is  on  the  immediate  work  setting  and  delivering  results.  While  the tools presented here are impactful, more holistic strategies might  even  be  more  important.  The  good  news  is,  you  are  already  fully  aware  of 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 131  them.  You  might  just  need  to  commit to implementing them more (see this  summary of​ ​Atomic Habits​).  ● Sleep well  ● Eat well and plant-based  ● Spend time with friends and family  ● Exercise or at least move (as a workaholic consider Steve Job’s famous  walking meetings)  ● Outsource chores (e.g. see this t​ imesaving assessment​ by Joey Savoie)  ● Take weekends off and schedule vacations during which you  completely disconnect  ● Practice mindfulness/meditation (indeed, it would not be an article  about productivity without at least one reference to meditation)  As  you  implement  most  or  some  of  the  practices  introduced  in  this  article,  you have every right to add the title Pareto Productivity Pro to your business  card  and  LinkedIn  profile.  You  might  not  yet  be  an  ordained  monk  in  the  order of productivity but you are slowly getting there.  SUMMARY  49. Focus on high-impact tasks only: Prioritize tasks that give you 80%  of the return with 20% of the input. First, make sure each activity is  directly linked to at least one of your charity’s core success factors (e.g.  fundraising). Second, classify tasks according to their importance and  urgency. Third, consider effort as an additional criterion to identify  low hanging fruits.  50. Check whether someone else can do it and don’t reinvent the wheel:  Others might be better suited or have more capacity to carry out tasks.  This includes co-founders, employees or freelancers/contractors. The 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 132  latter can be hired on platforms like Upwork.com and do well at basic  IT- and quality review tasks.  51. Use a task management tool: With a task management app such as  Asana or Todoist you can easily implement a basic form of Getting  Things Done where you are on top of all your high-priority activities.  This ties in well with Inbox Zero, which avoids abusing your email  inbox as a task management hub.  52.Box your time: Timeboxing puts your top tasks as reserved slots right  into your calendar. This forces you to implement individual tasks with  an 80/20 mentality to remain within the given timeframe. Other  advantages are increased transparency in the team (everyone sees  what you are working on) and a sense of autonomy (you are the one to  reserve the slot for each task).  53.Review your progress: Each day - and more extensively each week -  check your progress on task management by going through a simple  checklist. The basic idea is to compare the time you spent on a task  with its priority and reassess importance, assignee, and deadline if  necessary.   54. Work in deep mode: Focus on one task at a time and avoid any  distractions, e.g. by turning off instant messaging notifications. Plan  for at least 1-2 hours of reflection per week during which you ponder a  business challenge in brainstorming mode.  55.Reduce or structure meetings: Key work usually does not take place in  meetings, so keep them limited and - if necessary - structured with a  clear agenda (or even preparatory memos) and a decision-making  framework as output (who is doing what by when?).  56. Don’t forget the other (more) important stuff: The most important  productivity hacks are closely tied to personal wellbeing. Yes, you  know the drill: sleep well, eat well, exercise, ... 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 133  READING LIST  Internal Resources  ● Six ways your charity startup might fail - and how to prevent that  External Resources  ● How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive  (HBR)  ● The Importance of Time Capping​ (Joey Savoie)  ● Minimalist time-management system​ (Daniel Kestenholz)  ● How to prioritize your time​ (Y Combinator)  ● Increase your productivity using an effective-altruist approach​ (Tanja  Rüegg)  ● Inbox Zero​ (Merlin Mann)  ● Timesaving Activities​ (Joey Savoie)  ● Productivity 101 for Beginners​ (Peter Hurford)  ● How I Am Productive​ (Peter Hurford)  ● 100 Most Useful Productivity Tips​ (Filtered)  ● Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule​ (Paul Graham)  ● How to Use Gmail More Productively​ (Andreas Klinger)  ● The Great CEO Within​ (Matt Mochary)  ● The Complete Guide to Deep Work​ (Doist)  ● Atomic Habits: Summary​ (Nate Eliasson)  ● The Best To-Do List Apps for 2020​ (PC Magazine)  ● First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge​ (FS) 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 134  Simple Task Management and Productivity  Rules That Go a Long Way Invented by  Patrick Stadler When He Was Waiting for  Amazon Delivery        The art of task management can seem elusive, with monk-like adherents  following complex sets of belief systems to arrive at the holy grail of  maximum productivity. While advanced users of task management and  productivity techniques might indeed beat the average entrepreneur by far,  the​ ​Pareto principle​ ​applies here as well: 20% of effort may give you 80% of  the benefits.