Archive for Organization
Organizing a Golf Scramble Fundraiser
Posted by: | CommentsSince I’m in the middle of this process right now, I figured it was a good time for this post.
Aside from the bureaucracy that your event or cause or benefit or organization must go through, here are the steps I use to duplicate Golf Scrambles over and over.
Step #1 You can’t do it all yourself. Find a small team maybe two or three others who can help. It would be best if everyone brought different personalities or skills to the table. For instance in the scramble I assist with every year, we have one person who knows a lot about food/catering and likes to hustle for door prizes and hole sponsors. We have another person who can get a lot of teams together. He has a large Rolodex and a good relationship with a lot of that Rolodex. I act as the organizer, planner, and also do my share of hustling for teams, prizes and sponsors. I also MC the event the day of.
Step #2 Pick the right course and the best date. If you pick a course and pro that is easy to work with, your scramble will go much smoother. Make sure you spot check your date with big events and other large scrambles. You’ll never steer clear of everything, but the last thing you want is to schedule it the same day as another large organization or on a major holiday weekend. If you’re looking at a weekday versus a weekend, just remember that during the week you’ll draw more business teams and serious golfers. On the weekend you’ll capture more of the family and friends crowd.
Step #3 Focus on 3 main things- Teams, Door Prizes, Hole Sponsors. I have a cookie cutter system now after 5 years. I have flyers for prospecting and each year I can just change the info. We use our website to link up the forms and to collect online registrations. We used to just get a paper form turned in. Either way will do. We have forms to track teams, hole sponsors and lots of forms for instructions on the day of the scramble.
With Teams here are my tips.
- Don’t allow individuals to register as this creates a communication and logistics nightmare.
- Sell 4 somes and collect the money up front, this way the team captain becomes responsible for securing his players and not you. This is especially important because players will drop and things will come up. If you don’t get the money up front; rain, a bad hair day, lack of coffee or a good show on TV could cause a team to not show up.
- You can handicap of flight the event or just have each team for themselves (this is what I prefer but not every organization is the same and some will want to make it fair-life’s not fair though)
With Door Prizes here are my tips.
- Make sure everyone gets one.
- We like to give out gift certificates in $10 increments and restaurants are willing to give them, although golf balls, shirts and other like items work well.
- Make sure they are equitable, don’t have one guy get a foursome to a nice club worth $160 and the next guy gets a mesh hat or umbrella. Since this is not based on performance I think it makes sense to make this equitable.
- Offer a nice sign in exchange for a $50 to $100 donation (this depends on the price tag of your scramble- it’s just math so adjust the numbers based on your ticket price)
- Door prizes are the result of walking into restaurants or businesses giving them information, following up and following up some more. It won’t just happen- trust me.
With Hole Sponsors here are some tips.
- Try and engage businesses in your area. For our scramble we prospect in Middletown.
- Don’t try and pit all kinds of businesses against one another. Use that as a selling point. The first widget company we get will be the last widget company we approach.
- Offer signage (don’t skimp), a link on your website for a period of time and the ability to include sales literature in packets for each golfer. Be creative or encourage them to be.
- Patronize your sponsors- we really believe in and live this one out. That’s probably why we get little resistance from our sponsors each year.
As a side note to these tips, I recommend developing relationships with vendors and using them each year. Sure you can always find someone cheaper, but cheaper doesn’t mean better and it doesn’t mean smoother. I don’t shop our vendors unless they give us a reason too.
Step #4 Rehearse the flow of the event in your mind and in your notes. Visualize people showing up and registering. Visualize people playing and having fun and this will help you to remember the small details that sometimes slip through the cracks.
Hit a home run, and have fun with it by all means.
Organizing for Less Stress
Posted by: | CommentsRecently, I was presented with the opportunity to conduct a workshop on organization (one of my passions obviously) at Lowe Chiropractic and Wellness. I had a few weeks to prepare for the topic “Organizing for Less Stress”. The topic made me rethink why I promote organization and productivity.
Why get organized? I came up with 4 big reasons.
