You've got practice plans to write. Film to break down. Parent emails stacking up. Plays to design. Uniforms to order. A budget spreadsheet that keeps getting pushed to "tomorrow."
And somehow, you're supposed to find time to actually improve as a coach—watch videos, read articles, learn new drills.
Here's the truth: The off-court work of coaching youth basketball can easily eat 5-10+ hours per week. Maybe more if you're not careful.
The problem isn't that you don't work hard enough. The problem is that nobody shared with you how to manage all this stuff efficiently.
That changes today.
Let's be real: "Time management" sounds like corporate buzzword nonsense. Something for business executives, not basketball coaches.
But here's what happens when you don't have a system:
You're creating practice plans at midnight. You're responding to parent texts at 10 PM. You're scrambling to find plays ten minutes before tip-off. You're ordering uniforms two weeks late because it kept slipping through the cracks.
And the worst part? You barely have time to work on what actually matters—getting better at coaching.
Good time management isn't about squeezing more hours out of your day. It's about protecting your energy for the high-impact work that actually develops your players and improves your program.
Think about it: Would you rather spend 30 minutes perfecting a drill diagram that looks pretty, or 30 minutes watching film to identify what your team actually needs to work on?
Both take the same time. One matters way more.
That's what these techniques help you figure out.
I'm going to walk you through 12 proven productivity methods. Some come from business research. Others from psychology. All of them work.
But here's the important part: You're not supposed to use all of them.
Think of this like a toolbox. You don't need every tool for every job. You need the right tool for your specific problem.
Here's how to approach this:
Read through all 12. Get a sense of what each one does.
Pick 1-2 that jump out at you. The ones where you think, "Oh man, that's exactly my problem."
Try those for two weeks. Give them a real shot.
Come back later if you want more. Once those first techniques become habits, you can always add another.
Some coaches will find 2-3 techniques that solve 90% of their problems. Others might eventually use 5-6 different methods for different situations.
The goal isn't to master all 12. The goal is to find what works for you.
The Principle: Before making any significant decision, pause and ask yourself: How will I feel about this choice in 10 minutes, 10 days, and 10 months?
This simple time-perspective technique helps you avoid impulsive decisions and evaluate whether choices align with your long-term goals.
Where It Helps:
I've watched coaches (myself included) say yes to things in the heat of the moment, only to deeply regret it three weeks later when they're burned out and overwhelmed.
Ten minutes from now? You'll probably feel excited. Ten days from now? You might be stressed but managing. Ten months from now? Will you wish you'd said no?
That third question changes everything.
Try this if: You tend to overcommit or make impulsive decisions you later regret.
The Principle: Write down 25 goals or priorities. Circle your top 5 most important ones. Then—and this is crucial—completely ignore the remaining 20 until you've made significant progress on the top 5.
This prevents you from spreading yourself too thin across too many "good ideas" that collectively prevent you from being great at anything.
Where It Helps:
Here's what usually happens: You've got fifteen things you want to accomplish this season. You make a little progress on all of them. You master none of them.
Warren Buffett—one of the most successful investors ever—calls those other 20 items your "avoid at all costs" list. Not because they're bad. Because they distract you from what actually matters most.
Pick your top 5. Ignore everything else until those are done.
Try this if: You feel scattered across too many priorities and aren't making real progress on any of them.
The Principle: Work in focused 90-minute blocks on cognitively demanding tasks, followed by 20-minute breaks. This aligns with natural attention spans and helps reset your energy and focus for the next session.
Our brains aren't built for 4-hour marathon sessions. They're built for focused sprints with recovery.
Where It Helps:
Set a timer. Eliminate distractions. Work for 90 minutes. Then actually take the break—walk around, grab a snack, step outside.
You'll get more done in 90 focused minutes than in three hours of distracted, interrupted work.
Try this if: You struggle to focus during important work or find yourself constantly distracted.
The Principle: When you encounter a task, handle it completely the first time you touch it. Avoid the mental drain of reopening, reconsidering, and re-engaging with the same task multiple times.
Every time you open an email, close it, and think "I'll deal with that later," you're creating mental clutter.
Where It Helps:
The question isn't whether you have time to deal with it right now. The question is: Will dealing with it later save you time?
Usually? No. You'll just spend mental energy thinking about it repeatedly.
Read the email. Make the decision. Send the response. Close it. Done.
Try this if: You constantly reopen the same emails or tasks without actually finishing them, creating mental clutter.
The Principle: Dedicate one hour at the start of each week to planning your entire week in advance. Decide ahead of time what matters most and when you'll do it. This reduces daily decision fatigue.
Most coaches wake up each day and react to whatever seems most urgent. By Friday, they've been busy all week but haven't actually accomplished their most important work.
Where It Helps:
Sunday evening or Monday morning—doesn't matter which. Just pick one hour where you look at your entire week and make a plan.
What are your top 3 priorities this week? When will you do them?
That one hour of planning will save you 5+ hours of spinning your wheels.
Try this if: You constantly feel reactive and never seem to get to your important work because urgent things keep popping up.
The Principle: Never skip an important habit or routine two days in a row. Missing once is acceptable and realistic, but missing twice starts breaking the streak and makes it easier to quit entirely.
Life happens. You'll miss days. The goal isn't perfection—it's consistency.
Where It Helps:
Missed Monday? That's fine. Don't miss Tuesday.
The second miss is where habits die.
Try this if: You struggle to maintain consistency with important habits or routines.
The Principle: Physically remove your phone or other digital distractions during focused work sessions. Reduce interruptions and train your brain to stay deeply engaged with complex tasks.
Your phone isn't just a distraction when you check it. It's a distraction when it's available to check. Your brain knows it's there. Part of your attention is always monitoring it.
