3 Time-Saving Hacks for Coaches and Administrators

As administrators or coaches, the reality is that if you added up the amount of work to do on our to-do list, there would be 100’s of hours of work represented there.  There are a lot of people to manage, emails to send, teams communicate information to, and paperwork to fill out.   

We have a lot of people counting on us to do our job well.  It really doesn’t matter how many items you checked off your to-do list or how many hours you worked, it only matters the value, the output, the results, and your performance.  

Ultimately, we have to figure out, how instead of working 50, 60, 70 hour weeks and continually throwing more time at it, how can we be more efficient, get the maximum results we can get but get it in the minimum time so we can get out of there and get home to our families.   

I want to show you 3 small things you can do from by Time Management Workbook for Busy Coaches that will help you to consistently show up and perform well but also have some sense of control over my day.  

Win tomorrow today with a great plan. A great routine always starts the night before.  Take 10 minutes tonight to plan tomorrow.  These are the 3 things I want you to plan for.      

1. Every night, plan TOMORROW’S morning routine. Wake up with a plan of action and a routine in place, making it that much easier for you to take action right away. 
2. Write down ONE GOAL YOU’LL ACCOMPLISH TOMORROW before you leave for the office. What is one thing that you could do to make progress on something that matters to you? 
3. Write down your TOP 3 PRIORITIES for tomorrow and what time you will block off to work on them.  

Once your to-do list is organized, it becomes a map to guide you from morning to evening in the most effective and efficient way. This guide tells you what you have to do and what is more or less important so it helps to eliminate a lot of wasted time. You will soon develop the habit of using your list as a blueprint for the day.  

Batching 

Batch processing is the grouping of similar tasks that require similar resources in order to streamline their completion. Batching is simply a form of time management that allows a person to maximize concentration and decrease distraction. As a result, it increases your productivity, creativity, and mental sharpness, while decreasing fatigue, procrastination, and stress.  

Batching is very simple and extremely effective.  

Plan 30-60 minutes each day to work on similar tasks. For example, you might say I’m going to work on my emails for this weekend’s upcoming tournament, then I will block out a time to email all of the youth coaches, then I will do all of my administrative emails.   

You can apply those same strategies to the work that you do with the same principles apply for example more analytical work can be bad together  

When you do that you get higher-quality work, you get more work accomplished, you get fewer distractions, it’s more efficient you don’t bounce between things as fast or as often so you can stay with one thing longer and with all of that being built into the system you get so much more work accomplished you’re so much more focused on one specific thing ideally you’re only scheduling 

Parkinson’s Law with Email 

Timothy Ferriss, in “The 4-Hour Workweek” introduces a concept called Parkinson’s Law.  Parkinson’s Law dictates that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.   

When you set shorter deadlines you’ll get a heck of a lot more done than you are right now.  For example, if you don’t give yourself a deadline to get your emails done, it is a good possibility that it will take you all day to get them done.  If you give yourself 60 minutes to write an email, Parkinson’s Law says that it will take 60 minutes.  And if you give yourself 45 minutes, magically the email will get done in 45 minutes.   

Setting a deadline for how long you allow yourself to do emails and/or for how long you allow yourself to do each email is the secret to getting all of your emails done.  These deadlines you set for yourself will keep you on track.  By incorporating deadlines for everything you do in the office each day, especially with emails, you’ll find yourself getting more done and ending the day with less of the stress associated with hitting quitting time and still having a to-do list that is a mile long.