Time Management
Time Management
1. Urgent and Important – these activities will include crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects, meetings and preparation for all of these things. Whilst we do have to spend time on these tasks, it’s vital to appreciate that many of these become urgent because of lack of planning or simple procrastination.
2. Important and Not Urgent – these activities include preparation, prevention measures, planning, relationship building and creating. In fact all these types of tasks can be summarised as activities that are directly linked to the accomplishment of our long-range goals.
3. Urgent and Not Important – these activities will include interruptions, some phone calls, some emails and reports and those types of tasks that we may enjoy doing, popular activities. The noise of ‘urgency’ can create the perception that these type of tasks are important.
4. Not Urgent and Not Important – these activities will include trivia, some phone calls, junk mail, time wasters, watching mindless television shows and anything that we do to escape doing, those tasks that we need to do. If are battered by spending too much time on urgent activities we may seek solace through doing these types of activities. We can summarise these tasks as those that waste our time.
When working on urgent tasks, two things are likely to occur. Firstly, the feelings of urgency, creates an adrenalin rush that can fill us with a sense of excitement. Once the urgency has been withdrawn from our situation we can feel down and depressed. This develops into an addiction to urgency – we crave the highs and do whatever we can to avoid the lows. Secondly, urgent tasks can create a ‘Choking Effect’ when we feel so overwhelmed that it impairs our ability to think clearly. Neither reactions are helpful if we want to remain in a peak state over a long period. Many people who experience ‘burn-out’ have spent too much of their time working on urgent things, this creates an imbalance and they simply become exhausted. They simply cannot see ‘the wood from the trees’ and negative thoughts begin to dominate the positive ones. Many sales people get stuck at a certain level of success because they have allowed themselves to become buried under countless details, demands and activities that drain their energy.
Research by The Strategic Coach identified that when people have more balance and more free time to devote to important tasks , they are rejuvenated and better equipped to increase their productivity. This is why spending a larger proportion of our time on activities that are important yet not necessarily urgent gives us a greater sense of control over our lives. Planning our time accordingly will save you time and ensure that you remain focused on those tasks and activities that take you closer to your goals. Also by scheduling your tasks you’re more likely to complete them. When planning your time, the following suggestions can help you become more time efficient:
• The first vital step is to become consciously aware of how you are spending your time. People who complain that they “Don’t have the time” have unconsciously created bad habits that need to be highlighted. This conscious awareness is best achieved by keeping a time log of everything they do for one month so they have ‘the problems’ clearly identified before they look for solutions.
• Start with identifying your long- term goals first, because it creates a context for all your activities. Having a clear vision of what you are aiming for, gives you motivation and momentum so that day-to-day decisions that arise can be easily made because you are able to evaluate them in terms of “Is this activity moving me closer towards my goal?”
• Prioritise and schedule tasks on a monthly, weekly and daily basis according to their priority of importance to you. Because people’s efficiency is optimised when they have good work/life balance, it helps to plan in time for family and self so that these areas aren’t compromised. By working on your higher priority tasks first you are able to channel more of your energy and concentration into important activities. As your energy and concentration starts to fade so does the priority of the tasks that you are working on.
• At the end of each working day, make a ‘To Do’ list for the next day. This pulls out what needs doing onto paper, freeing your mind from worry, so that you can sleep more peacefully. Once you’ve completed your list and before you prioritise, review each task and ask yourself 3 questions:
- Do I need to do this? (If your answer is “No” then delegate the task)
- Do I need to do this tomorrow? (If your answer is “No” then remove it from your ‘To Do’ list)
- Does this task add value to my organisation and myself? (If your answer is “No” then why are you doing it?)
It takes 21 days of consistent focus on doing something differently to establish that activity as a habit. Therefore, it helps to review your daily tasks every evening for 21 days by asking yourself the following:
➢ Did I accomplish all of my high-priority goals?
➢ Did I reach or surpass all of my other goals?
➢ Did I invest as much time as I planned in persuading others?
➢ Did I contact every prospect that was on my list today? If not what prevented me?
➢ How much time did I spend prospecting for new customers?
➢ How much time did I waste procrastinating today?
➢ What is the most productive thing I did today?
➢ What is the least productive thing I did today?
➢ What could I have avoided or eliminated?
➢ How much did I spend doing something that will profit me?
➢ Can I devote more time here?
➢ Was today a productive day for me? For my company?
➢ Did I take care of all the paperwork I needed to care of?
➢ How many of today’s activities have helped me achieve my goals?
➢ How much time did I allocate to my family, friends etc.?
➢ What can I do to improve the quality time I need to spend with my family/friends etc?
➢ How much time did I allocate to me?
➢ If I could live today again, what would I change?
➢ What did I do today that I feel really good about?
For busy sales people, working smarter requires paying attention to non-urgent and important tasks. This is best achieved by having a proper understanding of how they are spending their time, identifying where their time wasters are and planning into their schedules the non-urgent and important activities. According to George Murphy, CEO e-Justify-it, he proves that just the process of paying attention to specific areas will increase those areas results by at least 5%. Therefore, if sales people are encouraged to become more time-aware, even if they don’t do anything else, they will generate 5% more time.
Time Management - To learn more about this author, visit Nikki Owen's Website.
