Mandy, Why Should I Even Bother Planning?

Hey Coach,

I can already hear some of you when I tell you to plan your week.

Mandy, that's great in theory. But you know coaching. I can make the perfect plan Sunday night, and by 10 a.m. Monday a player is in my office, my AD needs something, practice changed, a recruit wants to talk and somebody just scheduled a meeting.

I know.

I coached for 24 years. There were plenty of days when my carefully planned schedule was outdated before I finished my first cup of coffee.

But I think I was looking at planning the wrong way.

The purpose of a plan isn't to predict your week perfectly. It's to give you something to adjust when reality shows up.

I heard Darren Hardy, author of the Compound Effect, explain this recently with a story about building a house.

Imagine approving the blueprints for your new home. Everything looks perfect on paper. Then the house gets framed and you finally stand where your kitchen will be. You look through the window over the sink...and realize you're staring directly into your neighbor's bathroom.

Do you leave the window there because that's what the plan said?

Of course not.

You move the window.

The blueprint wasn't useless. Building the house gave you information you didn't have when you drew it.

And that's exactly how I think coaches should look at their weekly plans.

You planned to spend Monday morning recruiting. Then three players stopped by your office. Okay. What does that tell you? Maybe you need an open-door block instead of being interruptible all morning.

You planned an hour for film and it took two. Good information. Next week, give it more time—or figure out what part somebody else can handle.

You planned to contact 20 recruits and only got to eight. Don't just carry the other 12 to tomorrow. Ask why. Was 20 unrealistic? Did email eat the time? Did you spend 45 minutes researching one recruit when five minutes would have been enough?

You planned to leave at 5:30 three days this week and didn't do it once.

That's information too.

This is the part I think we miss.

Your plan isn't only telling you what to do. Your plan is showing you what needs to change.

Without one, Friday comes and all you know is that you were insanely busy.

With one, you have something to compare reality against.

I thought this would take 30 minutes. It takes an hour.

I keep getting interrupted during this block.

We shouldn't be doing this manually every week.

My assistant could own this.

This meeting doesn't need to happen.

Tuesday mornings are terrible for recruiting calls.

Now you're learning how your job actually works instead of just surviving it.

And please don't hear me saying you need to follow your calendar like a robot. That's not realistic in coaching.

Make the plan. Start the week. See what happens. Then adjust.

But don't abandon planning because the week didn't cooperate.

The fact that your plan got blown up might be the most useful thing the plan taught you.

So this week, when something goes sideways—and it will—don't just say, “Well, there goes my schedule.”

Ask:

What did this just teach me about how I should plan next week?

That's how your plan gets better.

And eventually, so does the way you run your day.

Hope this helps. 

Win the Day.

Mandy Green
Helping coaches win at work without losing at home.

If you'd like to book a free 30 minute strategy call with me, book your call here: https://calendly.com/busy-coach

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