Gain More Breathing Space

7 tips to alter your routines to make better use of your time

In this day and age, where sales managers have so many items competing for their time and attention, it’s vital to re-think our routines occasionally to gain new perspectives and more effective ways to spend our time. Here are some ways you can alter your routines and in the process make better use of your time:    

1. Arise one hour earlier.

Once upon a time, the concept of late night (11:00 p.m.) news was unknown. People went to bed at 9:30 or 10:00. Once viewers began staying up for the late news, the networks began running late night talk shows. As a result, the entire population is staying up late than ever before.

Why not go to bed earlier, and wake up an hour earlier? Even if you don’t go to bed earlier, try getting up an hour earlier on occasion – you won’t miss the sleep that much. In that extra hour, you can watch the sunrise, meditate, do some exercises, or go to work before traffic gets bad.

2. Work on the porch of your house instead of in the office.

When you change your venue and the scenery, you open up new vistas. When you do this for some of your tasks (especially tasks that require conceptualization or creative thinking), you’ll be more productive than you ever were before.

As the author of several dozen books, I find that I can proofread much better on the porch or in a swing than when I’m at the desk. Begin to identify the places in your life that are welcome retreats to which you can go and work – a library, sitting in your car in a parking lot, even a shopping center. When you change where you’re working, you can benefit immensely and immediately.

3. If possible, postpone tearing through all your mails.

Most things are not so urgent that you need to attend to them that day. We tend to place an immediacy upon things that often are unnecessary.

4. Work under a tree or at a pool, during nice weather.

This is an extension of the idea of working on the porch. In this case, however, being near nature opens up a way of viewing things that you would not get if you were in the office. When working in a natural, tranquil setting, you’ll gain peace of mind in your otherwise hectic work routine.

5. Drop the unproductive 80 percent of your activities.

The Pareto Principle (the “80/20” rule) states that 80 percent of your activities contribute to only 20 percent of your results. The remaining 20 percent of your activities contribute to the other 80 percent of your results. Take a hardware store for example: about 20 percent of its stock accounts for 80 percent of the revenues; the remaining 80 percent of the stock accounts for only 20 percent of the revenues.

As a sales-conscious and productive individual, you need to identify what activities in your work (and personal life) support you and are bringing you the most results. Have the strength to abandon those activities that are not producing results for you – get rid of that unproductive 80 percent.

6. Schedule brainstorming sessions.

Brainstorming is a great process by which you get a wonderful array of ideas that you might not receive otherwise. You can brainstorm with yourself, or (preferably) with others. Have you ever gone to lunch with a colleague and begun discussing ways to approach a topic at work? After a few minutes, perhaps you both are deep into the conversation, coming up with all sorts of great ideas.

If you consciously schedule a meeting, the sole purpose of which is to brainstorm, you'll grab control of your time and get some of the most productive sessions that you’ve ever had.

7. Use humor more often – laugh at yourself.

When you proceed through the workday without humor, the days tend to be long and difficult. Part of taking control of your life is being able to step back and look at the big picture, being able to see the humorous, lighter side of things. Some of your worst gaffes later become some of the things you pleasantly recall – sometimes they might even turn out to be some of your best ideas! 

In any case, when you shake up your work routine, you can gain a fresh perspective on your life, and will begin to retake control of your time. Taking new approaches to the way you work will give you more time, reduce your stress, and help you attain breathing space.