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Essentially, we spend our time on tasks that are categorised into one of four areas:
1. Urgent and Important – these activities will include crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects, meetings and preparation for all of these things. Whilst we do have to spend time on these tasks, it’s vital to appreciate that many of these become urgent because of lack of planning or simple procrastination.
2. Important and Not Urgent – these activities include preparation, prevention measures, planning, relationship building and creating. In fact all these types of tasks can be summarised as activities that are directly linked to the accomplishment of our long-range goals.
3. Urgent and Not Important – these activities will include interruptions, some phone calls, some emails and reports and those types of tasks that we may enjoy doing, popular activities. The noise of ‘urgency’ can create the perception that these type of tasks are important.
4. Not Urgent and Not Important – these activities will include trivia, some phone calls, junk mail, time wasters, watching mindless television shows and anything that we do to escape doing, those tasks that we need to do. If are battered by spending too much time on urgent activities we may seek solace through doing these types of activities. We can summarise these tasks as those that waste our time.
When working on urgent tasks, two things are likely to occur. Firstly, the feelings of urgency, creates an adrenalin rush that can fill us with a sense of excitement. Once the urgency has been withdrawn from our situation we can feel down and depressed. This develops into an addiction to urgency – we crave the highs and do whatever we can to avoid the lows. Secondly, urgent tasks can create a ‘Choking Effect’ when we feel so overwhelmed that it impairs our ability to think clearly. Neither reactions are helpful if we want to remain in a peak state over a long period. Many people who experience ‘burn-out’ have spent too much of their time working on urgent things, this creates an imbalance and they simply become exhausted. They simply cannot see ‘the wood from the trees’ and negative thoughts begin to dominate the positive ones. Many sales people get stuck at a certain level of success because they have allowed themselves to become buried under countless details, demands and activities that drain their energy.
Research by The Strategic Coach identified that when people have more balance and more free time to devote to important tasks , they are rejuvenated and better equipped to increase their productivity. This is why spending a larger proportion of our time on activities that are important yet not necessarily urgent gives us a greater sense of control over our lives. Planning our time accordingly will save you time and ensure that you remain focused on those tasks and activities that take you closer to your goals. Also by scheduling your tasks you’re more likely to complete them. When planning your time, the following suggestions can help you become more time efficient:
• The first vital step is to become consciously aware of how you are spending your time. People who complain that they “Don’t have the time” have unconsciously created bad habits that need to be highlighted. This conscious awareness is best achieved by keeping a time log of everything they do for one month so they have ‘the problems’ clearly identified before they look for solutions.
• Start with identifying your long- term goals first, because it creates a context for all your activities. Having a clear vision of what you are aiming for, gives you motivation and momentum so that day-to-day decisions that arise can be easily made because you are able to evaluate them in terms of “Is this activity moving me closer towards my goal?”
• Prioritise and schedule tasks on a monthly, weekly and daily basis according to their priority of importance to you. Because people’s efficiency is optimised when they have good work/life balance, it helps to plan in time for family and self so that these areas aren’t compromised. By working on your higher priority tasks first you are able to channel more of your energy and concentration into important activities. As your energy and concentration starts to fade so does the priority of the tasks that you are working on.
• At the end of each working day, make a ‘To Do’ list for the next day. This pulls out what needs doing onto paper, freeing your mind from worry, so that you can sleep more peacefully. Once you’ve completed your list and before you prioritise, review each task and ask yourself 3 questions:
- Do I need to do this? (If your answer is “No” then delegate the task)
- Do I need to do this tomorrow? (If your answer is “No” then remove it from your ‘To Do’ list)
- Does this task add value to my organisation and myself? (If your answer is “No” then why are you doing it?)
It takes 21 days of consistent focus on doing something differently to establish that activity as a habit. Therefore, it helps to review your daily tasks every evening for 21 days by asking yourself the following:
➢ Did I accomplish all of my high-priority goals?
➢ Did I reach or surpass all of my other goals?
➢ Did I invest as much time as I planned in persuading others?
➢ Did I contact every prospect that was on my list today? If not what prevented me?
➢ How much time did I spend prospecting for new customers?
➢ How much time did I waste procrastinating today?
➢ What is the most productive thing I did today?
➢ What is the least productive thing I did today?
➢ What could I have avoided or eliminated?
➢ How much did I spend doing something that will profit me?
➢ Can I devote more time here?
➢ Was today a productive day for me? For my company?
➢ Did I take care of all the paperwork I needed to care of?
➢ How many of today’s activities have helped me achieve my goals?
➢ How much time did I allocate to my family, friends etc.?
➢ What can I do to improve the quality time I need to spend with my family/friends etc?
➢ How much time did I allocate to me?
➢ If I could live today again, what would I change?
➢ What did I do today that I feel really good about?
For busy sales people, working smarter requires paying attention to non-urgent and important tasks. This is best achieved by having a proper understanding of how they are spending their time, identifying where their time wasters are and planning into their schedules the non-urgent and important activities. According to George Murphy, CEO e-Justify-it, he proves that just the process of paying attention to specific areas will increase those areas results by at least 5%. Therefore, if sales people are encouraged to become more time-aware, even if they don’t do anything else, they will generate 5% more time.
Time Management - To learn more about this author, visit Nikki Owen's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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