- Free Your Mind for Creativity
- Free Your Calendar for Opportunities
- Free Your Life for the Important
- Free Your Home for the Essential
Second Question- How to get organized?
I broke it down into 3 areas which you can start working on today.
This is a simplistic cliff notes version, but it may be just enough to get you to act and not enough to overwhelm you into inaction.
Your Physical Space
Physical clutter leads to Mental clutter so use the Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize, Assess system to rid your home, office, business and life of clutter.
Once you have removed the debris and cloudiness from your life, put things back in their home when you’re finished using them. If you fail here, you’ll be back at the previous step far too often. These two steps will renew your focus like you would not believe.
The label maker is your friend. Don’t rely on your memory. Label things to make them easier to locate.
When creating habits centered around your new found organization, do not lie to yourself and break commitments with yourself continually. When you break your word to yourself you’re putting yet another obstacle between you and a changed habit.
Getting Things Done
Learn how to master ubiquitous capture made famous by David Allen’s GTD book and training. Instead of letting thoughts, ideas, tasks, notes and projects fester in your mind, or even worse losing some of them; capture these thoughts in a system- preferably the GTD system. Get those open loops out of your head. They are holding you in bondage anyway.
Implement the someday/maybe tickler system. For example:
- Someday/Maybe books to read
- Someday/Maybe trips to take
- Someday/Maybe advertising options
- Someday/Maybe events to attend
Don’t let these someday/maybes hog the space that belongs to your next most important actions or your key project lists and plans. Keep them in their own little system and review then as part of your weekly review.Use physical file folder, use Backpack or use a simple text file; the tool doesn’t matter as much as the system itself.
Use the inbox zero philospophy taught here.
Do the aforementioned weekly review. Take 2-4 hours each week and scan every placeholder or collection bucket in your system. Follow David Allen’s flowchart in his book. You’ll have to buy it or visit his website to see if it’s referenced there.
Productivity Techniques
Pareto Principle- apply the 80/20 rule liberally to your life, home and business. It’s a great liberator.
Batching-let those routine tasks with high startup times accumulate and do them at a set time.
Parkinson’s Law-a task or project will contract or expand based on the amount of time you allow for it. Put this to work for you by planning time and projects tightly.
Elimination- say no and get rid of more stuff.
Outsourcing- find ways to delegate some of what you do to others for less per hour. Virtual assistants and outsourcing services come to mind.
Routine-makes somethings part of a daily, weekly or monthly routine. Similar to batching yet different. The credits here go to the 4 hour workweek.
My Current Daily Routine
Posted by: | CommentsMorning
- Wake up at 5 AM- I formed this habit by focusing on it for 30 days in January. Ask me how!
- Usually I post to Twitter- just a trigger for my early wake up ( I try not to check email, but it’s tough).
- 5:15 AM- I break open God’s word- usually I focus on reading assignments from my discipleship class.
- 5:45 AM- I read another book (currently I’m finishing Tony Dungy’s 1st book and a church history book).
- 6:00 AM- I take a shower and get dressed (two days a week I shave my big bald head).
- 6:30 AM- I have a quick meeting with a man about a mule and have my calls held. I also stretch for 20 min.
- I usually turn off the radio and enjoy some quiet prayer time and listening time on the way to Java Brewing Co.
- 7:15 AM- I have old fashioned oatmeal with raisins, water, vibe-and I start into the dark roast no/c-no/s.
- I typically read another quick devotional or pamphlet or a snip of the paper while I eat.
- 7:30 AM- I start through my daily GTD review session. This is a scaled down version of the weekly review.
- 8:30 AM- People start rolling into the coffee shop and I usually begin to write or do marketing for an hour.
- 9:30 AM- I pack it up and head home or to clients or to another favorite cafe. Tasks vary widely at this point.
Afternoon
- I eat a light lunch- either left overs from our dinner the night before, hummus and pita bread or soup/salad.
- Sometimes after lunch my wife and I debrief about the kids, scheduling, company tasks or her resale business.
Evening
- 6:00 PM- Dinner with the family nearly every night- it’s rare that I miss this.
