5 Top Tips for Successful Time Management
As a PT good time management is essential, often you will have a busy diary of early starts and late night finishes, especially if you are just starting out. To effectively balance your work schedule, new clients, promote yourself, attract new clients, and live your life you need to be able to manage your time like a pro.
I have listed below 5 key ways you can manage your schedule to increase productivity, reach your goals and see overall results. As an experienced PT this is the steps I found the best for managing my schedule, there are of course other methods, but these are tried and tested. You can learn from my mistakes and avoid burnout.
Now, I know it’s not as sexy as talking about exercise routines, fat loss techniques or what supplements can give you the best gains (heads up, if your not a professional bodybuilder chances are supps are not going to make much difference to you or your client’s results) but correct time management will put you miles ahead of other personal trainers and really help you set the bar for the performance you will deliver in all aspects of your life.
So why should you take the time to read this?
Because it is a factor that both aspiring and current personal trainers regularly overlook and their personal and professional life end up taking the hit.
When you learn how to properly and effectively manage your time you will deliver a better service, increase your earnings, your clients will see better results and you will also begin to enjoy more freedom.
Now this topic has become a whole lot more interesting hasn’t it!
The mistake every PT makes is taking on too much and then subsequently realising that they just don’t have enough time throughout the day to complete everything to a high standard. It is very easy to get tangled up with earning more money and working every hour under the sun in order to run your business.
But the issue there is, there is so much to do and little time to do it.
For example, let’s take a look at the typical tasks a personal trainer has to fulfill on a daily/weekly basis
– Train clients. This one is pretty obvious but it takes up the majority of your day, especially if they are back to back sessions. This can see a large proportion of your day taken before you have done anything else.
– Write client programmes’. I’m not talking about your copy and paste job here, I’m talking proper kick a$$ programmes’ that make you stand out from all the other PT’s in your gym.
– Client check-in’s. This can vary from a phone call for those who need additional support and guidance, or it can be a face to face consultation to not only check in on progress but also help your client to remain on track, motivated and improve their overall wellbeing. Depending on your client this can be a large chunk of your day, and also an ongoing daily task.
– Consultations/ Sales. Well how else are you going to run a successful business? You will find yourself spending a lot of time responding to queries and scheduling phone calls; for these to be successful you need to be at the top of your game because first impressions do count therefore if you appear distracted or harassed chances are they will not be signing up.
– Marketing. Whether that is talking to members of the gym or posting content on social media and responding to enquiries you need to take the time for brand awareness to help boost you and your business.
– Your own training. Let’s face it, you most likely got into this industry because you went through some form of transformation yourself, am I right? For your own mental and physical health it is important that we continue to prioritise our own training.
– Eat. Come on we educate clients how important it is to eat at appropriate times do you not think you should do the same.
– Take classes, not for everyone but can still eat up a lot of time. Classes can also be a great way to get in front of potential clients and spread awareness of you and your services.
– Unwind. You aren’t a robot, you will need to take time to yourself to re-energise and be ready to deliver the next day.
This isn’t even mentioning the working hours of the early starts and late night finishes. I’ve lost count of the 6am-10pm days I encountered in the past. With your energy sources drained your standards will inevitably slip. Many PT’s will begin to cut corners and clients will no longer get the same level of enthusiasm or service you once provided when they signed up, this isn’t laziness it just becomes an impossibility to give everything 100%.
Does this look familiar? Here are 5 top tips to manage your time better.
-Manage your energy for bigger tasks. Schedule your biggest most energy sapping tasks for when you have the most energy. Not when you can fit it in. This can be clients, social media, check ins etc. The work you have to do that requires more power output from you will be completed far quicker and effectively if you do it with more energy.
-Reverse engineer your week. It is very easy to fall into the trap of scheduling as you go, but that is costing you valuable time. Start by planning your must do tasks for the week and build around it. This ties in nicely with point number 1. Assess when you have more energy throughout the day/week and plan accordingly
-Free up time by moving 1:1 clients online. If you are a personal trainer you should have set up an online training platform given this pandemic. But even when gyms return, look at your most competent clients and keep them online. This means you do not need to worry about sessions running over and fitting clients into your busy schedule. Plus you can accommodate far more online clients than you can in person
-Create Partnerships. Another great way to free up some time is to partner up clients who have similar goals and training experience. Running a semi private model is great for friendly competition and motivation, but it also allows you to win back some freedom as it one less session to worry about.
-Create systems. I honestly don’t know how many hours of work this has saved me. I have systems and automations for most parts of my business. From video tutorials on how to use myfitnesspal, track nutrition or understand a calorie deficit. To links, to book in for calls or session, so we aren’t going back and forward trying to arrange a time that suits. I even have an automated email system asking current clients for referrals. Find what area’s of your business you can automate and create a system to take the pressure off and give you more freedom doing what you enjoy. Training clients!!
Hopefully this has given you a lot to think about and how you can now manage and free up your time accordingly. By incorporating these tips into your fitness business it is going to be monumental to gain more freedom and allowing you to focus on things that really matter.
When you have more time to think and recharge, you will be able to serve clients to an even higher standard, get them better results and earn more money in the process.
Personal Training is one of the most rewarding careers available, you not only help your clients physically improve but you build a close relationship with them and become invested in their mental and physical well being. Seeing the improvements in your clients after they take your advice and make the changes suggested is a feeling that never gets old, if this is something you would like to get involved in please head over to our website and find out more about our personal training courses and CPD’s.
What is your best time management tip? Share them with us in the comments below?⏰