A few weeks ago I was at the Kansas City Fitness Summit and Lou Schuler was introducing some of the attendees. He got to me and remarked about how I was apparently great at time management because of all the things I normally do in a day, between training clients, writing, my own workouts, and everything else. Sure, I may be able to hang on to 2 beers at once while texting my wife and busting out the odd cossack squat, but doesn’t everybody?

 

Then this week on a Facebook Q & A a couple people asked if I was a cyborg because I had previously put myself under social media isolation to ensure I got work finished up on a couple of articles and programs that were over due. I managed to get most of it done, but also met with a mortgage broker with my wife regarding a new house we’re looking to build, so that derailed any focus I had for the rest of the day.

It got me thinking: do I do something different in terms of time management? Do I just work more hours than most? Or is it some other type of intangible that I do normally that others don’t? Is my beard really that awesome and bad-ass? Yes, yes it is.

Honestly, I don’t think I’m special in any way and always feel that if I could do what I do, anyone could really do it. After hearing how many big projects a guy like Brad Schoenfeld has on the go, my do-to list pales in comparison, but there’s a reason he’s finishing a PhD and I’m working away with only a bachelors degree. I battle procrastination and laziness just like everyone, but maybe there’s something in my set up that could help others, be they fitness professionals or just people trying to find more time to workout in their daily life.

So today I wanted to outline some of the biggest things I do for time management to make sure I can get everything done that I want to do, and still have time to crush Game of Thrones episodes with my wife on a regular basis.

1. Automate everything you can

Technology has helped make the world a much more simple place in terms of menial tasks that should have no human involvement. A few years ago I was spending upwards of 5-7 hours a week just on scheduling. Yes, scheduling. This meant calling clients, email tag, text messages, and the inevitable back and forth of “what time do you have on Thursday?” “Oh I can’t do Thursday but how about next Monday?”

This was time spent working but not using it to earn an income. It was also time spent doing something I didn’t want to do so I couldn’t spend that time doing something else, like working out, hanging out with my wife, or mowing my lawn during the months of mid-May to early September when there’s no snow.

I decided to get a paid subscription to an online scheduling system called Appointment.com. It cost $30 a month, and allowed me to schedule appointments in advance based on those who could just show up at the same days and times all the time, and then I could email the link to those problem clients who were the hardest to schedule and essentially hand it off. I could compile reports of the sessions involved, get confirmation emails when someone booked a session, have a trail of emails to their email account to ensure there was no confusion about when appointments were, and essentially freed up about 4-6 hours a week that I could use to do other things. I would still have to to a small amount of upkeep and check in on those who weren’t getting the gist of the system, but it was a lot less time than previously.

If you can find a way to automate things so you can spend next to zero time working on them, it frees you up tremendously. This could be scheduling, cleaning services, cooking services, or anything.

Trainers would be wise to make templates for their programs and then copy and paste to save time on programming so that all they would have to include is the specifics of the workouts instead of handwriting everything. This also gives a digital copy in case you misplace the handwritten version.

2. Procrastination could be useful

Everyone usually procrastinates away from something they don’t want to do but know they need to do in favour of doing something they would prefer to do instead. This could be a really big issue especially for the things that have no option, such as studying for exams, getting programs ready for clients the next morning, or anything like that.

However, if you’re doing something you would rather be doing instead of dwelling on something you wouldn’t, you could use that as a barometer as to where you should be spending your time. If you’re procrastinating about writing an article on a topic you really aren’t keen on but want to spend time playing a video game, maybe write an article about that video game, perhaps tying info in from the article you’re supposed to write with information in the video game? Perhaps you’re supposed to clean the bathroom but want to go get in a workout. Maybe look to hire a cleaning service, which would only cost about $40-50 for a couple hours, have them clean your entire place, and free up time to go work out and then book another client or two to pay off the cost of the cleaners. They probably spent 2 hours cleaning that would take you 4 hours, you got in a workout, and booked a client, which meant you saved 4 hours and only spent 1 on work, but got that workout in, essentially saving you 3 hours in the process. Math, yo.

3. Work Environment is Conducive to Productivity

If you’re the kind of person who works on a computer with 20 tabs open, Facebook streaming, the television on and showing a really cool and exciting show, and kids running around all over the place, you should pretty much admit that you’re not getting anything done. At all. Ever.

In spite of my earlier photo, I’m a firm believer that multitasking is a myth, and only allows someone to do portions of many things poorly and simultaneously. Any time your full attention isn’t on a specific task, you short-change your ability to complete that task. Try to only have as many windows or tabs open on your computer as absolutely necessary to complete the task, go to a room without external distractions, and turn the tv to a music station, not a music video station. Ideally, switch to something like classical or instrumentals where you don’t have the urge to sign along. One-man chair dance parties are always necessary, but there’s a time and place for everything.

If your situation is like mine, where your work station is in the living room and the tv is right there and your spouse likes to watch shows like Glee and stuff like that, opt in for some noise cancelling head phones, and spend an hour or two in near isolation so you can get stuff finished up before rejoining her in show-tune glory. They also work great on planes or when taking the subway. I’m partial to Bose In-Ear ones myself.