​ ​Pareto Productivity​ p​ resents simple task management guidelines  that go a long way. So feel free to cancel your 21-day productivity retreat and  return the fancy sleep tracking ring. This will get you covered in much less  than one​ P​ omodoro​ ​slot.  57.Focus on high-impact tasks only  58.Check whether someone else can do it and don’t reinvent the wheel  59.Use a task management tool  60. Box your time 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 135  61. Review your progress  62. Work in deep mode  63.Reduce or structure meetings  64. Don’t forget the other (more) important stuff  1. FOCUS ON HIGH-IMPACT TASKS ONLY    \"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving  things  undone.  The  wisdom  of  life  consists  in  the  elimination  of  non-essentials\" (​The Importance of Living)​ .   ​Before jumping into managing tasks, it is key to select only  those with high priority - and leave the others undone. In  other words, you apply the 80/20 principle to sorting out the  small minority of tasks you should actually work on.  For a business startup, this is straightforward and means understanding the  needs of the customers and acquiring more of them, as this​ Y​ Combinator  talk​ ​on managing time outlines. In the case of a charity, it is slightly more  complex as the financial resources and the beneficiaries represent two 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 136  distinct dimensions. In essence, there are four core task categories that  directly contribute to a charity startup’s success:  ● Fundraising to obtain the financial resources to operate  ● Applied research and direct feedback from beneficiaries to design a  promising program  ● Running a pilot program with solid monitoring and evaluation to  understand your impact  ● Operating a financially and legally compliant organization  Avoid any tasks that do not fall under these categories at all or only very  indirectly. If you have a basic website, for example, updating or redesigning  it is not a direct pathway to attracting more grants. Instead, the number of  grant applications sent and warm introductions obtained are much more  impactful. Similarly, at some point,​ d​ esk research has marginal returns​ ​and  you better talk to potential beneficiaries in the field and run a pilot with a  strong monitoring and evaluation component. Finally, you might operate the  most effective charity in the world but if you get into trouble with tax or  other government authorities your future is uncertain.  Feel free to change the list of core task categories to make them more  applicable to your context, but resist the temptation to go above five  categories or make them too broad. If you need an additional perspective to  define success factors, consider the​ m​ ost common ways charity startups fail​.  The​ E​ isenhower matrix​ s​ uggests prioritizing tasks according to importance  and urgency. We extend this model by including the core task categories  from above. This forces you to assign each task to a substantial success  factor. This is a first filter against tasks not directly contributing to your  charity’s success. Moreover, we add effort, as this helps you identify low  hanging fruit.   

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 137  Core Task Category  Importance  Urgency  Effort  ● High  ● High  ● Fundraising  ● High  ● Medium  ● Medium  ● Research and  ● Mediu ● Low  ● Low  feedback  m  ● Pilot with  ● Low  evaluation  Compliance    Follow these rules as you implement the grading framework:  ● Avoid tasks that do not directly contribute to a core task defining the  success of your organization.  ● Prioritize tasks with high importance and high urgency.   ● Do not neglect tasks with high importance but low urgency.  Importance trumps urgency.  ● Tasks with low importance and low urgency can often be postponed.  Tasks with low importance but high urgency are suitable to be  delegated.  ● Effort is generally less important than importance and urgency. Yet  among the important/urgent tasks, you want to prioritize those with  the lowest effort first. Pick these low-hanging fruits.  Here is an illustration of sample tasks assessed by importance, urgency, and  effort. This assumes that you already confirmed that each task aligns with at  least  one  core  task  category  such  as  fundraising.  You  first  prioritize  importance/urgency.  In  each  cluster,  you  then  give  priority  to  low  effort  tasks. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 138    2. CHECK WHETHER SOMEONE ELSE CAN DO IT AND  DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL    Are you really the best person to implement this task? Your co-founder  might be better suited and once you have employees you should try to  delegate as much as possible anyhow (with clear task descriptions,  responsibilities and deadlines). 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 139  Outsourcing is another option that often gets forgotten.  