“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of” – Bruce Lee
Are You Wasting Life as a Strength Coach or Fitness Professional? Three Ways to Take Advantage of Your Free Time by Justin Taylor
In chapter 15 of CEO Strength Coach McKeefery explains ways that he improves his happiness and productivity in his career to make the best use of his time. I am going to give you the top three methods McKeefery uses so that you can efficiently use your time and energy and not get burnt out with too much work. McKeefery suggests that the biggest time killers are distractions because they distort your focus for a given task or project. Below are the top three distractions as well as solutions to get your life back.
Emails
With technology expanding and the population growing, electronic communication is a major aspect of networking and communicating. As a coach or trainer you stay in constant contact with numerous athletes or clients for programming and scheduling. You could find yourself hours behind on work due to the distraction of email notifications and responses.
Solutions: McKeefery advises creating designated times to check and respond to emails such as mornings, lunch, and before leaving work. He also has a unique method of grouping emails into files titled “Less Than Two Minutes” and “More Than Two Minutes.” Once filed he sorts through and organizes based on work priority. I encourage everyone to work from a to-do list to save time and maximize productivity.
Internet
With social media on the rise, to expand brand awareness and stay up to date on frequent events, utilizing the internet can take you down a rabbit hole of internet hyperlinks or frenzy ideas. If you’re reading this then you’re probably a deep thoughtful and intuitive person that finds it challenging not to get side tracked with internet media. How many times have you used the internet for one thing but end up researching something completely different?
Solutions: In order to be realistic with ourselves, McKeefery suggests not to deprive yourself but created small breaks of time to roam the internet with time limits. I also suggest that you write down why you are searching the internet then ask yourself if clicking on the next link or page is going to bring you closer or further away from why you’re doing it. If it takes you further from your intended goal, it’s a good chance you may be wasting your time.
People
Lastly people in the form of friends, colleagues, clients, athletes and family can be physically and emotionally distracting. But unlike emails or internet pages, you can’t easily delete or dismiss people. McKeefery states that Strength and Conditioning is a relationship business which means that people should be top priority at all times compared to the small tedious tasks. Creating time to protect the welfare of your clients and/or athletes is a must.
Solutions: If you find yourself occupied with both people and a large to do list, McKeefery recommends that you communicate with your athletes and colleagues to set priorities accordingly. In addition Mckeefery says that not being easily accessible in your office may help reduce the amount of human traffic in your workspace.
So perhaps next chance you have free time between your sessions you may find the solutions above helpful so that you maximize your productivity. As a fitness professional and business owner I find that my time is truly valuable both monetarily and personally. It’s important to understand that time is the biggest asset we have, so why waste it?
Did you like something your read in this blog? If so, how about adding a comment for Coach Taylor below? Our team of bloggers would like to know what you think and when you submit a comment our goal is to post it within 24 hours. Thanks for following this series.
Justin Taylor, BS, CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist)
Founder and Owner of Nomadic Fitness, L.L.C
Owner of Taylormadehumanperformance.com
“The views, opinions, and judgments expressed in this message are solely those of the authors and peer reviewers. The contents have been reviewed by a team of contributors but not approved by any other outside entity including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh.”
