How Well Do You Use Time?

One of the concepts–or rather, realities–that I have been very conscious of lately is the reality of TIME. Specifically, how to make the most of time, how to be wiser in our use of time, and how to be a really good manager of time.

Time is a common issue among every human. The great coaches in any sport are those who can take a two-hour block of practice time and use it to its full extent, getting the absolute most out of all 120 minutes. One of my pet peeves as a coach is wasted practice time. Whenever I see a team practicing and a handful of players are standing around and disengaged for 10 or 15 minutes, I just want to pull them aside and say, What can you be doing right now to A) get better, or B) help your teammates, or C) get mental reps [and do you even know what "mental reps" are and how to take them]?

There is absolutely no room for ANY wasted time in any practice, ever. Teams that desire to compete at the highest level and accomplish more than expected are teams that use time better. That is a fact.

So, as coaches, how well do we use time? If we are casual with our own time, then it is naturally going to overflow into how we plan (or lack planning) and how we run our team practice time. So... let's stay on this train of thought for a moment and let me suggest something on a more personal level: how you run your team is a reflection of how you run your life.

Do you waste time in your own life? If so, you will probably have some measure of wasted time in your team preparation.

Are you casual about how you use time? If so, then you will probably be casual about how you go about your time with your team.

Does time seem to get away from you? Does it seem like it moves too fast in your daily life, to the point of feeling out of control? If so, then it will probably feel the same in relation to your team.

Do you complain that there's just not enough time in the day to get everything done? If so, then you will probably be a coach who feels like you just can't get everything done that you want to do in practice.

So, let's deal with our lives first. How do you use time? I realize that's sort of an unusual way to state it, and it's certainly an interesting way to think about it... how do you USE time?

We too often talk in terms of “making time” for something, or “wishing we could make time” for certain things. Those are inaccurate ideas. No one “makes” time. Nobody in the history of the world has ever been able to make or create time. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day. Successful people have 24 hours in a day, and unsuccessful people have 24 hours in a day. The difference between the two is the management of that time—how they USE the time.

Successful people often work harder and longer than other people, but they almost always work smarter than other people. So the key is to get more out of yourself, more out of the time you are using. When we are doing that in our own individual lives, then we are much more likely to have that pattern overflow into the lives of those we are leading, and into the WAYS we lead others (i.e. practice time).

What are some ways to make sure we are getting the most out of our 24 hours in a day? Here are a few practical ideas:

1. "Run the day, or the day will run you," as Jim Rohn says. Stay in charge. Be the master of what you do. Don’t be lured in by meaningless time-suckers (scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, or other social media rabbit holes, Netflix binge-watching, etc.). Write down your goals you want to accomplish every day and then prioritize them, keep them with you (either on your phone or in a small notebook journal), and then DO them and check them off.

2. Being busy doesn’t mean being productive. Don’t mistake activity for productivity… movement for achievement. Evaluate your time and how you use it in a day. Ask yourself how much of it is wasted on meaningless activity and could have been managed better. This kind of evaluation was extremely eye-opening to me during my vacation this past summer. I put down my phone for 5 days and gave myself a "digital detox." It was amazing! And the most glaringly obvious observation I made was how much time that simple little device has the ability to suck out of you during the day.

3. Focus. Learn how to really concentrate. Be intentional about keeping your focus 100% on wherever your feet are at the moment. Often, whenever we are doing one thing, our mind is in another place, planning something else, or thinking about something else. Often, whenever we are speaking with someone, our minds are not really fully engaged and actively listening to them, but we are often thinking about how we plan to respond, or sometimes our minds are in another place altogether. It's possible that even during the 5 minutes while reading this post your mind has wandered or you've become distracted by something else. It happens more than we realize, and we rarely notice it. But once we become conscious of the fact that it happens, then we can be on the lookout for it and remind ourselves to FOCUS. A real simple way to think about how to focus better is to simply BE WHERE YOUR FEET ARE. If your feet are at work, then be the best employee your work has ever seen. If your feet are at home, then be the best husband, wife, dad, mom that you can be. Wherever your feet are in the moment, be the best AT THAT. Then... whenever you are coaching your players–for example, on hitting–you can easily see and transfer how this plays itself out in that moment. When their feet are in the batter’s box, their focus is to be on ONE thing in that moment. Simplify every aspect of coaching and the game to a singular focus, moment by moment. It does wonders in pressure situations, especially when the moment is so big that it becomes tempting to think ahead to what could happen or to think backward to what just happened a moment ago. If we all have that same mindset in every moment of every day, it makes a HUGE difference in everything we do, and in all of the people we interact with. Zero in on every task that is at hand, let nothing stand in your way and let nothing distract you.

Being the best you can be begins with using time more wisely. Your team being the best team it can possibly be is largely dependent upon how well you (coaches) use the time you have with them. When we get better at this in our own lives, then we will naturally get better at this in our coaching.

Want to be a better coach? Want to get better at leading people? Here's a practical action that is completely within your control to do... plan and use your time better.