No need to spend the weekend reviewing hundreds of field expenses when  you can delegate this to a contractor. You can easily find affordable remote  freelancers on a platform such as Upwork.com. This works well for tasks such  as simple review activities, basic bookkeeping, web research, or IT-related  tasks (from developing Google Scripts to updating WordPress). In terms of  more expensive contractors such as lawyers, you might be able to find pro  bono options (e.g. through​ ​TrustLaw)​ .  If you end up being the one implementing the task, make sure to check for  existing advice and templates on the internet. For onboarding, you might  consider looking at templates before drafting an​ ​Employee Handbook,​ for  instance. Entrepreneurs love to set up things from scratch but often building  on existing templates and guidelines can be more productive.  3. USE A TASK MANAGEMENT TOOL  Don’t be that person who jots down tasks on a random printed out paper - or  worse, tries to remember the task without documenting it somewhere. There  are simply too many tasks in the life of an entrepreneur to remember them  and it is not the best use of your brainpower.  Using a shared Google Doc or Spreadsheet can be a decent way to track tasks  and discuss them with your colleagues. However, this system faces severe  limitations too due to the lack of reminders and workflows.  It  is  best  to  use  a  proper  task  management  tool  and  implement  a  simplified  version  of  G​ etting  Things  Done  (GTD).  As Katriel Friedman of Charity Science Health has pointed out in an  unpublished talk for CE, the key principle of GTD is to avoid “open loops”.  These are tasks that are uncategorized, not written down, or without a clear  path to completion and therefore may overwhelm and distract you. Create  “buckets” that collect all your tasks in a few places (e.g. a notebook and the 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 140  inbox of your task management app). Place new potential tasks in those  buckets immediately, rather than trying to keep track of them using your  memory. This way, rather than constantly carrying the mental load of many  small tasks, you can review these buckets on a daily or weekly basis.​ ​Daniel  Kestenholz​ a​ nd​ P​ eter Hurford​ ​have written up great summaries of how they  use a simplified GTD system in practice.  Here we outline an even simpler form that works for those using a task  management app.  HOW TO DEAL WITH TASKS (EMAIL AND ELSEWHERE)  Type  Action  Meeting  Add to Google Calendar  Unimportant  Archive in Gmail  email  Important  Document it (e.g assign to project folder/label in Gmail or  email/article  save in related GDrive folder) before archiving  2-Min Task  Implement it immediately  Task (no  Keep the task in the inbox of your task management tool, i.e.  time to  you write down the task without indicating an assignee or  assign)  deadline 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 141  Task (time to  Assign in task management tool to yourself or someone else  assign)  and include a deadline. Provide additional context and links  if necessary.    As you can see, this list already takes into consideration that many tasks will  arrive in the form of emails. Instead of using your email inbox as your  to-do-list, you are much more productive if you adopt​ I​ nbox Zero​ a​ nd move  any tasks immediately into your task management app. The Inbox Zero  approach also rightly states that you only need to check your email client a  few times per day to avoid distraction while implementing your tasks (see  Deep Work below).  In terms of tools, you get a discount for​ A​ sana​ ​as an effective altruist  organization (through the​ ​EA Hub)​ . Asana works great for a large  organization. For personal usage or side projects,​ ​Todoist​ i​ s a strong option.  Check out this​ ​review​ i​ f you would like to consider different apps. In the end,  it is less important which tool you pick but rather that you and your team  stick to it.  4. BOX YOUR TIME   

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 142    ​Defining your high-value activities and turning them into tasks is important  but not sufficient. Let’s say you have to finish a grant application in the next  three days. You’ve got a critical task at hand with a clear deadline. The  implementation, however, very much depends on the time needed to  complete the task.   Timeboxing  (also  known  as  timecapping)  allows  you  to  estimate the required time and book it in your calendar.   In  the  example,  you  might  reserve  a  slot  in  Google  Calendar  one  afternoon  from 2 pm to 6 pm to finish the grant application.  Timeboxing works for any task: from r​ esearch and decision-making ​to daily  operations. It has a range of advantages. Timeboxing...  ● Assigns a concrete time value to your task.   ● Helps you avoid overspending time. You realize from the beginning  that your time is limited, so you focus and stay within the timeframe.  Hence, timeboxing is an excellent tool to force you to implement the  80/20 principle at the individual task level as well. Instead of going off  on tangents, you remain focused on the core deliverable.  ● Prevents paralysis and indecision. You have clearly defined how long  you spend on something. Sure, you might have to update your estimate  but this is very different from conducting tasks without any time  estimates or deadlines.  ● Gives you control. You are the one to define how much time to allocate.  