The Real Trick To Fitting Quality Training In While Being At A Busy House

Last week, I made a post about keeping members engaged while being at a slow house.  So its fitting to address the opposite side of the spectrum and talk about training when your time is limited.

There’s a good chance that your station would fall somewhere between this article and the previous one.

Everyone is busy.  Busy does not mean productive though.

To be successful, you must maximize the time that you do have to be as productive as possible.

I’m too busy is just another way of saying that it was not a priority.

So lets get on with how you can fit in training when your time is limited to do so.

Step By Step Guide To Fitting quality training in while being at a busy house

Do you want to know the 3 steps every firefighter needs to still being able to fit some type of quality training in even though they are busy running calls and taking care of department needs?

Step #1: Write down one area of training for each day

Spend some time at the beginning of each month figuring out what you will train on each duty day.   This step is important because we are all busy.  We all get pulled in different directions.  We can overcome these distractions by planning ahead of time what we will focus on for training on specific duty days.

Goals happen when we schedule them, until then they are just dreams.  Make your goals happen and put a date to them.

Step #2: Have a plan A, B, & C

We never know what the day will bring us.  So we have to remain flexible otherwise we risk getting frustrated over the fact the day did not go as we would have liked.  I say this because I used to get frustrated when my training plans got scrapped due to outside factors beyond my control.  I learned the importance of having multiple plans to get the training I wanted to accomplish implemented.

My plan A would be a training or drill where every member rotated through the evolution and performed the necessary skills appropriately.

My plan B is where I would just focus on my Engine company because our Rescue company would be out covering another station or running call after call.

Plan C would come into play when we are both running so many calls and have scheduled department events.  Plan C is doing some type of training while on calls.  Maybe its reviewing where the FDC connection is at a multi family or asking the guys how far of a stretch they think it is to the apartment we are at after clearing a medical call.

The goal is to still get training in but in short bursts.

This step is important because its real easy to let the day get away from you and make excuses why you are not training.  There is always time but you have to make the time.

Step #3: Strive for plan A

Be careful that Plan C is not always your default plan. I’m fortunate enough that there is one day a week that my station is scheduled to be out at our training field.  If for some reason I had too many Plan C days, then this is the day where we make up for it.

The #1 reason we exist is to answer the calls of the community.

If we do not make the time to train though, how well are we performing on these calls?

Don’t settle for good enough.

Strive for the best you can be.