Discipline the one thing that gives you more time in the day. One of the most common questions that I get asked by clients is, “How can I get everything done in the time I have?”
Most of my clients feel so overwhelmed by running a business or going to work and/or having a family that they often think they don’t have time to look after themselves.
When you learn good time management skills you will feel less pressure, less anxiety, and a sense of mental freedom to make the right decisions. What does this mean? It means you are more productive and less stressed. You have to have more discipline in your life. You need to say “no” more.
Here are some of my favorite tips to help you manage your time more effectively and efficiently:
Prioritize
You are important. It has been proven multiple times over that parents that come home stressed from work, cause their children to stress in turn. But parents that come home from work that are not stressed are able to spend more quality time with their children(even if it is a little less time the quality wins over the quantity) . If you don’t have children the same applies with your spouse or significant other. Reduction of stress by working out reduces stresses in everyones life around yours. Do everyone in your life a favor and take care of yourself first!
Stay focused
You have committed to showing up 12x a month or 16x a month do not allow things to disrupt those plans. Schedule your time into your calendar – do not make excuses for yourself instead, JUST SHOW UP! The first step is making the small thing happen – reduce your stress by doing what you intended to do.
Say “NO”
The time for yourself is important and the discipline created by saying “No” to work or social engagements is important to reinforce to yourself that you are a priority. 3 hours a week or 4 hours a week is very little time to have great rewards in your health, career and social relationships.
Never Procrastinate
Do not ever put off self care – do not ever put off the training that you committed to yourself for a later time. If you schedule out 9:30am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday show up Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:30am – you owe it to yourself. Okay but my kid got sick now what? Show up the next available time no matter what! Doesn’t matter that you looked at the workout and it is hard – doesn’t matter that its not your normal “Crew”, doesn’t matter that you won’t get a rest day in between. JUST DO THE WORK! Show up and make it happen.
GOAL
Set a goal – and then constantly refer back to it – Your goal is to come in 4x a week. What does training 4x a week mean for the month? It means you trained 16x a month. That means that you will train 192x a year. 192 hours in a year dedicated to yourself.
That isn’t being selfish, that is being smart and maximizing your potential. I have people come in and say that they do feel better training 4x a week. The training makes a difference in how they feel, how they react to stressful situations at work, or at home. The small goal is also giving them potential to have other goals .- maybe they want to lose that 5#’s before do you think you would be successful losing 5#’s if you were training 4x a week? Probably more successful than you would be not coming in 4x a week.
Want to know more about discipline and how it creates freedom? Here is the book that helped inspired the blog post. Discipline equals Freedom.
Thanks for checking out OC in Bend, Oregon. OC is Central Oregon’s premier Personal Training, Sports Performance and CrossFit facility.