This enhances your feeling of a​ utonomy,​ one of the key drivers of job  happiness.  ● Enhances transparency in your team. Your co-founders see what you  are working on and understand why you are busy. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 143  Here are a few best practices in implementing timeboxing:  36.Use one calendar for all your assignments and meetings and share the  calendar with your team.  37.Work at least two hours per day on your top goal, ideally more. Pick  times when you are most productive, say, in the morning.  38.If you use ​Calendly​ for scheduling meetings, restrict slots to times  when you have less energy, for example, late afternoons.  39.Combine similar shorter tasks into one block (e.g. review applications  for an intern and a full-time position).  40. Include breaks and logistical slots such as lunch and transit. You are  not a robot and your calendar should reflect that.  5. REVIEW YOUR PROGRESS    Each day - and more extensively each week - check your  progress on task management by going through this  checklist. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 144  36.How much time did I spend on the different tasks?   1. For this purpose, you compare the time “boxed” with an  estimate of the actual time spent based on your calendar. You  planned, for example, to spend three hours on updating your  monitoring and evaluation strategy but exceeded that slot by  two hours. If you systematically under- or overestimate time for  certain tasks that gives you helpful guidance. For example,  preparing a 1:1 meeting with an employee usually takes me  around 30 not 15 minutes. Advanced users can use a time  tracking app such as C​ lockify.me​ to get accurate numbers of time  spent per task/category.  37.Is the actual time spent in line with your focus on high-impact tasks?  Check against importance, urgency, and effort again.  1. You might reassess a task after realizing how time-consuming it  is (effort). Other developments at work might have corrected the  task’s importance upwards or downwards.  38.Is there nobody that could help with or finish this task for me?  1. Based on your progress, you might reconsider delegating a task  or getting help from a contractor/freelancer.  39.How do I need to change the deadlines and assignments based on this  in my task management app?  1. The progress made and your re-evaluation of the task define  whether updates regarding assignee and deadline are necessary.  40. What are the implications for timeboxing for the next day/week?  1. Finally, the re-evaluated task with an updated deadline gets  more or less time allocated in your calendar. In the case of an  important task for which you continue to be the lead, you might  timebox larger slots to meet a deadline. In another case, you 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 145  might delete a timebox, as you decided to delegate finishing a  task.    6. WORK IN DEEP MODE      Working on your fundraising strategy, responding to emails while helping  out your new colleague over instant messaging. Does this sound like your  typical workday? Then you better consider​ D​ eep Work​, as presented in the 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 146  classic by Cal Newport. The basic message is one that resonates intuitively  and has been proven in studies:  Multitasking and distraction are undermining productivity  (and flow experiences that contribute to a fulfilled work  life).  Deep Work suggests building your whole day around carrying out important  tasks without interruption: “Instead of scheduling the occasional break from  distraction so you can focus, you should instead schedule the occasional  break from focus to give in to distraction.”  Timeboxing, introduced above, is a key tool to arrive at deep work. You  should also stop checking your email and turn off notifications from instant  messaging such as Slack as you focus on the activity at hand.  Another key concept is productive reflection whereby you give yourself time  to think about a certain problem. This is not your typical work task, as it is  less linked to a specific outcome such as writing a report. Yet it is also not  leisure, as you contemplate a work challenge from various angles. Productive  reflection can take place in relaxed settings, say, on a walk or under the  shower. For some, this comes naturally. If, however, you find yourself  running from one task to the other and lack time for thinking through  problems creatively, make sure to dedicate at least one to two hours per week  to productive reflection. As an example, your outreach to fish farmers might  not have been as successful as hoped for. In productive reflection, you  approach the problem from a high level (Why do you need to talk to fish  farmers? What are all the theoretical ways to reach fish farmers?) and  consider different alternatives (what if we set up a hotline instead of sending  email newsletters?). The goal is to consider many options in brainstorming  mode and follow​ ​first principles​.  7. REDUCE OR STRUCTURE MEETINGS 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 147      M​ eetings  are  often  not  the  setting  to  create  the  building  blocks  for  your  charity  startup.  