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Manage your time – live your life
In a martial arts school operation there are two major time management problems that school owners encounter for themselves:
First, Deciding that their work day is from 5 pm to 9 pm – then spending their day with a variety of time-wasting activities. The reality of a school is that there are lots of
Important activities that should be accomplished during non-prime-time hours.
Remember that during class hours – if you are not teaching or personally interacting with students and parents then you are misusing your time. These are typically the only hours where you can really communicate with your students.
What do you do during non-class hours?
Almost all external promotional and marketing activities, including
Meeting with local elementary schools;
Meeting with local merchants – to line up co-promotional opportunities;
Exploring advertising and marketing opportunities;
Writing up marketing letters for your old prospects;
Organizing your exam list and reviewing attendance records of your students;
Reviewing your inactive student list – and making a plan for their reactivation;
Updating your computer system – and, keeping your stats up to date.
The main issue is that you must distinguish between prime-time activities and non-prime time activities. All administrative duties should be accomplished only during non-prime time hours.
Second, Failing to manage time effectively on an hour by hour basis and minute by minute basis.
How do you manage your time effectively:
Use an effective planning system. I prefer Franklin Planners. They are more expensive than some of the other systems – but given the value of the addition to your life it is well worth the expense.
When using the Franklin system – I really end up planning on a quarterly and monthly basis for many activities – more so than really focusing on every quarter hour.
During the evening as long as you keep your objectives clear – it can be relatively easy to manage your evening hours;
2. Use an adequate school management software system to keep your intro appointments and your prospects under control. Currently there are several fine systems on the market – naturally I prefer the system that I designed from the ground up – Master Vision. However I would be the first to admit that other systems have similar capabilities to allow you to organize your day effectively.
3. Prioritize appropriately.
I highly recommend that you read “First Things First” by Steven Covey – or, at least study this chapter in 7-Habits of Highly Effective People.
To summarize Covey's concepts:
All activities fall into one of four quadrants
Urgent and Important
Not Urgent and Important
Urgent and Not Important
Not Urgent and Not Important
A karate school in prime-time (ie. 4 pm to 8 pm ) is full of quadrant 1 and quadrant 3 activities. On a minute by minute basis the evening is full of ringing telephones, constant questions, classes that must begin and end on time, and the constant parade of important and unimportant urgencies.
During your evening to be effective remember there are really only three important elements:
Enrollments.
Retention.
Renewals.
If an activity does not positively contribute to one of these then it falls into the Not Important category.
What mediocre school operators fail to focus on are those areas that are important areas but not urgent.
Generally important but not urgent areas include:
Internal and external marketing efforts;
Student retention;
Renewal preparation.
A note about students and your time:
With few exceptions your time can be eaten up by students who fit in one of two categories. Your AAA Black Belt Club 5 days per week loyalists.
And, Your D- negative and disgruntled students.
You must be careful not to devote too much prime time to students in either of these categories.
Your AAA students will spend time talking and in your presence just because they really can't get enough of you and your school.
Your D- negative students – often have a negative outlook in all areas of their life and just want to complain to anyone who will listen. In any conversation of this type – work on keeping the conversation short and on subject.
A few ways to accomplish this is – don't sit down, don't go in your office, address the issues at hand quickly and directly, suggest scheduling a specific appointment time – when it's appropriate for your time availability.
Third, By spending excess time on “hobby” marital arts activities while rationalizing that you are really working on the school.
Fourth, Failing to structure your day effectively.
To structure your day effectively – it's important to figure out how you personally function best and then plan your activities around your own peak times of efficiency.
A few years ago there seemed to be this myth that successful school owners rose at dawn – and were in their office by 8:00 am .
This works real well for some of my closest friends – but, for me this has always been massively counter productive.
All martial arts school operators must be at their absolute peak between the hours of 4 pm and 8 pm . You must figure out when your creative hours are for planning and development and also structure your days to hit your peak during prime-time hours.
For myself – I am mostly creative late at night. At the time when most of my friends are climbing into bed I'm just getting going. Most of this book was written between 11 pm and 3 am . I like to get going mid-morning – take a break mid-day – then hit school operations hard during prime time. Depending upon what I need to accomplish I will either take a break and go to a movie – or, grab a quick bite to eat then work on my creative projects. Either writing lesson plans, designing ad campaigns, and writing.
For best time management you can get a lot more work done when no one is around to interrupt and when the phones aren't ringing. If you are an early bird – 5 or 6 am might be best for you – again for me – anything creative gets accomplished after 11 pm . If I return your email it may be at 2 or 3 am .
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