Productivity and organisational skills have never been my strongest areas. But I am hoping to change my ways with the aid of some new reading/listening material I am working my way through.

To be a World Class coach of MMA athletes (its one of my goals) I think organisational skills and using your time well are of paramount importance. Getting your fighters to the people they need to work with to improve them is often a logistical nightmare particularly if both guys are are not full time professionals.

I think that is where guys like Greg Jackson excel, he brings in the people that his fighters need to keep improving. This was evident to me at Absolute Combat 2 at the weekend.

We had a tonne of guys preparing for fights and we were sparring and training regularly, we somehow managed to find a way to train together despite logistics. Ideas and techniques were thrown around strategy was discussed with the top fighters and coaches in the country. The team sparring sessions united us as a unit and built huge amounts of mental fortitude.

The result? The team went 8 for 8. I will discuss this more tomorrow as it is a huge achievement for any team and a day we will remember for ever.

Being a coach involves having a working knowledge of numerous combat sports (Boxing, muay thai, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu jitsu), having the ability to get a fighter mentally (sports psychology)and physically (strength and conditioning) prepared and to be able to construct game plans that increases the chance of victory. This is a lot of training and education and can take up a lot of time when working with multiple athletes. Being efficient with your time is a highly valuable skill in this situation.

I really want to be a great coach and to do that I need to leave behind my procrastinating ways and get shit done. Here is some of the stuff that has been inspiring me to action.

How to Master Your Time by Brian Tracy

Wow that cut and paste went wrong anyhoo. As you can probably guess this is a book on time management. Theres a lot of stuff in this with regards business and project management and other grown up nonsense that is not totally applicable to my situation (saving time in the office environment is not really an issue when your office is a 5000 sq ft mma gym) but I did get a lot of good stuff from this here are some of the highlights.

• Make list the night before with regards to things you need to do.
• Identify your 3 ultimate goals and write them down at the top of your to do list everyday.
• Listen to Audiobooks on your subject area when you travel. (I was listening to this when i went to the gym, so I am not totally screwed)
• Learn Speed Reading you get through books quicker and you retain more.

Theres tonnes more good advice on this but this is the stuff I have instantly implemented and its been working out. I may slip back to my old ways but if I do remind me to sort my shit out and stuff will get done.

I like the authors writing style and have bought some more of his stuff. Next up is his Goals book.

Because of Brian Tracy advice and because the internet is awesome I got my hands on the Evelyn Wood speed reading 7 day course book. It promises to take your reading speed from 250 words a min to 1500 words per minute. Sounds cool but also a lot like bullshit but I gave it a shot. In a bout 10 minutes my reading speed went from 376 words per minute to 748 words per minute all by using their hand underling reading method. Was pretty ace should finish the book tonight, and then I am blasting through my reading pile. Only problem is my wrist keeps cramping like a fucker.

Next up is Jason Selks 10 Minute Toughness

This is a great book that aims to make developing your mental game a lot more accessible. I am really into sports psych and a lot of the same stuff is covered here that is covered in other books but I have yet to find another book that makes it so accessible.

Jason Selk

I also finished Kick ass #1 because I cant be productive all the time.