Time Management – The Chalifour Group

Mondays Don’t Have to Be Miserable

The feeling of waking up on a Monday is so iconic. Tired, still holding onto the bliss of the weekend, not quite ready to work, slightly anxious about what is to come for the week. And yet we face these same feelings nearly every Monday. After so many times of experiencing this, we can learn to notice these thoughts and patterns and accept them, so that we can rise above and not react to these thoughts or let our entire energy be dictated by them. The best way to promote this awareness and create our own energy & perspective for the day is to start off our morning with meditation. This helps to clear the anxiety, the tension, all the bubbling thoughts. The mind is like a cup of sediment-filled water. At first, it is murky and dirt is floating everywhere. But as the cup sits, slowly and surely, all of the sediment starts to sink to the bottom, and the rest of the water becomes clear. This is what happens to our mind during meditation. Especially at the beginning of a week, we tend to have lots of chaotic and frantic thinking, as well as general feelings of avoidance and resistance. Meditation helps us let all of that sink to the bottom so we can see clearly once again. What do I have to do today? Okay, I will do it. It’s that simple, but we make it so complicated with all of our likes and dislikes, our beliefs and opinions about the work we do and what we would rather do instead. Start a daily practice of just 5 minutes each morning and see how it helps your life and work productivity

Even after reading this, you may still have the same feelings arise next Monday. The difference is how you react to those feelings—instead of getting sucked into them and believing them, just note that they are there and then let them go. I am not as successful every Monday, but I’ve noticed that taking this mindful approach really helps work get off to a good start each week. Another really important thing is to try and keep the same sleep schedule on the weekend as you have during the week. When we don’t do this, and we stay up late and sleep in on the weekend, waking up early on Monday morning is an even bigger shock to our system. It is much harder to be mindful, productive, and motivated when we are exhausted. So make sure to take care of both your body and your mind in order to set yourself up for success this week. And just know, hey, it’s a Monday, it’s never going to be that amazing. When we accept this, it takes a huge amount of pressure off how our Monday goes. We shift our view from anticipation to acceptance, and embrace whatever comes. This change of mindset has been incredibly helpful for me in enhancing my enjoyment of work and my overall productivity, and I hope it can help you too.

3 ways to work smarter!

Life is short and often times we are just working to get to the weekend. In addition, we find ourselves saying “there just is not enough time in a day.” That is just not true, it is all about how we use the time that we have and by measuring your results rather than your time.

Time management is the number one factor in successful people. They know how to work hard and often how to play hard. Time is the one resource that we can not waste. It all begins with a solid plan that includes short term plans and long term goals. These two points play in together as all your short term plans/lists should coincide with your long term goals. I have said before that when I work with businesses my number one objective is to increase a companies valuation making it more attractive for purchase. In a personal career or life, the long term goal should be retirement which is essentially the same thing for the sale of a business.

Goal setting is the first priority in working smarter. Set your end goal, say it is to retire by 40 years old with 2,000,000 in the bank. Then, as I have said before work backward from that end goal. Start with the end in mind. Then you know what you have to do to get to the goal, if you fall short one day, week, or even year, then you know exactly what you have to do to make up for the loss.

With all that said here are the top 3 ways to become more productive and to achieve your longterm goals.

Plan your days and weeks in advance

Each day I set forth making a to do list. This to do list encapsulates everything that I would like to get done on a given day. Often times, it is a mix of both personal and professional activities. If you have a cloudy mind in your personal life your professional will suffer, so be sure to stay active and up-to-date with your personal priorities. The list starts with the most important tasks that I absolutely have to complete by days end. The list ends with tasks that are “less important” but do have to get done at some point.

As I go through my day I complete my tasks and typically start my to do list for the following day. Anything that I will not have time to get to, I move to the top of the list for the following day. Additionally, as your day progresses you get new projects that have later dates and thus you are able to start to do lists for the following days. Often times I have a to do list scheduled out for the week. I spend much time scheduling and compiling lists as it keeps me on track and organized. It is important not to take too much time that it becomes a distraction but you do have to make it a priority. Having a road map for your success is critically important to staying on track.

