Time is precious! You should manage time as sparingly and thoughtfully as you would your money. You'll learn how to do that and how you can use this knowledge specifically for your club in this article.
Imagine you receive €86,400 every single day. You can do whatever you want with it – the decision of how you handle this money is entirely yours. The only condition: You must spend the money that day – you can't save anything for the next days.
Sometime that day, someone comes along and steals €100 from you. But you still have the rest. Would you then say, "Well, I'll just throw the rest of the money away too"? Hardly!
Now imagine that instead of €86,400, you have 86,400 seconds. Because that's the exact number of seconds each new day brings. Do you see what we're getting at? We often carelessly throw away time, just because a person or another time-waster steals 100 seconds from us.
That's precisely the problem. We have so much time every single day, and in the evening, we reflect on all the things we could have done. Be honest with yourself: if you received €86,400, you'd try to use it wisely. So why not treat time with the same mindfulness?
First, you should take a look at exactly how you're spending your working hours for the club. “What am I actually doing/accomplishing during my club working hours?” Only those who understand their own time usage can make long-term changes.
In most cases, you'll encounter many things that aren't actually that important, but which you regularly do. You should consider what the club needs or what will be important in the near or distant future, so you can prepare for it.
For example, if you manage a youth football team and an important match is coming up, the right training and perfect match preparation should be your top priority. All other team-related matters are not urgent at all for now – even if they seem to be.
Which brings us to the most crucial point: priorities!
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Tip: Pareto Principle
Also known as the 80-20 rule, this principle states that 80% of results are achieved with 20% of the total effort. It's important to internalize this, as it also means you can achieve 80% of your goals in 20% of the time, without getting bogged down in details. It's good to keep this in mind.
You can meticulously plan your working hours for the club. For each task, create an appointment of a specific duration. If you're unsure how long a task will take, simply schedule a little extra time. Buffer time is important – not only because some tasks might take longer than expected, but also because you need to account for interruptions and breaks.
How long breaks should be varies from person to person. One person might work for 30 minutes straight and then need a 10-minute break, while another works for an hour and then takes a 30-minute break. It doesn't matter how you manage it; as long as it works for you, that's all that counts.
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If you want to achieve long-term goals, you should also plan a whole week in advance. Of course, to-do lists need to be adjusted day by day, but those who plan weekly have a greater focus on their long-term goals. That's a fact.
For example, if one of your club's goals is to gain more social media followers for sponsors, you should work on it every day and publish several social media posts weekly. Also, make this known within the club and motivate members to invite their contacts. All of this can be planned perfectly in advance and implemented without stress.
Another long-term goal might be for your club to gain new members. This is certainly not a goal that can be achieved in a single day. Such a goal requires a very clear strategy and many individual tasks to gradually attract new members.
At the end of each day, you should review how much of your to-do list you actually managed to complete. Anything left over will be added to tomorrow's list.
Unfortunately, low-priority tasks can end up being dragged along for weeks without ever getting done. This way, even unimportant tasks can eventually become incredibly urgent. To avoid this, you should consistently work on these tasks whenever things are less busy.
But what if you can't finish your to-do list? Life isn't linear and can only be planned to a certain extent in advance. Don't forget that. Especially in a club, where cohesion is paramount, there's always a solution if you genuinely can't complete an urgent task yourself. Just ask your colleagues for help.
Perhaps you know the saying: Doing the „right thing“ incorrectly is better than doing the „wrong thing“ correctly. Figuratively speaking, this means it's better to move slowly in the right direction than quickly in the wrong direction. Of course, it would be best to move quickly in the right direction, but to ensure you're going the right way, it's always important to check your „path“ periodically.
You can do this monthly or quarterly – the important thing is that you do it. This is also why you should break down big goals into smaller steps. That way, you'll always know if you're still on track. Together, review the measures for achieving your goals and check them off, cross them out, or actively confirm their completion in a way that is visible to the entire board.
On behalf of the entire Vereinsplaner team, we wish you all the best with your annual planning and successful implementation. Should you have any questions about our club software or digitalization, please feel free to visit our at any time.
All the best!
Together with nine experts from the field, we have authored a 98-page ePaper on current topics related to club management. The ePaper includes 5 chapters and 15 topics covering important areas such as organization, members, funding, sponsors, taxes, and much more. You can download the handbook for free on the Club Handbook website.
