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Does you scheduler resemble open warfare? There is so much on there it is impossible to see gaps. Fitting in a workout would just not be possible, you'd have to cancel it anyway because meetings always over run, or someone else wants another "quick" meeting!
Whether you are a top executive, middle management or team player, the working day is full of distractions, seemingly "important" appointments and meetings.
Many of us confuse work and "busy work". Busy work is the answering of phone calls, reading and answering emails, impromptu meetings with your boss or co-workers, that consume so much of your day. As such your days get longer, lunch hours get shorter (or completely consumed), and late night work to finish a project becomes the norm.
The unstructured day drains your energy and is frankly a waste of time. Your training gets missed too frequently, and then dropped altogether. Not only does your sporting ability suffer but your entire "out of work" life too, there is no balance.
Because your sports and fitness training is vital to you, you need to do something about this otherwise weeks and months will pass you by with no structured workouts done.
Solutions to this big problem are everywhere, all sorts of technology solutions are available to better manage your time, but often these tools become even more time consuming to use and ultimately become "busy work" too.
Having tried numerous electronic organisers from Outlook, online calendars, PDAs, phones, etc etc. I have found coming back to a basic paper scheduler to be the most powerful tool.
As a trainer it is impossible for me to see every single client when it suits them, I force them to work their schedule around me, when they realise that this is for THEIR benefit as much as mine, they discover a freedom and opportunity that they had not recognised before!
The following tips for scheduling and planning your work and workouts have been used successfully by some of my busiest clients with great success:
- Plan to check email only twice a day, just before lunch and just before you go home in the evening. Keep it turned off at all others times. - Arrange and accept meetings only in the morning, maximum of 30 minutes
- Afternoon is for real work, do 50 minute blocks of work, then break for 10. - Put all this in your scheduler, blocking out portions of the day for this.
- Put in all your workouts for the week 5 or 6 sessions of 20-40 minutes are enough, the morning, lunch and evenings are obvious times. Sacrifices will need to be made though to make this fit.
- Fix your sports specific training in as well, keep the training focussed and goal orientated
As obvious and as simplistic as these suggestions seem, they are extremely effective if you stick to the rules without deviation for 5 weeks. By this point, not only will you become more effective with your planning, your work colleagues will be better "educated" with how you view your precious time and respect the rules you put in place.
Give these rules a try starting immediately, go to your scheduler and be brutal with the marker pen to block out sections of your day for specific actions. Stop the rot of busy work and turn off the phone and email notifier!
Claim back control of your training schedule and make these appointments as big a priority as your work appointments. It is not easy to start with and I wish you luck.
Claim your free "Warm Up" video at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/. Tim Goodwin is a fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body. Feel free to duplicate this article with the bio and link intact.
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