Karen offers some energy tracking tips for effective time management.
I’d like to add two more tips that have helped me but that are perhaps more in tune with an EQ mindset than an IQ one.
Respect your energy flow - it's true that you can often get more done in the time left after a training day than you think you can but I've found that I have a different kind of energy then, depending on what kind of a training day its been and I've found it helpful to take that into account.
To take an extreme example, if the day has been hard work and I'm tired and drained, I find that all I'm fit for is mindless, autopilot tasks that I'd normally procrastinate about because they're so dull but which have a comforting effect at the end of a tough day.
If, at the other extreme, I'm on a high from a great day's training, I channel the buzz energy into solving complex problems or creative thinking as I find I achieve so much more then than I would if I did that kind of task when I'm feeling 'ordinary'.
A change is as good as a rest - on days when I simply have a to do list to plough through and the order I do it in doesn't much matter, I monitor my energy levels as I'm working and as soon as I catch myself feeling stuck, bored or tired, I stop and ask myself 'what can I be doing instead of this that will still move me forward' and, sure enough, there's something on the to do list that will change my working dynamic and recharge my energy levels.
This is a variation of the time management idea of working in bite-size pieces and changing tasks every 10 or 15 minutes but it's more flexible in that you're listening to your own working rhythm rather than setting arbitrary timescales.
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Time Management for Trainers
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