Your Monday Plan Won't Survive the Week on Its Own

Hey Coach, 

Have you ever made a great plan for the week on Sunday night or Monday morning...and then looked up on Thursday and realized you haven't looked at it since? 

I've done this more times than I'd like to admit. I teach this for a living and it still happens to me.  

You start the week knowing exactly what needs to happen. You need to follow up with your top recruits. Finish practice plans. Have an important conversation with an athlete. Get three workouts in. Maybe even get home at a decent hour a few nights. 

Then Monday happens. 

A player needs you. Practice changes. Your AD emails. A recruit texts. Someone schedules a meeting. You open your inbox to answer one thing and suddenly you're working off everyone else's priorities. 

By Tuesday, you're no longer following the plan. 

You're following the day. 

And I think that's where a lot of coaches get productivity wrong. 

Planning Once Isn't Enough 

I recently listened to a training from one of my mentors Brendon Burchard where he talked about something he does every single day: he looks at his goals. 

Not because he can't remember them. He does it because he knows how easily his attention can get pulled somewhere else. 

That hit me. 

Maybe the purpose of planning isn't just to decide what matters. Maybe it's to keep reminding ourselves what matters after the day starts fighting back. 

Because coaching will make you forget. 

Not literally. You know recruiting is important. You know your health matters. You know you want to be present with your family. 

But knowing something matters and giving it your attention are two very different things. 

Don't Let Monday Make Decisions for Friday 

Here's a habit I've found incredibly helpful. 

At the beginning of the week, decide what absolutely needs to be true by Friday. 

Not 27 things. 

Think about the few outcomes that would make you say, That was a productive week. 

Then every morning, look at them again. 

Ask: 

What needs my attention today so those things are true by Friday? 

Maybe five priority recruits need personal follow-up. Maybe you need to finally delegate something to an assistant. Maybe there's a conversation you've been avoiding. Maybe today's win is leaving at 5:30 so you can have dinner with your family. 

This takes a few minutes. 

But those few minutes can keep you from spending the next eight hours reacting to whatever happens to be loudest. 

This Is Why I Still Use a Planner 

People sometimes assume that because I teach productivity, I naturally wake up focused and organized every day. 

Nope. 

One of the reasons I use a planner is because I don't trust my day to remind me what matters. 

Email won't remind me. My phone won't remind me. Other people's requests definitely won't remind me. 

So I need something sitting in front of me that brings me back to my priorities. 

That's also why I created the Busy Coach Planner specifically for coaches. I didn't want another generic planner filled with things that have nothing to do with the reality of coaching. I wanted something that helps us step out of reaction mode long enough to decide what winning the day actually looks like. 

Because you don't need to perfectly execute some elaborate morning routine. 

You just need to stop for a few minutes and ask: 

What am I trying to accomplish this week? 

What matters most today? 

What could pull me away from it? 

What does winning today look like? 

Then go coach. 

Don't Wait Until Next Monday 

If Monday was a disaster, you don't have to throw away the week. 

Recalibrate Tuesday. 

Or Wednesday. 

Or today. 

You don't need a fresh week to make a fresh decision. 

A productive week isn't one where everything goes according to plan. It's one where you keep coming back to the plan when life pulls you away from it. 

So before you start tomorrow, give yourself five minutes. 

Look at where you're going. 

Decide what matters today. 

Then protect it. 

And if you'd like a tool designed specifically to help you do that as a college coach, that's exactly why I created the Busy Coach Planner. 

Take a look at the Busy Coach Planner 

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