by Allison Kooser | Mar 11, 2022 | +Good Newsletter, The Intro
When I first visited my now-fiancé’s apartment, something immediately caught my eye. It wasn’t the collection of guitars, or even the enviable library of economics books (though that did win him many bonus points).
In one of the rooms of his home, there is a floor-to-ceiling whiteboard wall.
I was awestruck.
For a planner like me, this setup was a dream come true. Think of all the ideas you can hash out! The brainstorming! The calendars! The lists!
It’s a huge blank canvas upon which to craft something beautiful, which we are now using as a repository for wedding ideas.
As I’ve thought more about it, I realize I love the whiteboard wall because it symbolizes the big picture. It represents space and vision and foresight. It’s forward-looking. It’s the very opposite of the day-to-day myopic view of my computer.
And as I start to dream about a wedding, I’m realizing that we in the nonprofit world need to reevaluate the way we do our planning. It’s too nearsighted. Too immediate.
Too much computer, not enough whiteboard.
The urgent tasks in any given day are endless. The “do-this-nows” pile up, leaving us with no margin to think about what’s happening next week, let alone six months from now. No one is going to give you the space to breathe—you have to take it.
It’s up to us to disrupt the pattern and pull ourselves up to a broader view. It’s up to us to take a longer-term look at planning.
When you start arranging a wedding, you can download checklists from Pinterest that tell you what to do 18, 12, 9, 6, 3 months before your event. These guides give you an enormously long on-ramp to your big day so that:
- You stay organized.
- You prioritize the right things first.
- You keep your stress to a minimum.
What if we could achieve those same objectives at work? What if we could use the magic of long-term planning to stay organized, prioritize the right things, and operate stress-free?
Yes please.
Here at Swell+Good, we’re big believers in whiteboard thinking—and we love helping organizations start looking farther ahead on the horizon. We talk about winter when it’s still spring. We know what big holidays and events and campaigns are coming down the pike months in advance. We even built a content calendar template that we’d love to share with you for free! Just reply and let us know you’d like a copy.
It’s not easy to break free from the tyranny of the urgent, but it will make your work—and your stress levels—so much better. The creative brilliance happens when you have time to breathe, think, and brainstorm. If you’re like me, it happens when you’re at the whiteboard.
So give yourself the space and freedom to think big-picture, dream forward, and plan long-term. (Literally carve out the time. Block your calendar. Be ruthless. It’s the only way.) And let us know how we can help!
by Allison Kooser | Feb 10, 2022 | +Good Newsletter, The Intro
This week, as we were scrolling TikTok (yes, we scroll TikTok…), we came across a video that felt a little too true.
Sure, it’s about returning to in-person work—and here at Swell+Good, we’re work-from-home, asynchronous forever. Not applicable to our personal lives, exactly, but the larger point stuck: How many things are we doing just because they’re the things we’ve always done?
Said differently, what are we doing for no reason?
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that things change. Work dynamics, health guidelines, trends (sourdough, anyone?), and, yes, even our understanding of what is effective.
The thing you were doing yesterday might not work tomorrow.
And that’s ok.
As one of our favorite social scientists says, “People often become attached to best practices. The risk is that once we’ve declared a routine the best, it becomes frozen in time.”
Or, maybe even better, “We laugh at people who still use Windows 95, yet we still cling to opinions that we formed in 1995.”
(Yes, Adam Grant wrote a whole book about rethinking things. You should read it. It’s great.)
A good leader can keep their team moving forward. One who prioritizes growth over being right. One who knows that sometimes, even great ideas and practices have to get scrapped because they’ve reached their lifespan.
Instead of relying on “best practices,” let’s build processes and policies that work for the future. Let’s embrace innovation and shake things up. Listen to the dissenters. Consider the options. Be willing to toss something when it’s no longer working for you.
We’re learning this right along with you and dedicating time to reevaluating our behaviors. (Because, wow, is it easy to let things happen instead of making them happen when you don’t carve out time to think about it!) We want to be intentional with our strategies, practices, and calendars—and we invite you to do the same!
Let us know what you’ve reconsidered recently—and what you’re scrapping in favor of something new!
by Allison Kooser | Feb 3, 2022 | +Good Newsletter, The Intro, Work Smarter
We know we’re belated on our 2022 well wishes, but we took January off from the newsletter (all the praise hands for self-created breaks!). Now, we’re back in your inbox, hoping you’re feeling well-rested, inspired, and ready to tackle the year ahead.
When we flipped our calendars to January a couple of weeks ago, we realized something. We were already swamped.
Somehow, this always happens. We head into the new year with BIG goals (new year, new you, right?)—and then those goals start eating us alive. We decide to be extra productive, and then realize that (surprise!) we’re human. We were already productive. There really isn’t much more room to accelerate.
That January-must-be-full-of-big-goals-and-hustle thing? It’s a trap.
What if, instead, you let this year look…normal?
What if you took your foot off the gas and just did your job?
What if you continued to prioritize your mental health and your personal interests and your time instead of trying to accomplish all the things?
