The last blog discussed strategies for time management for a healthy body. How are you doing???

This blog will address time management for a healthy business. Clients I work with generally have two issues: They either are starting a business and struggle with keeping their ‘day job’ while working ON the business, to get it ready to actually start seeing clients. OR, quite often, they already have a business but need to squeeze out time to take it to the next level and find it VERY challenging to find that time that’s necessary.

The first step is similar to what I had mentioned in the last blog; keeping that ‘time diary’ in order to find out exactly where their time goes. Only after we have enough information can we take the next step, which is to help them figure out how to make the most out of the limited time they DO have!

One area that zaps a lot of time is email and now social networking sites, which is all I’ll address in this blog. I have more areas and tips in a whole chapter of my book, “Just Jump” at http://www.californiabasedpublishing.com.

Do you have your emails filtered so that all of your listserv email (electronic email lists) is going straight into folders? I can’t imagine NOT having my email all organized! I get over 100 emails a day and couldn’t function without this time-management tool. And, just to prove it to myself, I recently updated/re-vamped my email reader on my laptop and hadn’t set up the filters. OH MY GOSH! I couldn’t keep up with it!

Once you have all of your non-essential email going into folders, life suddenly will become simplier. But then there’s still the social networking aspect of life.

Do you have Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? Great! They are effective tools today for building relationships and informing people what you have to offer. However, you should control them, rather than allowing them to control you. This means adding time spent on them to your schedule! I allot UP TO 1 hour a day for these. And if I don’t have that one hour, then it will have to wait. I then can ‘play’ over the weekend, if I wish. However, if there are other projects I have to get done, because I have a priority list (I create one every day), I just hope for the hour the next day…. Or by the weekend…

This brings up a great point: Priorities and HOW you organize your day. Do you have a list of prioritized ‘things to do’? If not, how do you know what’s most important?? If you have time management issues, I strongly suggest you read Stephen Covey’s book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People”. If you don’t have time to read it, get the book on tape and listen in your car!

Next blog, we should address that time management tool of prioritizing.

Margie

In the last blog, I mentioned that one of the first areas to control when you want to get your health into shape and also create a healthy business is time management. You’ve heard this before. But what are you doing about it? Maybe this will help give you some ideas. I’d like to hear if any help.

I started my business in 1996 and still one of the biggest excuses I hear from people who struggle with their weight and health is they have no time. No time for exercise. No time to cook and eat healthy meals. However, if this is an excuse YOU use, I challenge you to re-think the time you have.

And I’m going to stop here to explain why I say this. ALL business owners have time challenges. People often ask me how I do all that I do, and I have to say that I HAVE to manage my time very carefully, otherwise these things would not get done. And not getting things done is NOT an option.  But eating well and getting my exercise in is as a high priority as offering excellent customer service and care, and continually creating new programs and services. Oh, and doing well in school…  Get the point? Free time has to be MADE in my life, it doesn’t just appear…

One thing I have clients do is fill out a schedule I provide them with. It breaks the week down by hour, for the entire week. They fill in all the commited time, such as seeing clients/customers, commmute time, family time, sleep, and prep time, such as showers, making meals for the family, etc. Then we look at what is left over. For many clients, often there isn’t much time left over! However, this is an excellent exercise that helps them realize how they can allot some of this time differently.

I challenge you to do this. It’s sort of like a food diary, but it’s a ‘time diary’.

For fitness, research has shown that if you can find three, 10-minute slots for some type of cardio, it is as effective as one, 30-minute slot. And, if you’re not doing ANY cardio, even if you only got one of those three slots in, it’s STILL more than you’ve been doing! So, that’s an increase!

Do you have errands to run this week? Why not park much further away than you would otherwise. Check your watch and see how long it takes you to walk to where you’re going. Granted, if you have a lot of shopping, and bags to carry back to the car, this won’t work. But what if you parked and walked the parking lot, first? Or walked the mall, first???

Another tip would be to set a timer or your phone. When it rings, stop what you’re doing and walk! Too ugly outside? If you don’t have some type of fitness equipment inside, put some music on and dance for 10 minutes! Not only will you get those 10 minutes in, but it will actually HELP your productivity for your work!

For meals, a great strategy, that perhaps you’ve heard before, is to prepare some meals, or parts of meals, or some foods, in advance. In one of my Twitter posts, I mentioned that I had just finished cooking some brown rice. It was after breakfast and before lunch, and I did that while working so I could put it in the refrigerator and have it for other meals. Then, if I wanted to serve it for dinner (which I do), it’s done and just needs re-heating!

Do you struggle to eat more fruits or veggies? You can do the same thing! Another staple in my house is broccoli. It’s one of my favorites to cook up and re-heat for lunches (I can’t eat it raw because of a history of TMJ). Quick and healthy, and the prep is all done. What about fruit? Same thing! Wash or cut it in advance. Another favorite of mine is a fruit salad. I cut up half a pineapple and two mangos, put foil on the top of the container and just scoop some out for breakfast. I add a small handful of pecans on it. Yum!

You can do the same thing with entrees, too. Nothing says you have to slave away OR pick up take-out (that generally is less healthy than you’d really like). Any meats or fish can be cooked without a lot of effort from you; it just needs some seasonings and you can pop it into the oven to bake! If you already have the starches prepared and the veggies ready, the family will actually have a healthy meal generally in an hour. Don’t have an hour? Then cook the meats ahead of time and let everyone heat up what they want to eat! Or, for that matter, any type of protein will work. Examples are peanut butter, cottage cheese, yogurt, even canned tuna!

That’s the health part. Next blog will discuss some time-zaps that kill the business side of life..

Margie

It has dawned on me that there has to be a way to combine my health and fitness expertise and education with my business expertise and education. By March, I will officially have my MBA (masters in business administration), with emphasis in entrepreneurship. Great, but how does that jive with my degree in nutrition, the fact that I am a registered dietitian, and a certified personal trainer???

And, what does that mean if I can’t use BOTH?

This hasn’t been a new topic: All of my mentors and coaches have brought this up in the past, but it didn’t have actual ‘legs’. By this I mean it was not yet ready to take shape and apply to the people I worked with, since many are health and fitness professionals, themselves.

But then a new client came to me, asking for coaching on both! Granted, I already DO do this with a few of my wellness coaching clients, but this new client put it out there from the beginning, where my wellness clients have just gradually advanced to where they were doing great with their wellness goals, but wanted to keep working together and we just progressed to business goals.

So, what does this look like? Easy! If you have or are starting a business, you know that sometimes managing your time is a challenge. It should be easier if you have an existing business, but the REAL challenge is when you are just starting up.

However, this brings up time management, self-care, AND, for my health and fitness clients, practicing what you preach! Afterall, if you can’t find time to eat healthy meals and incorporate fitness into your lives, and you are helping OTHERS do this, what type of example are you setting??

So, in promoting how to JUST JUMP, from now on, this blog is going to focus on how to incorporate aspects of health and fitness into a thriving business, an existing one or a start-up. It CAN be done! And I am here as living proof! My business is actually doing quite well AND I get on my cross-trainer a minimum of 3 days a week and incorporate weight training into my week as a regular part of life.

How can YOU do it? The first step is time management, which we’ll discuss in the next blog.

Meanwhile, here’s to your most AMAZING business AND creating a healthy and fit body!
Margie