To be effective in sales you need to be confident, energetic and carefully avoid burnout and stress. Achieving a positive work-life balance is crucial for anyone looking to do great things in sales – and the key to ensuring that you have the time and space for a work-life balance is being able to prioritise. Learning how to plan and prioritise will help you to create freedom in your schedule to enjoy a work-life balance that fuels you to be a more productive salesperson.
Planning and prioritising tips
It’s important to be realistic
Being effective doesn’t mean ticking absolutely everything off your list in a superhumanly short space of time. It is far better to set realistic and achievable goals for your day that you can complete in a way that leaves you the time to do them properly and to finish your workload within a realistic timeframe. If you’re just loading yourself up with too much and not being realistic about what you can actually get done then you will struggle to achieve any work-life balance at all.
Start with the tasks that you really don’t want to do
If there are less interesting or appealing jobs then the likelihood is that these will end up being postponed and delayed because you don’t really want to do them. So, tackle these first so that you don’t waste any time putting them off.
Reorganise the way that you handle contacts and emails
Instead of constantly being available by email, checking and responding as emails come in, allocate time to batch process all your communications. It’s often far more efficient to sit down and plough through all your emails within a specified time frame than to constantly interrupt what you’re doing. Apply the 2 minute time limit to each one – give yourself two minutes to action the email and then move on. If it can’t be done in that time then add it to a task list and start the next message.
Turn off your tech
If you want to achieve that work-life balance then you’ve got to prioritise your task list over the distractions that technology like smart phones can provide. Give yourself the opportunity to work undisturbed by turning off all your technology and prioritising getting tasks done. You’ll find that you get through jobs much more quickly and that you will be left with more space in your schedule to achieve a better work-life balance as a result.
Use technology to your advantage
Apps and smart phones can be a distraction but they can also be immensely useful when it comes to helping you to prioritise more effectively. Use calendars and reminders to ensure that you remain organised and focused on completing the essential tasks that will free up time for other things.
Our
Planning & Prioritisation course is designed to provide a busy salesperson with tools to better manage daily challenges to help create more work-life balance. The result is not only more productive outcomes but also greater fulfilment on a daily basis too. Book your place today.