Can procrastination save you, your career and you life from being unproductive?

Exceptional Sales Performance Monday Motivational Minute

Can procrastination save you, your career and your  life from being unproductive?

December 10th 2012

By Gregory Ferrett

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Procrastination is the art or putting off or delaying important actions to a later time. This is a close relation to, and often at odds with, the emotional need to have something useful to do and be engaged in life.

Can procrastination be a good thing?

Can a little procrastination be a good thing?

I have an important project I am trying to get under way (more on this another time) and every time I sit down to action my to-do list I find something else to do, which seems important, and gets in the way. I called up my business coach and we had a heated debate on procrastination.

He pointed me to a great article by Erin Falconer, editor of Pick the Brain. According to this article procrastination comes in two categories – structured and unstructured – and there are beneficial aspects to each. This is what Dr Piers Steel of Psychology Today calls ‘Beneficial Procrastination’. Here is my take on the items in this list.

Structured Procrastination

Getting organised – avoiding tasks by using the excuse your workplace needs to be better organised. You feel good as your workplace is neat and tidy

Networking – you have a list of contacts you really should touch base with but don’t have the time. Procrastination is an opportunity to stay in touch. Of course you feel good as there will be a long term dividend.

Planing ahead – The only thing better than actually doing something is thinking or talking about doing it. Take time to identify, record, and schedule all your tasks. Leave the best and most important for last so you can savour the victory.

Errands – How about that dentist appointment? Or car service? These important tasks become appealing to the best of procrastinators. Of course your car and health will be much better by doing these today.

Get up to date – go back to all those emails with red flags and read the reports and memos you should have read. They are definitely a lot more interesting today and you will be ready for questions at the office party

Assist others – If you are not going to do your own work, you can at least deliver on the help you promised your colleague last week.

Unstructured Procrastination

Structured procrastination is a great way to keep busy, but sometimes that doesn’t cut it. When you’d rather not do anything work related, unstructured procrastination is the way to go. It might seem like laziness, but what’s wrong with that?

Unstructured procrastination is essential for recharging creative energy and allowing the unconscious mind to work on difficult problems. These are 6 productive ways to avoid work completely.

Go to Lunch – You need to eat, might as well do it now so you can’t use it as an excuse later.

Exercise – Same as lunch, with the added benefit of increased alertness.

Take a Walk – A casual walk is a great way to unburden your mind and allow great ideas to come to you.

Relax – If you feel a strong desire to procrastinate, there’s probably a reason behind it. Relaxation is important for a healthy productive lifestyle, why not do it now when you can’t get anything else done?

Come Up With a Great Idea – This one can’t exactly be completed on demand, but studies have shown that entrepreneurs and other creative people tend to get their best ideas during down time.

Read a Good Book – If you’d rather not think for yourself, you might as well absorb the great ideas someone else took the trouble to record.

Is Procrastination a good thing?

If you put off something on purpose because you think it's a good idea to delay, you're not procrastinating. You're scheduling or prioritising, sometimes just to feel the motivational thrill of doing it all at the last moment. Procrastination is when you planned or felt that you should have done the thing earlier, and then delayed anyway. In short, it is putting off despite expecting to be worse off.

Sometimes we are lucky and the task we have been putting off doesn't need to get done after all - a truly happy moment, like when a project gets cancelled and it turns out the boss doesn't need that report you never got around to writing in the first place.

So the answer is, yes, procrastination can make life a whole lot more interesting, more rewarding and can save you from being unproductive. Just make sure you seloect the right things to procrastinate on.

Questions and this weeks activities

Procrastination can sometimes be a good thing, however, at key times of the business year, like major holidays, putting off tasks to the New Year or until you get back to work can have devastations consequences for a business. Here are some actions to help keep you focused;

1. Every day write down your ‘six pack’. This is your list of the top six items which you must do today
2. Write down how you will reward yourself once you complete each task and all the tasks
3. Turn off your email, Facebook, Twitter and Cell phone until you have completed and rewarded yourself for completing the first three tasks
4. At the end of the day make your new list for the next day.

There is no reason you can’t do other tasks as long as your have the vital things covered. Life is not one big ‘to do’ list, it is about enjoying life and allowing beneficial procrastination refresh and revitalise your life.  

Exceptional Sales Performance

 

 

 

 

P.S. More inspiration on our BLOG here.

 

Pick the Brain - www.pickthebrain.com
Psycholgy Today - www.psychologytoday.com

Reprint permission
Permission is granted to reprint this article with the condition it is republished unedited and in full with full attribution to the author and the authors bio. Please provide a link to the reprint to the following email; greg.ferrett@exceptionalsales.com.au

Selling to the Seven Emotional Buying Styles Discover how to link your product to buyers emotion. In this very practical book you will learn everyday tools to take advantage of proven scientific evidence linking emotion to every decision. You will meet; the Hustler the Artist the Normal the Engineer the Politician the Mover, and the Double Checker This is one book you will refer to time and again to help you plan sales calls and to close sales.

Buy your Kindle or Hard Copy version here

 

Are you making room for success?

Exceptional Sales Performance Monday Motivational Minute

Are you making room for success?

November 5th 2012

By Gregory Ferrett

Welcome to Monday

It is 2AM and I can't sleep. My mind is racing with ideas! Why is it the best ideas come in the middle of the night? 

Every night I spend time writing my ‘six pack’ so I can get stuck into my day the moment I wake up. I start about 7 and before I know it 5PM rolls around. Where has the day gone? The vital tasks that will drive my success and maintain my health are still not done ... yet I feel productive. 

