by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
A lot of coaches tell me that they are not spending enough time on recruiting because there is so much other stuff to do.
If this is the case for you, I want to point you to a video from the late and great Steven Covey. You can click here to watch it.
In this 9-minute video, Covey talks about how to schedule your Big Rocks or your MITs for the week. Since most coaches now have a little time off and have gone into reflection mode as to how you can make next year better, I thought I would give you a simple system to better plan out your days in the upcoming year so you are staying on top of your key recruiting activities.
Here’s a quick summary of how you do it:
- Make a list. At the beginning of the week — Sunday evening or Monday morning — write out the Big Rocks that you want to accomplish this week. These should be the important things — if you looked back on the week and said you did them, you would be proud of having done them. Be sure to include not only work stuff, but some of the tasks that will further along your life’s goals and dreams.
- Keep it short. In the beginning, just have 4-6 … you don’t need to try to do 10 or more Big Rocks, especially not at first. Later, you may get better at judging how many Big Rocks you can do in a week, but for now, shoot for about one per day.
- Place the Rocks. Look at your weekly schedule. If you don’t have one, write out the days of the week with one-hour blocks (or print out a schedule from an online calendar). Write out pre-existing appointments. Now take your Big Rocks, and put them in the schedule. Try to put them in a spot where you know you’ll get them done. Not a spot that’s traditionally too busy to concentrate, and not in a little half-hour window between meetings. Give yourself time to do it.
- Leave space for the incoming pebbles. Don’t fill in the rest of the schedule if possible. Every morning, look at your schedule and commit yourself to doing the Big Rock(s) for that day. That’s your MIT for the day. If there are less important MITs, you can put them in the schedule, but don’t put too much. A tight schedule tends to bump into itself, pushing things back when other things inevitably take too long.
- Do it early. If you can, place your Big Rocks first thing in the morning. Don’t schedule them for later in the day if possible, because by that time, a few fires have come up, and the Big Rock will get pushed back as always. Do it first, and then you’ve got the rest of the day for the busy-work.
- Be Proud. When your week’s done, look back on it — if you got any (or all!) of the Big Rocks done, be proud of yourself and happy. It feels good!
How does this simple method make you more productive as a Coach? Well, productivity isn’t about doing a lot of stuff. It’s about getting the important stuff done. But if you’re running around doing all the little stuff … sure, you did a lot and you were very busy, but how much did you really accomplish and did you make any progress? Oftentimes we can look back on our week and say, “I didn’t get a lot done, but I sure was stressed doing it!”
This is a way of getting the important stuff done. Sure, you’ll still have to worry about the little stuff. But at the end of the week, you can look back and say that you’ve been productive and made progress on program progressing activities. It makes a world of difference.
To contact Mandy Green and find out how she is helping coaching staffs around the country become better, more organized recruiters, email her at mandy@dantudor.com.