What would that do to your calendar and your goals?
Because, yes, it’s a new year. But you aren’t any good if you aren’t taking care of yourself.
Here at Swell+Good, we’re all about practicing what we preach, so here are a few things we’re trying in 2022:
- No-deadline Fridays. You already know that we love cancelling meetings. So we scrapped as many Friday meetings as possible. Then, we moved all of our deadlines to Thursdays or Mondays. It gives us a chill start to the weekend—and lets team members take every other Friday off while others cover anything that comes in hot.
- Dedicated time for learning. Somehow, our own projects always fall to the bottom of our lists. Other priorities take precedence and we never get to our own stuff. So we problem solved and blocked our calendars with dedicated brainstorming time.
- Snacks. Ok, this isn’t new. But we are not good at our jobs when we forget to eat. Put kindly, we know when one of our teammates has skipped lunch (the hangry life is real!). So we’re making time to eat. Or nap. Or take a walk around the block. We’re better when we do.
What’s on your list? What goals do you have for 2022 that are for you—not for the hustle? Let us know by replying to this email!
by Allison Kooser | Dec 16, 2021 | +Good Newsletter, The Intro
Welcome to the 100th edition of +good! (We know—we can hardly believe it, either!)
We’ve been sharing our thoughts on marketing, fundraising, leadership, team dynamics, and keeping our work lives fun for almost two years. We’ve compiled the tools and articles that inspire us. And we’ve had the opportunity to connect with so many extraordinary nonprofit leaders like you!
(You’re awesome, by the way!)
Over the course of 100 editions, we’ve learned a few things—lessons that, yes, apply to an email newsletter but also apply to so many pieces of our work.
Having a creative outlet of your own is good for you.
Writing these intros is one of the best parts of my week. In a schedule full of writing for other people, having a dedicated hour to put pen to paper about the things I am personally thinking about is such a gift. Plus, it’s a great way to process all of the content I’m consuming regularly. And you don’t need a newsletter to do this—open a notebook or a doc and get started!
It’s ok to say no.
There have been weeks when the newsletter felt like one thing too many, so you know what we did? We skipped an issue. Yep. We just decided that it wasn’t worth the added stress. This ability to own our work (instead of letting our work own us) is one of the best parts of being our own bosses. And hopefully, you feel this same kind of freedom in some of your assignments!
You can be wrong.
Curating a list of marketing tips and tricks every week has been a learning experience for our entire team. And one of the best parts of pulling together the meat of the newsletter is realizing that we can (and should) challenge our way of thinking, too. Constant learning and curiosity are core tenets of our business—and that means we’re constantly rethinking the way we do things.
Community is what it’s all about.
Hearing from you, our awesome readers, is one of the best parts of writing this newsletter. Knowing that our messages resonate (or that you’ve finally taken control of your calendar, started canceling meetings, or stepped up your leadership game) brings us so much joy. In fact, it’s why we do this thing in the first place. You’re our why—and we love getting to know you!
Thank you for reading along with us for 100 issues—and here’s to the next 100 ahead of us! If there are things you’d like to hear more about (or less about!) please let us know by replying to this email. We are always looking for inspiration, and we know you have a ton of it!
Until then, know that you are doing great, hard, powerful work. Work that makes a difference. Work that is making the world better. We are cheering for you and honored to be in your inbox!
In the spirit of saying no and protecting our schedules, we’re taking the next two weeks off from the newsletter to enjoy time with our families. Hope you have a fantastic holiday—and we’ll see you in 2022!
by Allison Kooser | Nov 18, 2021 | +Good Newsletter, Gratitudes
Dear friends,
Every week, we send you a roundup of the articles, videos, and tools we can’t stop talking about. These are resources we use on a daily basis — things that make our lives (and our work) better and easier. And we love sharing them with you!
But arguably the most important part of our newsletter this week comes at the very end, after all of the rich content and helpful links. That little section called the attitude of gratitude? That’s where the magic is.
Because saying thank you matters more than just about anything.
You can have awesome systems and strategies, but without gratitude, you won’t get very far. More importantly, without gratitude, your life will probably kind of suck.
Because saying thank you creates joy.
For the recipient of your thanks, sure. But also for you.
Turns out, saying thank you makes you happy.
How awesome is that?!
So this week, as we are WAY in the weeds on Giving Tuesday and Q4 plans, we are pausing to do the most important thing: give thanks.
Thank you to our incredible clients—you are doing powerful work changing the world, and we are so grateful to be part of it.
Thank you to our team—you are rockstars and we couldn’t do any of this without you. You inspire us each and every day.
Thank you to our support systems—you keep us sane and smiling, even when we’re writing 9 campaigns at once.
And thank you to each and every one of you—you open up your inbox to us every Thursday and listen to our thoughts about work, life, and all the things. What an honor to have you in our community.
This Thanksgiving, we hope you’ll pause. The hustle (and the length of your to-do list) is real, but gratitude matters. Make time for it.
And remember, we’re grateful for you.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Ian, Allison, and the S+G team
