Nov 13 2009
I Wish, I Wish, I Wish I Had More Time – Sound Familiar?
We are all always looking to become more time efficient, so today I am going to share some tips with you.
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 three 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 twenty-one 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 twenty-one 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 salespeople are encouraged to become more time-aware, even if they don’t do anything else, they will generate 5% more time.
Today’s News: Looks like Jill Harrington has taken a commanding lead in the public poll over at Top 10 Sales Articles - will the panel agree? Have you voted yet?
PS: I will be most definitely be posting on Saturday and Sunday.
[...] the rest of his action plan here, which includes a set of questions to ask yourself every evening to ensure you’re on track to [...]