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Chapter 4: Time Management: Its About Time

A mentor of mine once told me, People make time for things they want to do. If someone doesnt want to participate, it aint gonna happen. Back to the dynamics of motivation: Only you can light a fire within ( Chapter 2). We must take responsibility for ourselves and our actions, and use SMART goals to stimulate motivation. Motivation is the difference between being proactive and in control, or being reactive, out of control. Become the author of your activities and your success. Make things happen rather than just reacting to events as they occur. The choice is simple: Either manage time and invest it wisely, or time will control you.

But I Dont Have Time!

How often have you wished for only a few more hours in your day? How many times have you searched for a magic answer, a quick fix, to relieve the pressures of time? If you are like most of us, the answer is: frequently. We live in an environment of unfinished tasks, half-done sales plans, incomplete reports, unread books, and endless personal chores. There is no question that the majority of us are time-starved, always running just a bit behind. Would a 30-hour day help? I doubt it. It would just add six more hours of accumulated stress and frustration to our lives. Lets do a better job of managing the time we have.

In Chapter 2, you learned about five attitudinal characteristics of sales entrepreneurs and the impact those characteristics have on performance, personally and professionally. This attitudinal package- including time management-forms the backbone of the skills discussed throughout the model. Within the Sequential Model, however, time management is not a step on its own, although I do feel the subject is worthy of a chapter.

On the wishlist of salespeoples training topics, time management continues to dominate, as if there exists a magic answer, a quick fix to exonerate them from the necessary discipline required to be organized: the discomfort of discipline. Once again we tend to search for the easy way, the path of least resistance. The quick fix is available but not in pill form, not yet. It comes in the form of commitment and desire, coupled with the attitudinal package discussed in Step #1 of the sequential model. The first step on the road to recovery is to recognize that you are the one primarily responsible for your own time problems and frustrations. Dont continue to rely on a plethora of well-rehearsed excuses to bail you out. The next step is to truly have the desire and the commitment to invest whatever is necessary to become organized. Without these ingredients, time management will continue to be a laborious exercise in futility and frustration, robbing you of your full potential. By the way, you do have enough time.

Time Equity: Whats Your ROT?

Time is a unique, unrenewable resource. It marches onward at a rate of 60 minutes every hour. It shows no favoritism. No one is immune to the relentless, unforgiving passage of time. Consider this: two days from now, tomorrow will be yesterday. Or how about this: two days ago, yesterday was tomorrow. Confused? Read it again, youll see. Warning: dates on the calendar are closer than they appear.

In todays competitive environment, workloads have become swollen by increasingly leaner and meaner companies. There are fewer positions on company organizational charts, and the average workload of those who remain has been growing. Salespeople now have to spend more time in the office distracted from selling by fulfilling administrative obligations. You must appreciate that companies today pay for results, not the number of hours you work. Companies no longer reward busyness. In many cases, working long hours, a 60- or 70-hour week, is simply a smoke screen concealing inefficiencies and poor work habits. Nothing is easier than being busy, and few things are more difficult than being efficient and effective. It requires discipline. Imagine having the time to get your work done, leaving the office at a reasonable hour, and spending the rest of your day with family or friends. Its possible; read on. The one universal distribution of equity is time: Everybody on the planet has ownership of 24 hours per day. We all receive the same allotment, day in and day out. Each new day brings an automatic deposit of 24 hours into our time account. I refer to it as time equity. Although each day brings a new deposit, each day the entire amount must be withdrawn, with no balance carried over to tomorrow. Use it or lose it. The challenge we face is how and where to invest our time equity. These decisions determine success, career path, productivity, and family status. The truth is that where we are in life is a direct reflection of how well we have managed our time portfolio-how and where we spent our time. We often hear people refer to personal activities in terms of time equity: How did you spend your weekend? or During our trip we spent a lot of time doing ... Time equity is the essence of a full and complete life. We often take it for granted and succumb to its harsh, unforgiving consequences. We have to take responsibility for ourselves and consciously appreciate the positive impact time management can have on our lives.

