Maximize Your Coaching Business: Drop These 12 Time-Wasting Habits

We know the hustle is real when it comes to running your own coaching business. From serving our clients to marketing our business, and everything in between, our plates are piled high. 

But here's the kicker: sometimes, we're our own worst enemies when it comes to wasting time and energy.

Let's face it, we're all guilty of it from time to time (I certainly am!). We add unnecessary tasks, allow indecision to plague our progress, let mindset blocks slow us down, and before we know it, we're stuck in a whirlwind of unproductive hours. 

So, let's break it down…Here’s 12 ways you might be unknowingly squandering your precious time and energy in your coaching business:

1. The Confidence Catch 22

Waiting until you have more clarity or confidence before taking action might sound like a reasonable strategy, but often, it's a sneaky form of procrastination. Remember, clarity comes through action.

I have embraced the words “test” and “pivot” in my business and I’ve been able to relieve so much of the pressure and fear of having everything be perfect and be a smashing success. 

Let’s face it, every business owner experiences mistakes, missteps, failed launches, content crickets…so it’s important to view your offers, marketing strategies, content, etc., as simply testing what works and then pivoting when and if needed.

2. Overcomplicating Things

Ever find yourself making a simple task into a labyrinth of complexity? Overcomplicating things can leave you feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. Simplicity is often the key to success.

I’ve definitely been guilty of this 1 more than I’d like to admit! 

One of the most common areas I see my wellness coaching clients overcomplicate things is in creating their signature system. They often spend months and months perfecting a huge signature system that includes everything but the kitchen sink and then get super discouraged when often they get crickets. Side note, if you’re wanting to avoid that mistake, check out Make Money Now: Add $1k to Your Coaching Business While Building Your Signature System.

3. Consuming Instead of Creating

Are you spending hours scrolling through your social media feeds instead of creating valuable content? Or signing up for every freebie, webinar, podcast, or program that you think you must know before you can simply share your offer with your list or with friends and family to help get the word out?

Remember, your content is your calling card, so make it count.

4. Planning Over Performance

Guilty of writing and rewriting your to-do list until it's a work of art? Spending eons figuring out what to focus on and overanalyzing the order of tasks? It's a common trap, but often, overthinking can paralyze action.

I’ve personally struggled with this one so much over the years. I have a slight (okay real) obsession with post-it notes and I often have “consolidate to-do lists” on my actual to-do list.

Do spend time planning as that is important, but you must actually perform the plan to get the results.

5. Tech and Platform Research Rabbit Hole

We all love the latest and greatest tech, but endless research on tools and platforms can become a black hole for your time. Stick to what works until you outgrow it. And keep it simple.

6. Lone Ranger Syndrome

Are you trying to be a one-person show? Think you can’t afford to hire a virtual assistant (VA)?

I worked alone in my business for nearly FIVE years before hiring my first VA. And now I’ve hired an online business manager (OBM) and I can say without a doubt, it was the best business (maybe even life) decision I’ve ever made. Not only do I have all sorts of tasks taken off my plate so I can focus on what only I can do, like client delivery, but I have a real partner in my business; someone who helps guide and encourage me. My business has only grown because of investing in support.

Plus, I gotta say I get downright giddy when my OBM sends me a text letting me know all the things she completed or a great idea she has to bring in more leads into my business; best feeling in the world!

Think you can’t afford to hire a VA? I would say you can’t afford it because you haven’t hired a VA! You’re too busy doing things you don’t need to be doing in your business and you’re not able to show up where and how you need to that actually leads to business growth and consistent clients.

And you can hire VAs generally anywhere from $4-$35/hour, so it’s really a no-brainer!

Ultimately, delegating tasks to capable team members can free up your time to focus on what truly matters in your business and in your life.

7. The Ring, The Ding, & The Ping

Constantly checking and responding to emails, messages, and notifications can destroy your concentration and disrupt your workflow. Even if you’re not actually responding to them in the moment, the ring, the ding, and the ping are incredibly disruptive and break your focus and concentration.

Research shows it takes on average 23 minutes to truly get back on task when we’re interrupted. Imagine that happening numerous times throughout the day-that’s A LOT of wasted time!
What to do instead? Schedule dedicated times for communication to stay on track. 

I like to check emails, texts, and messages first thing in the morning (not the best habit I know, but I actually enjoy it). I then check again at lunch time, and before I end my work day. I always have my notifications turned off and my phone on airplane mode while I work. 

