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Guest post by: Jim Meisenheimer Become an Author

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Time is one of your most critical resources. So I'll make this brief. The way most salespeople squander it, you'd think everyone had more than they needed.

Why do so many salespeople scream about how much more time they need on the one hand and do such a mediocre job at self-management which is really what time management is?

Managing time is a little like brushing your teeth, you need to do it more than once a day.

No one can do it for you.

There are all kinds of systems designed to help you manage your time. Paper and electronic. The only problem with a paper system is that it can make you look like a dinosaur to some of your high tech sales prospects and customers.

Outlook works okay but I favor the Palm Pilot software. Actually I use it more on my desktop than I do on my Palm Treo.

It's not enough to consider time in the traditional day, week, and month framework. To manage your time more wisely, you should view it in smaller increments. Start with fifteen minutes. Most of us don't flinch at wasting fifteen minutes. What's fifteen minutes aside from being a small chunk of time?

Fifteen minutes is 1% of a twenty-four hour day. Squander fifteen minutes and you've wasted 1% of your day. Waste fifteen minutes and you've blown 3% of a typical workday.

There are 86,400 seconds in every day.

No one gets more or less!

You can't save time as you can money. You can't put fifteen minutes into the cookie jar side-by-side with your loose change. Time can't be saved, it can only be spent. How you spend your time is the real challenge.

It's all about how you value, prioritize, use, fill, plan, control, waste, and squander your precious time. There are 168 hours in a week. When asked, most people don't realize how many hours are in a week unless they do the multiplication. Every second of your time has extreme value. How you use it will contribute to how you are remembered.

How would you value your time if you only had six months to live? Well, how do you know you don't?

Here's some time spending ideas.

==> Invest 1% of each day thinking and planning how you'll spend the other 99%.

==> Begin every day with a written and prioritized list of activities.

==> Do the big things first. Start with the tough stuff.

==> Do the math to calculate the value (dollars) of fifteen minutes of your time.

==> If 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your customers - invest your time accordingly.

==> If 80% of your prospects' potential comes from 20% of your prospects - invest your time accordingly.

==> Memorize the difference between being efficient and being effective. It's said to be the difference between doing something right and doing the right thing. Develop your skills to become an effective sales person.

==> Before you do anything yourself, consider the value of your time compared to the cost of paying someone else to do it. And never do anything that you can delegate to someone else.

==> The difference between having potential and achieving success is the difference between thinking and doing. Success is all about doing. Nike's theme isn't “Do it later.” It's “do it now.”

==> You own your time. Don't permit other people to rob you of your time. When you see the time robbers approaching stand-up and say something that says this will be a very short meeting.

==> When it comes to the art of self-management, keep asking "How can I do it better?"

==> Each day read for fifteen minutes about your profession. You might even want to buy a book on time management.

We all live by the same clock, it's how we wear the watch that makes the real difference. It's not really about making time, though it is about spending it wisely. If you spend most of your time doing what's really important to you, you will have all the time you ever needed.

Time counts - gotta run!

Start selling more today and everyday . . .

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