Anyone who expects to achieve sales success should expect to make a serious commitment to working hard and efficiently. Throughout the five principles of time management that follow I share various techniques and suggestions to help streamline your activities. Remember we discussed balance in Chapter 2. Think of your activities in terms of quality and quantity. Balance means quality time versus quantity time. Many people spend quantity time in the office, but not quality time.

Whats your return on time (ROT)? You own it; invest it wisely.

Five Principles of Time Management

Time cannot think for you, but it can certainly work for you. Like any other investment, time produces returns if invested wisely and treated with respect. Sales professionals constantly explore investment opportunities for their time, maximizing their ROT.

Principle #1: Maximize Your ROT

Spending your time wisely starts with paying attention to how you spend it. Only when you decide to take control of your time will you have the power to stop squandering it. The best starting point to a better ROT is to conduct your own time-efficiency study. Evaluate your current use of time by breaking down a typical day into hourly increments. Be objective. Include everything throughout your entire day, even the time you sleep. You may need to track a full week or two to get a clear picture of your time usage. The tape recorder you purchased after reading Chapter 2 might be a convenient method to log your time. It wont take long for patterns or habits to emerge. Some will be painfully obvious and youll need no encouragement to change. We improve our ROT only by recognizing how we spend our time. The next step is to review your time log and classify the activities as time-wasters, obligations, or priorities. Time-wasters are just that, activities that distract you and contribute nothing toward your goals. Eliminate them. The danger is that time-wasters are activities performed out of habit. Usually, they create a false sense of productivity but actually produce few or no results. The cure comes in the form of personal organization, the process of incorporating structure into your day. Obligations are the dutiful responsibilities of your job. They are necessary yet unimportant activities, usually performed throughout the day. They contribute indirectly to your goals. They are the administrative aspects of your job such as call reports, expense reports, quarterly forecasts, and various other required duties. Despite the challenges of limited time coupled with increased responsibilities, you can be productive by evaluating your current usage of your 24 hours and maximizing ROT. Obligations cannot be overlooked but be cognizant of the negative impact they have on daily productivity. As you become better organized you can streamline your activities, minimizing the time spent fulfilling obligations. You may be in a position to delegate some of your administrative duties to support people (internal customers) within your office. I know of some sales entrepreneurs who have hired a part-time assistant. Maximize your ROT by doing what you do best, selling. Priorities are the activities that contribute significantly to your ROT. They are directly responsible for your results, moving you closer to your goals. Remember, companies today pay for results, not activities. They no longer pay for attendence, they expect results.

As you evaluate your current use of time, the time-wasters will become clear, allowing you to rethink your activities. Make the shift from a long day filled with unproductive busyness to a shorter day focusing on priorities. As a sales entrepreneur, challenge yourself to be more proactive by prioritizing your tasks. Take control of the activities that prey on your efficiency, compromising your ROT. Once you complete your time-efficiency study, you will be shocked to see the time wasted reacting to other peoples demands and requests. Most of us habitually spend our days reacting instead of being proactive, unaware of the costly consequence. I suggest that up to 75% of our day is reactive. A sobering thought.

Principle #2: Know What Time It Is

If you are like most salespeople, you have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. To get ahead in todays fast-paced world, youve got to be aware of what time it is. Im not talking about telling time, you learned that years ago. What Im talking about is: Its not enough that youre doing a particular job right, youve got to be sure that youre doing the right activity at the right time. By the way, if you dont have a good watch, get one. The best and simplest time management tool is on your wrist. Common sense tells us that we should spend the majority of our time working on high-priority A and B accounts. Most of us dont. We waste a lot of time in the adult daycare center reacting to the demands of C accounts or even performing C activities. The first step is to take control of your entire day by knowing what time it is.