Or  when  was  the  last  time  you  created  an  M&E  strategy  or  fundraising  plan  in  a  meeting?  As  Paul  Graham  points  out  in  M​ aker’s  Schedule, Manager’s Schedule  frequent meetings can interrupt quiet work on the  outputs you need to deliver.  Nobody would dispute that meetings are essential for some coordination or  even some creative problem-solving tasks. But in many work settings, they  still take place too frequently and in an unstructured manner.  Here are some basic guidelines for getting the most out of your meetings:  ● Apart from weekly team meetings and o​ ne-on-ones​ generally don’t  schedule regular meetings where there is no obvious need for  in-person coordination. Team meetings and one-on-ones have an  important social component so it matters less if there are no important  topics for discussion. 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 148  ● At least, prepare an agenda before the meeting and document  decision-points after the meeting. These decision points can be turned  into tasks in your task management app.  ● At best, someone prepares options for decision before the meeting and  shares them with all participants. An extreme form of this is practiced  at Amazon where employees write m​ ulti-page memos​ ahead of  meetings.  ● In terms of meeting scheduling, a best practice is to schedule for 25  and 50 minutes. This allows you to switch location and refresh after  each meeting.  8. DON’T FORGET THE OTHER (MORE) IMPORTANT  STUFF    This  article  covers task management and productivity in a relatively narrow  sense.  The  focus  is  on  the  immediate  work  setting  and  delivering  results.  While  the tools presented here are impactful, more holistic strategies might  even  be  more  important.  The  good  news  is,  you  are  already  fully  aware  of 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 149  them.  You  might  just  need  to  commit to implementing them more (see this  summary of​ ​Atomic Habits​).  ● Sleep well  ● Eat well and plant-based  ● Spend time with friends and family  ● Exercise or at least move (as a workaholic consider Steve Job’s famous  walking meetings)  ● Outsource chores (e.g. see this t​ imesaving assessment​ by Joey Savoie)  ● Take weekends off and schedule vacations during which you  completely disconnect  ● Practice mindfulness/meditation (indeed, it would not be an article  about productivity without at least one reference to meditation)  As  you  implement  most  or  some  of  the  practices  introduced  in  this  article,  you have every right to add the title Pareto Productivity Pro to your business  card  and  LinkedIn  profile.  You  might  not  yet  be  an  ordained  monk  in  the  order of productivity but you are slowly getting there.  SUMMARY  57.Focus on high-impact tasks only: Prioritize tasks that give you 80% of  the return with 20% of the input. First, make sure each activity is  directly linked to at least one of your charity’s core success factors (e.g.  fundraising). Second, classify tasks according to their importance and  urgency. Third, consider effort as an additional criterion to identify  low hanging fruits.  58.Check whether someone else can do it and don’t reinvent the wheel:  Others might be better suited or have more capacity to carry out tasks.  This includes co-founders, employees or freelancers/contractors. The 

Incubation Program Handbook, C​ harity Entrepreneurship 2020 Page 150  latter can be hired on platforms like Upwork.com and do well at basic  IT- and quality review tasks.  59. Use a task management tool: With a task management app such as  Asana or Todoist you can easily implement a basic form of Getting  Things Done where you are on top of all your high-priority activities.  This ties in well with Inbox Zero, which avoids abusing your email  inbox as a task management hub.  60. Box your time: Timeboxing puts your top tasks as reserved slots  right into your calendar. This forces you to implement individual tasks  with an 80/20 mentality to remain within the given timeframe. Other  advantages are increased transparency in the team (everyone sees  what you are working on) and a sense of autonomy (you are the one to  reserve the slot for each task).  61. Review your progress: Each day - and more extensively each week -  check your progress on task management by going through a simple  checklist. The basic idea is to compare the time you spent on a task  with its priority and reassess importance, assignee, and deadline if  necessary.   62. Work in deep mode: Focus on one task at a time and avoid any  distractions, e.g. by turning off instant messaging notifications. Plan  for at least 1-2 hours of reflection per week during which you ponder a  business challenge in brainstorming mode.  63.Reduce or structure meetings: Key work usually does not take place in  meetings, so keep them limited and - if necessary - structured with a  clear agenda (or even preparatory memos) and a decision-making  framework as output (who is doing what by when?).  64. Don’t forget the other (more) important stuff: The most important  productivity hacks are closely tied to personal wellbeing. Yes, you  know the drill: sleep well, eat well, exercise, ...