Curriculum
MODULE 3 - Functional Competencies
Unit 1 - Be prepared be organized! Organizational skills
0/8
Unit 2 - Networking & Partnering
0/9
Unit 3 - Managing relationships with providers
0/8
Unit 4 - (Self-)management for Social Entrepreneurs
0/8
Unit 5 - Social impact measurement & assessment
0/8
Unit 6 - Managing time & resources
0/8
Case Study
The following case study tells the story of Tim Roberts, CEO & Founder of Infectious. He had struggles managing his tasks, and his self, during his early days as an entrepreneur. When Tim started working on his start-up, he looked back at his day and felt disappointed in himself because he achieved too little. That does not mean the young entrepreneur didn’t do anything, but the major things he needed to make progress on remained incomplete.
Without a boss to report to, peers to collaborate with or a team to manage, Tim was all by himself and faced with his own productivity. Combined with the nowadays distraction from blogs, Facebook, Twitter, he was performing below the level he know he could. Over time Tim developed better self-management practices to help me focus, filter and be more accountable. So, how did he get out of this loop of unproductivity?
First of all, he started a list, or as Tim calls it: a task box. ‘My task inbox is the waiting room for anything I want to accomplish. Big tasks, small tasks, important tasks, future tasks, old tasks, new tasks, work tasks and personal tasks. It is the big laundry list. Everything goes in here’ Tim says. This was his first step. Simply get all the unfinished business out of your head and put it on a list.
Tim starts the day by ordering all his tasks to get a clear view of what should be completed today. He opens his email and identifies all the things Tim wants to get done for the day. After this step, the ‘today-list’ steps in. These are tasks labelled as urgent and important. Make sure that the today-list is realistic. Less is more. ‘I then sequence my list. Not just prioritize. This is possibly the most important part of the process. I actually put tasks in the sequential order of which I will complete them.’ What Tim actually does is create a roadmap for the day. What will your day look like? Tim states that inefficiency largely pops up in the spaces between completing one task and starting another. ‘It is in this gap we get distracted, avoid doing dreaded tasks and generally screw around.’ If you finish early with your today-list, simply go back to your inbox and add some more! It will give you a boost in morale completing all your tasks.
What Tim did is improve his self-management skills and use them to get more productive. But self-management entails so much more. This is what you will learn from this unit today.