Budgeting Your Time

A lot of athletes have asked me what my daily routine consists of and how I get balance everything. So I thought I would give a little bit on insight that many of you can take and apply to your lives, as well as a glimpse into my routine.



1) PLAN! This is the number one downfall that I see with most individuals and athletes.  They may be able to tell you everything they need to do, but rarely do they have a REALISTIC plan on how it will get done.

  • Set up a plan and hold yourself accountable.  Make a LIST, write down certain times that you will do things and make sure that you budget enough time for the most important tasks that you need to get done.


2) BE PRODUCTIVE! In general, people are more productive in the morning; use this to your advantage.  If you have a task that takes a lot of brainpower, get it done first. If you have to deal with other people, try to do it in the morning.  You will likely find that a task which takes 60min in the morning, will end up taking 2 hours or more in the evening or when you are tired.

  • Get the stuff that you DON'T want to get done, FIRST.

  • Plan your more complex tasks in the morning and save the "mindless work" for when you are tired.

  • Stay focused.  When you are training, focus on training. When you are working, focus on working and when you are a family man/woman, PLEASE DON'T be thinking "how long until I get to ride my bike?" :)


3) HAVE AN OFF SWITCH! This is a tough one for me, but it has made a huge difference in the quality of sleep I get at night.  Set a time where you don't do anything work related. I like something around an hour before I plan to go to sleep.



4) GET AWAY REGULARLY!  For those of you who are type A, it is likely that the number of days within your week where you do nothing, is zero.  Change this!  Try spending a day doing nothing outside of the necessities. If that's not practical, then set a time; an example would be nothing after 10am on these days.  Spend the day with your spouse or family.  You will be AMAZED at how much lower stress the rest of your week will be if you make sure that this is a priority.



5) STICK TO IT! It's great that you make a list, but it's important to stick to it. Hold yourself accountable and if you find that you are not accomplishing what you need, consider reducing the amount you are trying to get done on a daily basis by yourself and see if you can find an alternative way to accomplish some of these tasks.



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MY SCHEDULE

6:00 - 7:00am wake up
  • 7:00am - Coffee and breakfast. A challenge that I give myself is, "how much can i get done before the coffee is done brewing?" Dishwasher, laundry, core work, stretching, garbage out, something to fill the time.
7:00am - Answer emails and get most of my writing done in the morning. KEY WORK TIME!

8:30am - Start first training session.  Usually about two hours from door to door.

10:30am - Stretch, eat and answer emails and start on any coaching plans, KEY WORK TIME!

12:15pm - Training session #2, again about 2hrs. Bank or store stop on the way home.

2:45pm - Ice, eat, nap. Never sleep longer than 45min.

3:30pm - Quick look over any urgent emails, before last session of training throughout the day.

4:00pm - Final training session of the day. About 60-90min.

6:00pm - Dinner, start to unwind. Answer the last few emails for the day and shoot for being offline after 7:00pm.

9:00pm - Start thinking about bed.

10:00pm - In bed


* Obviously this doesn't happen every day, but you can get the gist of how I plan my day.


Triathlon is a lifestyle.  It requires that you integrate it into your lives when it works for YOU. Make a plan (perhaps with your spouse) and give it a try!!


   


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