Time Management for Personal Trainers

Dear Friend,

Recently, I did a survey asking what your biggest challenge is, and the number one challenge was time management for personal trainers.

(If you didn’t take the survey, take it now here: Take the Survey
It will help me continue to create really great articles and content for you.)

Anyway, time management is easier than you think.

In fact…

I’m currently working just 4 days a week and making over $80,000 per year because of good time management…

It’s a dream schedule.

And you can easily have the same income and schedule in six months!

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty sweet to me!  And I’m going to reveal the 3 easy steps I use to create the dream schedule!

Step 1 – Get a Calendar/Planner

I know this sounds simple, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t use a calendar, or use it incorrectly.

Listen…

A calendar let’s you do two things:

1. Batch your schedule (which we’ll talk about in step 2)
2. Allow you to reserve time for yourself – eating, workouts, etc…

I personally recommend the full week, notebook calendar that gives you scheduling options every 15 minutes for each day… you can get it here on Amazon.

I don’t recommend using your phone because too many things can go wrong!

Once you get the calendar, you can fill in 15-30 minute slots for you to eat or workout.

Next, decide when you want to work and what time slots you want to start filling up so you can start…

Step 2 – Schedule Batching

This one concept changed my life.

Before batching, I worked a typical schedule.  I’d have a few clients in the morning.  Some in the mid-morning.  A few in the early afternoon.  And several in the evening.  I worked six days a week and hardly had any time off or for myself.

This type of schedule is terrible!

It prevents you from being productive.

You have gaps that are too short to do anything, but too long to do nothing.  And It’s a trap.

You see, when you schedule…

You can either let your clients dictate your schedule… or you can dictate it and fit your clients where you want them!

The way you do this is simple:

1. You decide what “batches” you want to work
   For me, I like 7:00 a.m. – Noon, then 3:00-6:00 p.m.
2. You decide what days you want to work
   I chose Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday since those were the most in-demand days
3. You only allow clients to schedule those times and rarely make exceptions

The truth is… When I made this change I was scared.

I thought I would lose a ton of clients.  But the exact opposite happened:

I was in more demand because my schedule was more scarce…

…And scarcity creates more demand!

I’ve held this schedule for the last 4 years without losing any clients or income. 

In addition, I’ve been able to use my extra time to work on my own health, build this blog, and help people like you.

It’s absolutely fantastic!

The last tool for time management is what’s called:

Step 3 – The 80/20 Rule

If you’ve been training for a while, you know there are certain clients that are easy, and there are certain clients that take a lot more time and effort… many times for less pay.

Look, I’m not saying any client is “bad” because it’s our job to help people.

But… it’s not OK for you to suffer either.

There needs to be a win-win.

Here’s what I’m talking about:  Let’s say you have 10 clients, and you’re changing your schedule.  There are probably two clients that don’t train very often, ask a lot of you, and are hard to satisfy.

Make the other eight clients a priority for your schedule.

Why?

Simple… because those two clients probably won’t be satisfied not matter what your new schedule looks like and it’s probably a blessing to stop working with them.

Here’s the 80/20 rule:

20% of your clients account for 80% or your revenue, and 20% of your clients account for 80% of your headaches

Your job is to identify the demographic of the 20% that make up 80% of your income then try to get those types of people as clients.

At the same time, you should identify the 20% of your clients that make 80% of your headaches and stop working with them because they are causing your business to suffer substantially!

Likewise…

20% of your activities will yield 80% of your results…

…so you need to focus your time on those activities and stop wasting your time on activities that don’t produce results.

One way to use the 80/20 rule for time management is to make a list of things to do.  Then, pull out the 20% of activities that will yield the most results and focus on those first.  If you have any time left over, you can do the other, less-effective, activities.

When trainers finish my e-class, 91% of them successfully adapt their schedule so they’re only working 3 days a week and making $4,000 a month or more.

And they get this schedule in just 6 months!

Actually, the only thing holding you back is knowledge.  When you know the techniques, you get the results easily and extremely fast.  And this is the key.

Sincerely,
Stu

P.S. Leave me a comment or question and let me know about your time management.  Get yourself a planner and follow these tips… they’ll only work if you take action.