 

4. You’ll Never Get Paid For “Almost Done”

I had a discussion with a trainer at my gym who was starting up his own blog (click HERE to check him out). He mentioned he had about 10 half-written blog posts that he was writing but didn’t know how to finish any of them and as a result wasn’t getting anything new on his site. I asked him how much value those posts were doing for him to just sit on his hard drive. His answer was an easy one: “None.”

A great lesson I learned a long time ago is you don’t get paid for almost done. You only get paid when something is finished and put out there. For every great idea you’ve ever had, but failed to act on, you owe it to yourself as well as those whose lives would be irrevocably better for you finishing the job you set out to do. It may never be perfect, but that’s were the “Update” button, or a new version or a re-release comes in. If you find ways to make it better, fix it up and re-release it either as a new product, article, or revamp of an old one that you can distribute for free to those who got the first one or looked at it. It goes further than simply waiting for the perfect whatever to be completed, because it will never be perfect.

Also, I remember a conversation I was having with Matthew Danzinger, a really bright fitness pro who called me out for my description of pain and I asked to write a guest post HERE about better mechanisms and applications of pain science. He was having a slightly difficult time putting his thoughts together while covering all the bases, and my response was simply “Dude, it’s a blog post, not a thesis.” If you want to cover all the bases in depth and to the full extent of the current literature, go get a masters degree or PhD and write a thesis complete with studies and analyses on the subject. For a blog post, just cover 1-3 concepts and leave it at that.

You do the world a greater favour by putting good content out regularly than waiting for perfection and never having anything to show for it. You also build a better audience who can then accept the information you’re putting out more regularly, which helps more people, and when inspiration strikes, you’re ready to hit that PUBLISH button.

5. Do What’s Important, But Do What You Love

Understand that what pays the bills and what drive you’re purpose may be two different things. If you work as an accountant but secretly want to be a landscape architect for prairie style homes and would love nothing more than to binge-watch Home and Garden TV, that’s where you’re going to want to spend all your time. The smartest thing you could do is find a way to make a living in your passions, even if it means continuing to work your main job while following your dreams in a side job until the time is right.

For instance, my chiropractor is a jerk (also a good friend and client whom I can say that about because it comes with love) who has a passion for surfing. Obviously, surfing in the middle of Edmonton, Alberta is a rare commodity, so he spends a good chunk of the year travelling to different destinations to get his surf on. He also owns a clinic and has worked his butt off for the better part of the last 10-12 years building it up. He’s hired associates, staff, massage therapists, and set it up so that he can get paid well even when he isn’t physically there to run the operations. He just recently got to the point where he was able to sell the clinic outright to one of his associates, and will be taking a year to complete some courses, travel the world, and let me try to find another chiro for myself, my wife, and my two sisters in law. Like I said, he’s a jerk, but he found his passion, and worked towards making it happen.

Another example of this concept is Sol Orwell, the guy behind Examine.com. He started off in engineering (I think), then went to software and video game sales online, did really well and essentially retired all by the age of 30ish. From there he followed his passions, started Examine.com with the premise that it wasn’t going to be a supplement research company influenced by supplement companies trying to get favourable research and conclusions for their projects, and only distributing the best and most research-accurate information to the public. Someone FINALLY got it right.

Since then, he’s stepped down from the director role, put in Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, and is now taking on other opportunities that he sees as being interesting.

Sure, he could have sat in his career job for life, hated it, but made a good living, but following his passions have allowed him much more fulfillment, all while being productive for 14-16 hours a day during the grind periods. My chiropractor had many a 14-16 hour day when he was building up his clinic, but it got him to the point where he could take weeks off on end and travel to follow his interests.

As for myelf, I’m always following what I’m interested in, and usually don’t take on projects that don’t create a spark of interest. I love training clients, and even though I’m getting to a point where I could theoretically walk away and still live comfortably from other sources of income, I want to work with people as nothing can replace that aspect of interconnectivity and also showcase how to coach better to use with other projects. I’ve had publishers ask me to write articles, and even though some are awesome and I write without a hesitation, there are those topics and concepts that don’t inspire me, so as much as I sometimes hate to, I’ll turn them down or try to alter them into something that gets me fired up. I’ve also had a lot of article idea pitches rejected that I thought would be sure things, so all I do then is write the article for this site and it winds up blowing up. So there.

To summarize, I guess productivity all comes down to a simple concept: How bad do you want it? If it drives you, lights a spark under you and you’re genuinely excited to work on it, it’s not going to take much to get you going and only a full speeding freight train will derail your focus and intent. If you are only cursorily intrigued, shiny things are going to be all it takes to divert your attention, so find what you love and then work on that. It may not pay out large initially, but consistent work, focus, and passion can make any venture profitable, productive, and add incredibly value to your life, as well as make you happy.

Imagine being so excited to wake up and start tomorrow that you don’t need a snooze button.