3 Ways to be Exceptionally Productive as a Busy Coach

Hi Coach,

The most productive people do a lot more than just stay busy.  Many coaches stay busy. After all, checking items off a to-do list isn’t hard.

What’s hard is checking the right things off your to-do list, completing the right projects, and getting the right stuff done. That’s when you go from busy to productive — and in the process become indispensable to your programs success.

Here are 3 things highly productive people do — and why that makes them so valuable:

1. They always start with goals.

Effort without a genuine purpose is just effort. Effective coaches don’t just have a strategic objective of what to do–they know why. They have a long-term goal. And they have short-term goals that support their long-term goals.

In short, they have a strategic purpose–and that purpose informs everything they do. That’s why remarkable people appear so dedicated and organized and consistently on-task. They’re not slaves to a routine or their to-do list; they’re simply driven to reach their goals and quick to eliminate roadblocks and put aside distractions that stand in their way.

When you are driven and prioritize your work in this way, you’ll find it’s easier to stay focused and be effective.

Even so, once they establish a goal, productive people don’t focus solely on that goal; instead …

Then they create systems.

As a coach, your goal is to build a successful program. Your system consists of your step-by-step processes for recruiting, practices, operations, etc.

A goal is great for planning and mapping out what success looks like; a system is great for actually making progress through more efficient daily execution toward that goal.

Productive people know a goal can provide direction and even push them forward in the short term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win.

Everyone has goals; committing to a system makes all the difference in achieving that goal.

They let their goals make their decisions almost automatic.

Tim Ferriss described in a podcast how Herb Kelleher, the CEO of Southwest Airlines, makes so many decisions every day. Kelleher applies a simple framework to every issue: Will this help Southwest be the low-cost provider? If so, the answer is yes. If not, no.

Productive people apply the same framework to the decisions they make. “Will this help me reach my goal? If not, I won’t do it.”

If you feel like you’re constantly struggling to make decisions, take a step back. Think about your goals; your goals will help you make decisions.

That’s why productive people are so decisive. Indecision is born of a lack of purpose: When you know what you truly want, most of your decisions can — and should — be almost automatic.

Coach, I hope that it gets you thinking about how you are currently working and encourages you to tweak and keep tweaking until you find that magic zone where you crush every work day.  If you want to know more or even have me take you through this process, I invite you to check out go to www.busy.coach or email me at mandy@busy.coach.