You have a sales presentation planned; your laptop dies; you spill coffee on your only presentation copy, and the client moves the appointment time earlier. The Chaos Never Dies holiday is a perfect gift for you, but you need to stop and recognize that chaos is part of life. If your sales aren’t where you want, it could be you’re putting out fires due to disorganization and poor self-mastery. Here are some day extender gift considerations.
1. A daily planner. To plan is one time management activity; to schedule is another. For maximum self-management, use your daily planner to schedule sales calls and sales follow-ups. You know you are good at scheduling sales appointments, but life will be easier if a salesperson schedules when to prospect and when to follow-up.
2. Chunks of time. Stop, drop and roll. Stop all the reacting for a few minutes. Put on hold adding one more thing to your ‘to do’ list until you start scheduling an hour to 90 minutes of focused time, each day to start. Then with this scheduled chunk of time, work until you complete one of your highest priority activities and take no longer than 90 minutes to do this. Then drop the task and take a break. I use my dog to signal me it’s time to break. Once you are refreshed, then drop again for at least one more chunk of time for the day. You will find the chaos starting to roll away.
3. Feng shui your space. Consider cholesterol in your body as a metaphor for your office clutter and disarrangement of furnishings. Hire a feng shui consultant to come in and apply the practice of arranging objects to clear up your stuck energy and get it flowing again. As in caring for your body to lower your cholesterol, with Feng Shui you open your living space (cholesterol,) and energy gets moving again. Add plants or a tabletop fountain to stimulate more vibrant energy instead of chaos in your work environment.
4. Chocolate. Get whatever kind you like! Or at least consider chocolate as a metaphor to stop and celebrate some success along the way to your sales goals. The more you stop to celebrate what you accomplish during the newly found chunks of time, the more chunks of time you will have to celebrate.
As a former housekeeper laughing told me, “Better to have chaos than to have nothing because it would mean you are dead.” Proof yet again that chaos is the norm, and it’s best to find ways to cope with it, minimize the negative feelings, and go more with the flow. Sales includes a range of activities where chaos can strike at anytime. Salespeople who are prepared with some day extender gifts to themselves will fare better.
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