I also don’t keep my email or social media tabs opened during the day (only during those scheduled times) and I moved those apps onto the 3rd “page” on my phone, so I’m less tempted. While I’m definitely not always perfect with it, it has helped tremendously with my work focus and boundaries.
Side note: if you’re constantly checking your phone and notifications now, you’ll likely need to slowly work your way to only checking it during designated Admin time in your day. I promise you it’s worth it!

8. The Pursuit of Perfection

Striving for perfection in every aspect of your coaching business can lead to time-consuming over-analysis. As a recovering perfectionist myself, here’s some things that have helped me get out of perfection mode: 1. Done is better than perfect, 2. A “B+” effort is more than sufficient for most tasks (and far superior than procrastination), 3. Most people (like your audience) don’t even know when something’s not perfect, so it’s simply not worth the time, energy, and obsession.

9. Trying to serve everyone

Struggling to focus on 1 clear and specific niche often creates such huge time and energy drains, not to mention confusion for yourself and for your niche. Afterall, creating content, offers, and marketing ONE niche is hard enough and takes lots of time, so why double or triple your work?
I speak from experience: when I first started my wellness coaching business, I had FIVE different niches, and it was exhausting trying to constantly come up with content and marketing them all. And because I was basically trying to serve everyone, I got very few clients. 

It wasn’t until I hired my first business coach that I not only fell in love with business and marketing and pivoted to business coaching, but finally niched down to working with wellness coaches. And I have clear offers for my 1 niche. I know my audience inside and out, so creating content is now easy and fun.

Struggling with your niche and it’s holding you back in your business? Check out my Nail Your Niche Now Bundle.

10. Investing Tons of Time on Social Media Posts

Think about it, social media posts fly faster than a speeding bullet so why spend hours and hours on creating the perfect post and agonizing over the perfect image to go with it, when it’s only got seconds to be seen?

I’m not saying don’t put any thought or effort into your social media posts, but there’s no need to go overboard here. Afterall, the primary focus of social media is to build that know, like, and trust factor, so typically you need to rely on other marketing strategies to actually land clients.

I’d recommend spending that time instead on long-form content that can live on forever and can be found through a google search; content like blogs (thanks for reading this one!), YouTube videos, or Podcasts.

11. Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS)

I used to be plagued by Shiny Object Syndrome, signing up for every business webinar, checklist, freebie, and training program that came my way. And while I will always love learning and continue to learn to better support myself and my clients, I have realized I have to limit these things; that they often create overwhelm and heighten my imposter syndrome (yep, we all struggle with that from time to time too).

I see my wellness coaching clients and students I support struggle with this as well. They think they need more wellness coaching training beyond their certification before they can help people. But what they actually lack is business knowledge. I lacked this too before I spent the last several years and over $40,000 learning everything I could about online business and marketing; it’s that knowledge that’s led me to be successful in my coaching business.

One thing that’s helped me with SOS is to ask myself, “Is this something I need right now?” and “What will I need to say no to or give up in order to say yes to this…and is that worth it?”

Ultimately, continuing to learn is a fabulous and necessary value; however, it can lead to procrastination and be a big time, energy, focus, and financial disruptor if not managed.

12. Having a Website

Let me start by saying I do think it’s important to have a website; however, you do have to have a website before you can start working with clients! Your website does not make you legit–YOU make yourself legit. Talking about what you do and know is enough. 

I see so many coaches that are just starting off, and they have no clients, no money, and often aren’t sure who their niche is or will very likely change their niche along the way. Plus, when you’re starting out, you have a very small following. Very few people even know who you are or the fact that you’re launching a business, and you’re about to drop 5k on a website…Why? Nobody’s going to visit this website. All clients care about are results anyway.

I feel very passionate about this issue as I myself fell into this mistake myself, spending THOUSANDS of dollars on a website to promote my FIVE niches and it got me nowhere. I wish I’d waited until I had more clarity about who I was working with and had a clue about what I was doing.

In the meantime, if you are wanting a place to direct people to, you can create a simple sales page for your offer on a google doc and share the link, or you can create a very simple brochure, flier, or even website over on Canva. 

There you have it – a reality check for all us coachpreneurs (myself included!). Recognizing and addressing these time wasters can significantly boost your productivity and help you achieve your coaching business goals with more focus and energy. So, go forth, conquer, and make your moments count! 💪🚀