Measure your results not your time

This is a tough benchmark to wrap your head around and typically requires a complete shift in mindset. This productivity tip is why it is so important to know where you are going and what your ultimate goals are. If I close or complete a large job at 10am or 11am I may call it a day or even take the next day off. I am measuring my results not the time I have into it because the week before I probably worked 80 hours. I know how much money I want to and need to make so when I hit that benchmark it is my decision if I want to keep working for the day or week. However, I am measuring my results not my time. You may not have to work 40 or 50 hours to make the amount of money that you want to make. Even with a normal 9-5 job you still have the power to measure results not time.

Measuring your results is a great way to mind your headspace. As Americans, we get very wrapped up in work, putting in 40+ hour weeks fully encompassed by our profession and often let the results fall behind. Time card punchers should never be the goal, have pride in the work you do.

Minimize Distractions

Distractions are the root of all evil. Distractions are, where the phrase, “there is not enough time in a day” stems from. Hate to break it to you but everybody has enough time in a day to accomplish what they need to the issue is with distractions. Fortunately or unfortunately, we live in a technological world where just about everything is available at the tip of our fingers. Our two most productive tools, phones and computers, are also our two biggest distractions. It is important to silence or delete apps that cause distractions while you are trying to be productive at work. Not only does it take away precious time but it also affects your results. Distractions affect both time and results.

Bottom line is there is plenty of time in a day to achieve the results we desire. We simply have to be well organized by compiling lists and scheduling your tasks, we need to measure results not time, and strive to minimize daily distractions. When beginning this life altering shift, start with the end in mind by setting goals. If you have questions on setting goals check on our blog on “Don’t dream, set goals.”

My sales department is very good… I think

Sales is not an easy profession. It requires training, diligence, patience and above all accountability. All these requirements culminate in a seasoned professional sales person. A sales department may have a handful of these seasoned professionals and some that are learning and some that are brand new. Many times the missing element to a successful sales department is a process and a structure.

I have been working with many sales departments that basically allow the sales people to do whatever they want and there is no accountability for time and process and laziness is ubiquitous. Eventually the sales person becomes fat dumb and happy meeting the status quo and there is no longer a drive or any ambition. They essentially become clipboard order takers – not good.

A company needs a hungry and ambitious sales force in order to grow and stand with or ahead of the competition. This is done with incentive programs, aggressive commission structures, contests and competitive processes. Do you have a sales board in your sales department? Do you have quotas set for the day, week and month? Are there contests sprinkled in from time to time, are you honest about the overall sales numbers? Is there accountability to the quotas with performance reviews, rewards and even discipline if necessary. Are you constantly monitoring production and sales pitches? Are there training programs in place to help educate your sales people about the product, value statements, features, advantages, benefits? Have you trained and educated your sales people on the products and companies they are selling against?

There are many elements of en effective sales department and creating all these elements into a process and then wrapping that process into an exciting and energetic program can help increase sales, commitment, loyalty and moral.

One Customer

Many years ago I had a client that gave me the best feedback I had ever received and he did so without even knowing it. I was working with a company developing a new strategy for an unexpected surge in business. We worked diligently to expand his message and to make sure that they could accommodate the quick growth in terms of personel and production.

We spent a good amount of time on the phone an in person, one day he asked me how many clients I had. I thought that was a strange and somewhat direct question. I told him that he was one of many and that we had business all throughout the world. He was a bit surprised by my answer and went on to tell me that the reason he asked was that he felt like he was my only client. He was very happy with the time and attention he received from my company and felt like he must only be one of a few not many.

It was an extremely validating conversation and it made me realize that service and relationships create confidence, loyalty and longevity. Make sure your clients/customers are taken care of because as they say, if you don’t someone else will.

It’s imperative that you integrate a time management system that allows you to simply touch base and say hello to your customer base on a regular basis. Make sure they know that you still want to help and are interested in them. A simple “Hey Mike, how are thing going for you” phone call goes a long way!