How many times did you hit ‘snooze’ on your alarm clock today? If your answer is ‘none’ then you are probably a seasoned athlete who has mastered their time management skills.
Time management skills can be tricky to learn. Discover how sports, especially team sports can help you learn and master time management.
Understand Your Time – What You Can and Cannot Take On
First, before joining a sport of any kind, understand your own time and the commitment you can make.
How much free time do you have?
How much time does your sport need from you?
In Dragon Boat, there is training, practices, fund raising and races. All of these take time and commitment from you. Your team depends on you, be honest about your ability to commit. That way you won’t disappoint your team or yourself.
Start by creating a schedule, there are apps for that or even good ol’ fashioned paper.
If you discover that you only have 2 hours per week to dedicate to a sport, then start your research!
Sport Management has 5 tips for managing your time in sport if you need more advice!
Once you have discovered your schedule, you need to prioritize your life.
Learn to Prioritize – Time to Manage Your Schedule
We can’t tell you what’s important in your life, but we can tell you that you need to asses the facets of your life based on their importance. Once you have learned that, you can then manage your time more effectively.
Balance is key to happiness. How much time do you want to dedicate to family and friends? Maybe you have a new child or a pet that requires your attention more often than not. A drink with friends, family dinners and your work schedule are all part of your priorities.
Take the time to decide what is the most important to you, what is the activity you want or need to dedicate the most time to.
Where does your sport fit in?
This relates to the first section of this post, if your sport requires 5 hours a week of dedicated time, but you only have 2 hours to spare, you either need to re-prioritize or re-think the sport you settled on.
Learning prioritization improves your time management exponentially. Think about work/school or your home life. What projects are most urgent, assignment due first or require the most focus? What do you need to do more, fold the laundry or vacuum?
Sport prioritization translates into your everyday life.
Bright Network has complied a short, 7 time management skills list that sport teaches us that easily translate to your career.
The Run Down
If you already participate in an organized (super awesome) sport, like Dragon Boat, you may already have a plan in place to help you manage your life/work/sport balance.
Schedule, prioritize and always be honest with yourself about your time commitment.
Do you already have an awesome technique for life/work/sport balance?
If so, share it with us!