I just gave a presentation this past week at the Club Industry show in Chicago.  My presentation was on helping club owners increase productivity so that they can get more done quickly, so that they have the opportunity to live a life outside of the club walls.

It was a great group and based on the comments I received after the event, the tips I shared seemed to open a lot of their minds to the different ways in which club owners can become more productive.

Keep in mind, some of these tips are uncommon, and perhaps a bit odd, but pick a couple of them and try them for yourself.  Here are 7 tips that had the most pencils furiously jotting down notes.

1. Understand and obey Parkinson’s Law

The definition of Parkinson’s Law is that “Work will fill the time available for completion”.  For example, if you say you want to create a new cleaning list before Thursday, it will take until Thursday for it to get finished.  Instead, if you say you will have the cleaning list completed by 4:00 today, it will be finished by 4:00 today.

This has been studied in multiple settings and it is true nearly 100% of the time!  So when you have a task to do, set a specific deadline for it to be finished, and you will find that it will be finished near the time you decide it needs to be completed by.

2. Do it, Dump it, or Delegate it

When a new task or project or email or whatever presents itself to you, you have 3 choices of how to handle it.

You can Do it (or at least put it on your to do list with a specific deadline if you can’t do it right away).

You can Dump it…meaning it is definitely not a priority to take care of now or ever.

Or you can delegate it…If it needs to be done, but it is a mindless task that can be given to someone else on your staff or in your life to do, give it to them to do!  Your time and skills as the owner are too important to spend on menial tasks.

And by the way, you can delegate more than you think: thank you letters, phone calls, billing, marketing, scheduling, paying bills,competitor research, networking events, filing, data entry, appointment confirmations, cleaning, ordering…and even personal tasks such as cleaning your house, mowing your lawn, washing your car, etc.  If you can make $100/hour doing something else, why spend 2 hours mowing your lawn when the neighbor kid would be thrilled to do it for $20?

3. Email is Evil

Don’t check your email until noon, don’t respond to non-urgent emails until later (this time saver is called “batching”), have all club emails go to a staff member, create a junk email account for all emails and newsletters you “like” to read, but at your leisure.

4. Control Your Day

Prioritize your tasks the night before, set deadlines and stick to them, set a timer to create urgency, learn to say NO, batch all repetitive tasks to do at the same time so you don’t get distracted, and most importantly…always remember that there will never be another Today.  Don’t waste it.

5. Buy a separate computer monitor

Did you know that you can plug a monitor straight into your laptop or PC and it becomes an extended desktop?  I’m using mine right now. I have the powerpoint presentation on the second monitor, and I’m writing this newsletter as I’m glancing over to the other screen for ideas.  It is so much better than scrolling down to click on a separate open window, back and forth, back and forth.  And a monitor will probably run you $100.

6. Get Google-ized
Google is amazing.  If you’re in denial about this, you’re only hurting yourself.  I use Gmail for all of my emails…You can easily set up gmail to receive email from your work accounts and you can send from any account you want, all from within the same account.

Google docs is a great way to share files with those you choose to share them with.  For example, you can have a sales spreadsheet for each of your salespeople that only you and that person can view…or invite a sales manager to also view the document.

Then there is Google Calendar that can sync with your cell phone, Google Analytics that can show you all activity on your website, Google video chat, text to someone’s phone from your computer, and so much more, all located on your personal iGoogle homepage.  Google has definitely made my life much easier.

7. Magic 100 and the Seinfeld System

A colleague of mine, Dax Moys from the UK, developed a system called the Magic 100.  Essentially, you make a list of 100 things you would like to accomplish over the next 100 days.  These can be larger projects, or they can be smaller to do’s on your list.  For example, on my last list I had things such as: buy new brown dress shoes, finalize new logo for www.GymSuccess.com, wax car, buy plane ticket to Missouri, edit 4th quarter marketing plan for my client.

So some items take a little time, others can take a few minutes.  But the idea is that you can look back on the previous 100 days and feel that you accomplished a lot.

You can combine this with the Seinfeld System.  Jerry Seinfeld had to be diligent with his comedy.  When he was doing stand up, he said he kept a calendar at his house.  And for every day that he wrote new content for his shows or came up with a new joke, he put a big red X on that day of the calendar.  He didn’t want to break the chain, so he continued to write new content every day so that he could fill up the calendar.

So in this case, you want to make sure you finish one item off of your magic 100 list every single day so that you don’t break the chain.

So there are 7 things I discussed with those in attendance.  I would love to hear from YOU!  What productivity tips have helped you to be a more organized and more productive fitness professional?  Post your comment below!

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock