What makes a good GoodGym task?

Before you start thinking about organisations you might want to help, it’s useful to understand what GoodGymers think makes a good task.

👍Useful
It’s really important that GoodGym tasks have a clear benefit for the people who use the space you’re working in. For example; removing weeds in a school veg garden so the children can learn to plant their own food, or painting walls in a community centre so that service users feel the space is more welcoming.

⏰ Short
Tasks should take between 30 and 60 minutes to complete and have an achievable end goal (e.g. 3 walls painted, 1 rose-bed weeded). If a task will take longer, we can always break it down and return for another session.

🍋 Plenty to do
We don’t want people standing around like lemons at GoodGym sessions! If you need to, when listing tasks you can restrict the numbers of sign-ups depending on the number of tools and what physical space is available.

⚡ Safe
There are always risks but for example having 10 people swinging pick-axes in a small space would be unwise…

💡 Well-lit
It’s important that tasks take place in a well-lit area. Advise that people bring head torches if it’s dark.

🧰 Low-skilled
GoodGym tasks shouldn’t require specialist knowledge or skills. Strimmers and lawn mowers are the only power tools you should use.

🗓️Regular
We aim to do a minimum of one weekday evening task and a weekend morning task until there are enough GoodGymmers to complete more tasks. Task owners may want you to come back regularly - a monthly arrangement can work well for both you and them!

🚮 Avoid litter picking or flyering
Not all tasks are made equal - there are some real marmite tasks out there. In a survey of GoodGymers, half of respondents said they don’t like litter picking and 7 in 10 don’t like flyering. This means if you set up a litter picking or flyering task you’re likely to be excluding about half of the people who might participate. Though some community organisations would benefit from leafleting it will harm your participation so is best avoided.