Where It Helps:
Put it in another room. Turn it off. Put it in a drawer. Whatever works.
The first few times might feel uncomfortable. Then you realize how much better your thinking gets when you're not constantly interrupted.
Try this if: You find yourself checking your phone constantly or getting distracted by notifications during important work.
The Principle: Group similar tasks together and complete them in one dedicated session. This reduces the cognitive switching cost of jumping between different types of work and boosts efficiency.
Every time you switch between different types of tasks—email to practice planning to ordering equipment—your brain needs time to adjust. Those micro-adjustments add up to hours of lost productivity.
Where It Helps:
Instead of: Monday (one practice plan), Tuesday (respond to 3 parent emails), Wednesday (one practice plan), Thursday (order equipment), Friday (two more parent emails)...
Try: Sunday morning (all practice plans for the week), Friday afternoon (all admin and parent communication for the week).
Same work. Half the time.
Try this if: You feel like you're constantly switching between different types of tasks and never getting into a flow.
The Principle: Create a list of tasks, habits, or commitments to actively avoid. Saying "no" protects your time and priorities just as much as saying "yes" to the right things.
Everyone talks about to-do lists. Almost nobody talks about not-to-do lists.
But the things you don't do matter just as much as the things you do do.
Where It Helps:
Write it down. Literally. "I will not respond to non-urgent parent texts after 8 PM. I will not try to teach more than 5 core plays this season. I will not attend meetings that don't have a clear agenda."
When temptation hits, you've already decided.
Try this if: You struggle to say no and find yourself overwhelmed by commitments that don't align with your priorities.
The Principle: Set a timer for 25 minutes of focused work, followed by a 5-minute break. After completing four cycles (about 2 hours), take a longer 15-30 minute break. This creates sustainable focus with built-in recovery.
If 90-minute blocks feel too long, try this. It's especially good for tasks that feel overwhelming or that you've been procrastinating on.
Where It Helps:
The beauty of 25 minutes? You can do anything for 25 minutes. Even the tasks you're dreading.
Set the timer. Work. When it goes off, actually take the 5-minute break. Repeat.
Four cycles later, you've been focused for nearly two hours and you barely noticed.
Try this if: You procrastinate on tasks or find 90-minute blocks too intimidating to start.
The Principle: Structure your daily work into three categories: 3 hours of deep work on important projects, 3 shorter tasks that need attention, and 3 maintenance tasks that keep things running smoothly.
This gives you a simple daily framework without overwhelming you with a 47-item to-do list.
Where It Helps:
Not every day needs to be perfectly balanced. But this framework helps you make sure you're not spending all your time on maintenance tasks while your important work gets ignored.
Try this if: You need a simple daily structure to balance different types of work.
The Principle: Categorize every task by urgency and importance into four quadrants:
Most coaches spend all their time in "urgent" mode. The urgent things get done. The important things get pushed to "tomorrow."
Where It Helps:
The game-changer is the second quadrant—important but not urgent. That's where growth happens. Practice planning before you need it. Player development plans. Learning new coaching techniques.
Schedule time for quadrant 2 work, or it will never happen.
Try this if: You're always busy but never seem to accomplish your most important work.
(Source: Based on President Eisenhower's prioritization method, popularized by Stephen Covey)
Once you've found 1-2 techniques that work, you might want to explore a few more. Here are six additional methods that some coaches find helpful:
If a task takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately. If it takes longer, schedule it for later.
(Source: David Allen's "Getting Things Done")
Assign every task a priority letter: A (must do), B (should do), C (nice to do), D (delegate), E (eliminate). Always finish A tasks before moving to B tasks.
(Source: Brian Tracy)
Do your most difficult or unpleasant task first thing. Everything else feels easier after that.
(Source: Brian Tracy)
Schedule specific calendar blocks for different types of work and treat them as non-negotiable appointments.
Identify the 20% of your activities producing 80% of your results. Focus disproportionately on those high-impact activities.
Source: Pareto Principle (Vilfredo Pareto, 1896)
A comprehensive system: Capture everything, clarify what it means, organize into categories, reflect weekly, engage with tasks based on context.
(Source: David Allen's "Getting Things Done")
Here's your action plan:
Step 1: Read through the list. You just did that. Good.
Step 2: Pick 1-2 techniques. Which ones made you think, "That's exactly my problem"? Start there.
Step 3: Try them for two weeks. Give them a genuine shot. Any new habit feels weird at first.
Step 4: Evaluate. After two weeks, ask yourself: Did this save me time? Reduce stress? Help me focus? If yes, keep it. If no, try something else.
Step 5: Add more if you want. Once those first techniques become automatic, you can always experiment with others.
Some coaches will find that 2-3 techniques solve most of their time management problems. Others might eventually use different methods for different situations—one for planning, one for focus, one for decision-making.
There's no right answer. There's only what works for you.
Here's what this is really about:
You didn't become a youth basketball coach to spend 10 hours a week stressed out about admin work, scrambling to create practice plans, and responding to parent emails at midnight.
You became a coach because you love the game. You want to develop young players. You believe basketball teaches life lessons that matter.
These time management techniques? They're not about becoming some hyper-efficient productivity robot.
They're about protecting your time and energy for what actually matters—the coaching work that makes a difference for your players.
When you're not constantly overwhelmed by the off-court chaos, you show up better at practice. You're more creative with your play design. You have energy for those important player conversations. You actually enjoy coaching instead of just surviving it.
That's worth trying one or two new approaches.
So pick one or two techniques. The ones that fit your specific situation. Try them for two weeks. See what happens.
You might be surprised how much time you've been wasting on low-impact work that felt urgent but didn't actually matter.
And you might be even more surprised by what becomes possible when you protect your time for the work that does.