Effective Time Management
Posted on | September 24, 2009 | No Comments
Running a professional martial arts school requires a variety of skill sets. A successful Team Leader needs to be a good teacher, communicator, salesperson, motivational speaker, bookkeeper, receptionist, and even a guidance counselor. The trick to running a successful school is knowing when to use which skill.. For this reason, is important to learn to become both effective and efficient with your time. Being “effective” means doing the right thing. Being “efficient” means doing things right. For example, you can be very efficient at writing cards to inactive students, but if you’re doing it when the school is full of students, you should be on the floor or in the stands speaking with parents, and therefore you are not being very effective. We have found that breaking your time down into three categories is extremely helpful in developing a high level of effectiveness and efficiency. The three categories are Downtime, Primetime, and Premium time.
- Downtime: Downtime is categorized as any time that no classes are being taught. For a martial arts school this usually means any time before 330 in the afternoon.
- Primetime: Primetime is categorized as any time the classes are in session. Primetime is usually between the hours of 3:30 pm and 9:00 pm nine at most martial arts schools.
- Premium time: Premium time is categorized as any time that you are at or near capacity. In most martial arts schools, premium time occurs between the hours of 5:00 pm and 7:30pm.
Let’s discuss what we should be covering in the each of these three time zones:
Downtime is probably the most underused, underdeveloped time zone in our business. Many professional martial arts instructors don’t even open their school until between 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm.. Just in time to quickly vacuum the floors, straighten out the reception area, and turn on the open sign. Then they try to cram in all the Downtime activities into Primetime. This makes for less effective classes as well as poorly executed business practices. The most successful schools in the country make great use of Downtime. A brief sample of Downtime activities include: cleaning and repairing the school, confirming appointments, checking inventory, setting up and handling renewal conferences, writing notes to students {both active and inactive}, training staff, and most importantly recruiting new students. Maximizing your Downtime allows you to make better use of Primetime and Premium time. Compare it to a football game on Sunday. There are only 60 minutes of actual playing time; but, it requires a week of practice and takes nearly four hours to play. No matter how badly a team wants to win on Sunday, if they neglected to practice the week prior and are not strategizing when the clock is stopped during the game, they won’t win. Downtime is where most schools fall short. It is worth carefully evaluating to see how efficiently and effectively you’re using this time.
During Primetime there still might be an occasional moment to where you can work on downtime activities. This might happen when there are plenty of instructors on the floor or the class is small. The priority, however, during Primetime should be on student service, making sure that their needs are being met.
Premium time is also known as “All hands on deck.” Everyone on the team should be focused on student service. Remember, if you don’t handle Premium time well, you’ll end up having plenty of Downtime!. Make sure your entire team is aware of Primetime and the need to deliver great energy during this time. Premium time will vary depending on the time of day, size of the class, and the number of available instructors. Developing maximum effectiveness during Premium time is crucial to the success of a martial arts school.
Take a moment and rate yourself on your use of these three time zones.
Where are you strong?
Where could you use improvement?
Remember, proper planning promotes peak performance. If you really discipline yourself to follow the Downtime, Primetime, and Premium time concept you will see your Team Leadership skills and the school you are responsible for grow to the next level.
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About Dave Kovar
Mr. Kovar has been teaching Martial Arts professionally since 1978. Dave is a multi-style Black Belt who has been committed to ever-improving his Martial Arts skills. He updates this blog to provide tips and insights to martial arts instructors around the country. To learn more, click here.
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