The IPOOG model supports event planning and nonprofit management. It structures time tracking time and prioritizing tasks. This is an interim report on using the time tracking aspect of the tool over the past three months. Future improvements will be based on peer feedback.

1. The Story So Far
2. The Goodness of IPOOG
3. Bad IPOOG, Bad
4. IPOOG, You’re So UGLY…
5. The Future of IPOOG
6. Annex – Some August to October IPOOG Details

The Story So Far

Last summer, I introduced the Input, Process, Output, Outcome, and Governance business (IPOOG) model (see 2024 Birkie Business Model for a use case). One element was a method to Track IPOOG Time. For nonprofits, this time might be used for grant reporting of senior-volunteer-effort contributed to an organization. At a minimum, it could be used for time and material billing for consultants (the original source of the tool, back in my consulting days).

Committed to Dog Food. I had committed to using the tool for five months from August to December 2024. No point recommending something if it is impossible to follow. This is what is known as ‘eating your own dog food’. This is an interim-report and memory jog of what I learned, what works, and what I will change; a Good, Bad, and Ugly assessment.

The Goodness of IPOOG

Ten Little IPOOGs. The first benefit of using the tool is that it allowed me to keep multiple projects organized. There are ten different areas of interest I am currently involved with. Some have come and gone, for now (01-Birkie, 40-Nature Alberta). Others are enduring interests (20-CPA, 50-Writing). A few are parked only due to lack of capacity … but with a 25-hour day… (21-CPA Ambassadors, 27-Financial Literacy, and 30-Catalyst-plus). 10-SAPAA and 60-YEGVille.ca are the two areas I have committed to for the next year or so.

Knowing What Not to Do. The fact that I could write the above paragraph is an example of prioritization. You don’t need a fancy spreadsheet to prioritize. But IPOOG helps me say “I am NOT working on this’ and THESE are my priorities.

What to Do this Morning. I like to write in the morning when the house is quiet and the coffee tastes the best. A new morning ritual is to review the IPOOG list and decide what is most important/interesting. This morning, there are 37 things to do but I chose to work on this post. Over the past three months, I managed to close more than 70 things and abandoned 7 (did not complete but no longer working on).

Understanding Effort. I have two big priorities for the next 12 months, Creating Citizen Stewardship and deciding if ‘YEGVille.ca‘ is a viable concept. The two are inter-twined.

When Visiting IPOOG. When I tramp around in the bush, I write up my experiences as a YEGVille Page or as an YEG-Venture. If the destination also falls under SAPAA, I post a site inspection report. I was lamenting how long a site inspection (task 1202) took until I examined the timings from a recent trip which showed that the SAPAA part of the effort was less than an hour as compared to the YEGVille.ca part (task 6118). Creating the YEGVille.ca page took twice as much time as visiting the sites. Now I have a better appreciation of the work ahead of me for YEGVille.ca.

Bad IPOOG, Bad

Remembering to IPOOG. In preparing this post, I cleaned up my time entries. They were mapped to the wrong category or missing. Remembering to start/stop the timer is the hardest thing followed closely by doing one thing at a time. An email or phone call may require a change in plans. As a result, some time entries are estimates rather than pure elapsed time.

I Have to IPOOG. What is included in IPOOG time is another consideration. For example, is getting up for another cup of coffee a legitimate part of writing this post? What about travel time when I am off to a YEGVille.ca site? My answers so far are Yes to the first (getting coffee) and No to the second. While it is tempting to include things like the time to clean the front eaves trough (so I will remember to do it while the weather is warmer next year!), I have tried to keep my entries to volunteer work (the Ten Little IPOOGs).

IPOOG, You’re So UGLY…

An Accountant, Project Manager, and Consultant Walk Into an IPOOG…. The current IPOOG tool is Ugly and daunting to look at. It re-purposes tools I have used as an accountant, consultant, and project manager. Even in those roles, it was daunting to those who were asked to use it. It is fine for me because I built it but fails the User Interface test.

Be One With the IPOOG. To work best, it requires adopting the IPOOG methodology. People are neither disciplined nor want to be. After all, recording the time you have contributed as a volunteer might cheapen the gift. Still, if you want the information and results, you need both the structure and the tool.

The Future of IPOOG

Friends in IPOOG Places. IPOOG tracking is an interesting exercise. It has helped me be more focused and better understand exactly what I committed to. To continue to improve it, I am working with a ‘friendly-peer-review’ group who will attend three sessions:

1. What the h*ll are you going on about Frank? An overview of IPOOG and time tracking.
2. You wasted your time, on WHAT? Review how time entry can be done via the AS-IS tool. This may include sharing the existing tool with the peer group.
3. It might work if you only…. Comments, thoughts and suggestions for improvement or a recommendation that quietly kill the ideas as being useless.

IPOOG’g in 2025. Based on the feedback from the peer-review, I will decide if I continue to use the Time Tracking tool… or I can just abandon it and try to remember how long it takes to clean my front eaves trough…

Send me your thoughts or comments!

Annex – Some August to October IPOOG Details

The good news is that I am focused on what is of interest to me, YEGVille.ca and SAPAA Site Visits. There are some emerging interests: Citizen Stewards and some that will fall off such as the Birkie and Nature Alberta.

Writing is the top activity across the months. Getting out in the bush is invariably followed by writing. The Video activity is interesting in that this was a 60 second video which took 10 hours to write, produce, and edit. A good ratio of about one-effort-day for each minute of video.