- 6:30 PM- The whole family hangs out and then cleans up after dinner. Daddy is the pickup organizing guy.
- 7:30 PM- Bath time for kiddos and then story, family prayer time and bedtime at 8:15 PM.
- 8:15 – 11:00 PM- Ashley and I spend time together, or we work. Usually I write, develop word press sites, manage online marketing efforts for customers or do creative projects like videos. On the weekends we watch movies, play games or do hobbies. I only plan on doing this nightly work routine until I don’t have to any longer.
I would love to know what works for you. If you would like, you can fill out this Google form. If your daily routine is interesting or amazingly productive or unique; I’ll publish it. Of course I reserve the right not to. I would love to see what other people do for a daily routine. You never know how a little tip or idea here or there can benefit someone else.
Organization-What’s the point?
Posted by: | Comments- What is the point of organization?
- Who cares if my stuff is neat and my stars are aligned?
- What does it matter if I use a system to accomplish my work?
- Who cares?
It is no secret that I have a passion for organization, but lately I’ve become aware of my true passion for creativity and productivity. I battle an obsessive compulsive spirit and have a tendency to get distracted easily and lose focus. I’ve never been diagnosed with anything and don’t plan on walking around with a meaningless label or excuse. Instead, I work my butt off trying to control my environment, my habits and my focus.
So that still brings us back to why- doesn’t it? Everyone likes to talk about productivity and organization, but many fail to say why. Just do it won’t convince people. Just do it won’t encourage people. Just do it won’t empower people. I want to explain in this post why I’m passionate about productivity and organization.
What’s keeping you from writing a book, painting a picture, taking amazing photos, learning a foreign language, playing a musical instrument, becoming a better golfer, studying history, volunteering at a local nursing home, being a grassroots political activist, taking a mission trip, starting a blog, producing a podcast, writing a screenplay, making someone laugh, organizing a fundraiser, having a family over for dinner, hosting a community group, being there for the kids games, being there for your spouse in a time of need, taking your spouse on a date, teaching and investing in your children, visiting shut ins, taking care of widows and orphans, reading a novel and solving big problems.
Time and your lack of efficient/effective productivity would be the answer. You see nothing on the list above has to do with money. A homeless man could do most of the things above without much if any money.
- How about another question?
What’s keeping you from supporting a ministry, missionary or non profit, from taking a nice family vacation, from cutting checks to those in need during tough times, from taking time away from work to minister to those in need, to invest in your family’s future, for Christians- to fund the gospel, to capitalize great new business ideas, to invest in your continued education, to travel and enjoy the world, to travel and do mission work, to have more children or adopt children without a home?
Money and your lack of it. Trust me this is a big struggle for the Raley Family just like it might be for your family. Most of my business life has been spent looking for and developing a muse for making money efficiently. After all what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul. I don’t want to do it while sacrificing family either.
So you ask why get organized? I want more time to spend on the first list above.
So you ask why get more productive? I want to be the steward of more money and resources for the second list above. Thus I focus on organization for time and productivity for money. There you have it.
The road to wealth lies in augmenting our means or diminishing our wants, either will do but the quickest is to do both- Ben Franklin
20) Don’t organize
Posted by: | Comments- You shoes- do you really need 10 or 20 or 80 pair of shoes
- Your books – see my previous blog post
- Your DVD’s or CD’s (guilty here) major sign of procrastination
- Your stamp collection unless you’re Hercule Poirot
- Anything that doesn’t lead to an increase in productivity or a simplification of life
In all seriousness it’s OK to organize some of these things but you must stop and ask yourself the following questions:
- Is this really procrastination?
- How will this lead to me saving time or adding measurable productivity to my life or work.
- Even if this needs to be organized is it a priority to do it right now?
If you’re stuck, then sometimes action of any kind will help you get moving and achieve little successes. In that case pull out the books and clean out the pantry. Take the dog for a walk or mow the grass. Lift some boxes and sweat a little, then quickly get back to the things that matter today.
I am terrible at this and that’s exactly why I’m writing it.