Here is an important lesson. When we allow our lives to be crowed with 'things to do' time flies. When we let things go, like in the middle of the night, important things come to the surface. Things which will drive our success.

Success comes when you decide what it is you can let go and create the space to do what is important – the learning, the relationships, health breaks and sales calls.

At 2AM there is nothing else happening to crowd your mind.

Think about your life. What could you choose to let go of today? What could you add to your day to make success that step closer?

• Make an appointment with yourself for a short stop at a book store or walk around the lake
• Have lunch with a friend that makes you laugh so much your serotonin levels rise 
• Write that chapter in your book or your Blog
• Sort out that cluttered office ... and cluttered mind

You see, Success needs space  and you are the only one who can control your cluttered day.

Today’s question & action

What are you willing to let go of today? 

• Select one thing you can let go and delete it from your life
• Select one thing to help you move towards your goals and make it happen first each day

Observe what happens as you introduce these changes and add or delete things to help move you to towards success.

Have a great week.

 

Exceptional Sales Performance

P.S. More inspiration on our BLOG here.

Reprint permission
Permission is granted to reprint this article with the condition it is republished unedited and in full with full attribution to the author and the authors bio. Please provide a link to the reprint to the following email; greg.ferrett@exceptionalsales.com.au

Selling to the Seven Emotional Buying Styles Discover how to link your product to buyers emotion. In this very practical book you will learn everyday tools to take advantage of proven scientific evidence linking emotion to every decision. You will meet; the Hustler the Artist the Normal the Engineer the Politician the Mover, and the Double Checker This is one book you will refer to time and again to help you plan sales calls and to close sales.

Buy your Kindle or Hard Copy version here

Is High Energy Enough in Business and Sales?

Exceptional Sales Performance Monday Motivational Minute

Is High Energy Enough in Business and Sales?

October 29th 2012

By Gregory Ferrett

 

Welcome to Monday

 

I was breaking up some concrete over the weekend. I was enthusiastic and very positive about the job for ten minutes or so and stopped for a moment. I looked at the whole job and realised how much work it really was.

 

Car runs into tree in the middle of the dessert

A discussion I had with a concrete worker came to mind. He had said “To make the job easier just focus on the point you want to hit and allow the weight of the hammer do the work.” In that moment I re-evaluated the job. I saw what needed to be done, set some goals and started to systematically follow a pattern. This time, instead of attacking with enthusiasm I allowed the weight of the hammer to do the job and focussed on hitting the right point. The job was completed with a lot less energy, less time and my back thanked me for it.

There was a picture in the ‘The Age’ newspaper a few years ago of a crash in the middle of the Nullarbor dessert. The police were quoted as saying “We don’t understand how this happened. The driver has smashed head on into the only tree for over 40 kilometres.”  They were observing the same rule I used in breaking up the concrete, the rule of focus.

What you focus on is what you get

the rule of focus

 

As a business and sales coach I regularly get called to crash scenes. A sales person is faltering or a business failing where it has been smooth sailing for a long time. I am rarely surprised, however, as these crashes occur invariably for one reason. The rule of focus has been violated and the business owner or sales person has allowed their mind to wander from their customers goals to their own.

A lot of research has been done on what makes a person successful. What has been discovered is a successful person absolutely believes they have the ability to succeed. They will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they'll fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure.

This ‘feeling good and positive about you’ will help. To make a sale, however, it does not matter how good you feel or how positive you are. What matters is how good your customer feels and how positive they feel.

Why does your customer buy?

Your customer will only make a buying decision when their emotional needs are met and they can ‘see’ the product or service you offer working in their world and delivering value to them. When they are totally convinced you have the ability to deliver what they ‘see’ then they buy.

Focus on your client

Successful business people and salespeople are the ones who take the time to understand their customers, know their goals and ‘hit’ their client’s goals time and time again. They help their clients:

• ‘See’ how things could be
• Become enthusiastic about getting the results
• Believe they can deliver the result for them.

Moving from being good to being great

One of the things that make great salespeople stand out from the crowd is that they are not considered salespeople at all. They are regarded by their clients as consultants or a similar title. The moment a person is tagged by their customer with the label ‘salesperson’ it means they focused on something other than their client. When you are with your clients you are there to help them achieve their goals. Talk to them about:

• their bonus plan,
• their holiday,
• their promotion.

These are the things that engage them emotionally and drive sales. So, is high energy important is business and sales? Yes, but not as important as focus. High energy will give you a result. High energy with focus will give you an extraordinary result. 

Today’s question & action points

 Here are two things you can do to help you focus:

• Call up your top customers and ask them “What is it about my company that made you initially select us, or continue to deal with us?” The answers will tell you a lot about their perception of you and help you understand why others may buy from you.
• Before you pick up the telephone to your next client or prospect ask yourself “How will this person be better off as a result of using my product or service?”

When talking with your clients put your commission plan away. Hide the holiday brochure and forget about the promotion this sale may bring. There is time for that at the end of the day.

Have a great week.

 

Exceptional Sales Performance

P.S. More inspiration on our BLOG here.

Reprint permission
Permission is granted to reprint this article with the condition it is republished unedited and in full with full attribution to the author and the authors bio. Please provide a link to the reprint to the following email; greg.ferrett@exceptionalsales.com.au

Selling to the Seven Emotional Buying Styles Discover how to link your product to buyers emotion. In this very practical book you will learn everyday tools to take advantage of proven scientific evidence linking emotion to every decision. You will meet; the Hustler the Artist the Normal the Engineer the Politician the Mover, and the Double Checker This is one book you will refer to time and again to help you plan sales calls and to close sales.

Buy your Kindle or Hard Copy version here