Blog Post: 89 Seconds to Success - Who Controls Your Calendar?

The first snow of the season (or was it the last snow of last season?) arrived on the final day of summer. Funny how nature ignores our calendar and does what it damn well pleases, whenever it wants. Planning by the calendar can be a benefit or a pitfall in sales. When your "month" ends, do you heave a sigh of relief or take a day or two off? The pitfall of course is that when a new month begins, a salesperson is right back at "zero" and wondering where the next customer will come from.

Here's an invitation to ignore the calendar. The cycles of your business ebb and flow, but only if you allow the days and weeks to structure what you do. Here are three tips for getting ahead of the game, and the calendar, so that you take control of your time.

1. Don't wait for artificial deadlines to hit. Schedule projects and tasks in bite-size pieces that occur regularly; that helps you avoid a panicked "cram" session at the last minute.

2. Partner with an accountability buddy. This doesn't necessarily have to be someone you work with, just someone you'd feel really lousy saying "I didn't get this done" to. Decide on timeframes that give you flexibility, not timeframes that box you in. That makes for more time for the things you truly enjoy, personally and professionally.

3. Write out the specific results you want to acheive and the reasons why those results are so important to you. Do this before you think about the tasks that are required to fulfill your results. Getting specific about your results tends to reduce the angst associated with those results.

Our youngest, Chris, asked the other night if God really built the world in six days. My wife Terry's response was right on target. She said "He did, but God's days might not be twenty-four hours like our days are." If His calendar can be flexible, then yours can too.

Questions or comments? You can reach Mike Faber at info@mikefaber.com, or via www.mikefaber.com Mike speaks and coaches on the topics of leadership and business development.