Our mind can be likened to an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg represents the relatively small part of our brain which is our conscious mind. This part can only process two or three thoughts at a time. According to a report by Crystal Reynolds, we have approximately 6,000 views per day (How Many Thoughts Do You Have Each Day? And Other Things to Think About, Crystal Reynolds, Healthline, Feb. 28, 2022). Our subconscious, the large part of our brain that sits below the surface, stores up to five million thoughts and memories. The conscious mind acts on the impulses of our subconscious. Effective planning of daily communications is dependent upon our control of the conscious mind.
Journals and Pocket Planners
A daily journal and a pocket planner are two organizational tools that enable you to order your conscious thoughts so that you are free to concentrate on your present tasks. The purpose of both a journal and a pocket planner is to keep written notes in a single place so you can organize your thoughts. Writing thoughts down allows you to do this. With tasks and appointments recorded, you can focus on the job at hand.
In and Out of the Office
Your journal, generally an 8 ½ by 11 inch or 5 by 8-inch spiral-bound notebook, serves as your business command center and usually stays in the office. I prefer the 5 by 8 inch, available at any office supply store. Your pocket planner, on the other hand, slips into your back pocket or purse. It goes with you when business is off-site. It lets you record important information from meetings and events outside the office. When you are in the office, transfer the notes from your pocket planner to the journal so they are in one central place.
Keep Good Records
Writing in a journal and a pocket planner allows you to be more organized with less stress. Here are some suggestions for good record-keeping in your journal.
Date all entries.
Note personal requests with names or other pertinent information.
List all messages and requests.
Highlight important figures and numbers.
Include email addresses and phone numbers of people you meet even if you don’t intend to move them into your contact list.
Check off all finished business.
Date journals when completed and save them. They provide valuable business history.
Take Control
We need to master the ability to give our undivided attention to the task at hand. Writing thoughts down in your daily journal and pocket planner allows you to do just that. Take control of your mind with a journal and pocket planner, relieve stress, and organize your way to success.
What is it that makes being organized a functional way to succeed? To begin, it is important to realize that with every business interaction, your colleagues and customers will feel one of three emotions. They’ll either be delighted, satisfied, or downright disappointed by your actions.
At a seminar given by Bruce Breier of BHB Consulting Services years ago, I learned how to keep your clients happy with organizational tools. Breier says: “It is difficult to delight your customers if you are disorganized at any level.” This is because your associates can feel your disorganization.
Start with good organizational skills
With that in mind, as part of my consulting practice, I begin each assignment by asking the client how he manages key projects. Most share that it takes them too long to achieve results. I find that owners are often juggling 10 to 15 projects at once. My objective is to teach them the organizational skills required to balance their time in order to manage multiple tasks. I start by having them make a mind map that describes each of their projects. Then, I have them prioritize the top five projects with the next steps they need to accomplish for the week. This allows the client to focus on the person or projects most directly at hand.
Use tools
It’s common to have busy days, especially if you’re managing a team. In addition to your regular management tasks, you may have to handle unexpected issues that arise. For example, you may need to resolve a conflict between a sales manager and an underperforming rep or address a customer’s concerns regarding a billing mistake.
Carrying around thoughts of unwritten requests is distracting and you can lose focus. Your body language can make you seem preoccupied. So, in the office put all unscheduled interactions into a dailyjournal as they occur. Outside the office, enter requests in a pocket planner. All pocket planner notes are transferred to the journal when getting back in the office. By noting all issues in either your daily journal or pocket planner, you avoid distractions. This allows you to give the customer at hand your undivided attention.
Succeed
The use of organizational tools, like mind maps, daily journals, and pocket planners, in business transactions yields delighted customers and associates. Organization is a functional way to achieve success.
We all look for the best ways to succeed in a competitive economic environment. As a business consultant, I encourage clients to use organizational tools with discipline and action to lock into success.
Two keys to success
Effective time management requires strict adherence to organizational tools. Here’s why.
Discipline: Without a clear plan, it’s hard to be disciplined in your work. To move forward, be religious about recording the specifics of your projects and prioritizing your list of to-do items. The disciplined use of effective organizational systems, like mind maps, journals, and daily planners, enables you to do this. I have developed 10 specific organizational tools, which fall into 4 management categories: Communication, Information, Planning, and Time Management.
Action: What good is careful planning if you do not take action on it? Discipline alone accomplishes nothing. To succeed you must do. Furthermore, America’s top business leaders have all demonstrated that, by combining action with discipline, you can achieve enormous success. Consider these examples: Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter), Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), Jeff Weiner (CEO LinkedIn), Mary Barra (CEO of General Motors), and Carly Fiorina (CEO of Hewlett-Packard). Take action and become the next great leader.
Discipline and action
We all have multiple tasks to accomplish each day. Yet, we must work within the very human limitation of “doing one thing at a time.” To work within that limit and maximize your effectiveness, you must be disciplined. By removing the clutter of chaos in your schedule, you can focus on accomplishments.In conclusion, a disciplined approach to business allows you to take meaningful actions. Discipline and effort enable you to lock into success.
There are many elements that go into achieving success in a competitive sales environment. I have found that passion is one of the most critical. A lack of enthusiasm for yourself, your job, and the people you serve is a recipe for failure.
Three Areas of Focus
A successful salesperson needs to demonstrate passion in three particular areas.
For yourself:To be successful you must be passionate about finding where your intellect and behavioral style meet. Intellectually I am gifted in mathematics. My behavioral style leans toward me being a dominant and influential personality. Academically, I earned a Mechanical Engineering degree in keeping with my intellect. However, sitting quietly behind a desk doing engineering work did not match my more outgoing behavioral tendencies. Recognizing this, I pursued a career in technical sales, a position that requires both math and selling skills. I found great success.
For your job: You must demonstrate a passion for the work you perform. I consult with many people struggling to succeed because their lives do not align with their jobs. The corporate culture they are part of might not be a good fit, or they are in the wrong job. In his book “Good to Great” , Jim Collins expresses this concept in a clever way. He says to succeed in life “you need to be on the right bus and in the right seat.”
For people: If your passion for who you are and for your work coalesces, you’ll have passion for the people you serve. Isn’t that what life is really all about? My desire to work with people led me to pursue more education in writing, public speaking, and even a master’s degree in Ministry. Now in my 70s and financially independent, my passion for people keeps me engaged in consulting work.
Display your Enthusiasm
Be passionate about your career. Find a position that suits your intellectual and behavioral style. Put your energy into the right job for you and into serving the people you work for and with. Success will follow suit.
When stress overcomes you, it can hinder your ability to move forward. I have often been so stressed by noon that I wasn’t hungry for lunch at work. A splash of cold water at the sink was required to revive me. One time, when I was in my mid-forties, I found myself looking in the mirror, and saw not my face, but my father’s 65-year-old aged portrait! I knew then that something had to change. I had to learn to manage my stress to live a happier, healthier, and more productive life.
Too Much to Do
Do you ever find yourself feeling overwhelmed by the demands on your time? The constant barrage of emails, texts, and appointments can leave you unsure of what to prioritize next. With so many tasks to complete, people to connect with, and places to go, it’s easy to feel like there’s never enough time to plan ahead. It’s no wonder that feeling panicked can become a common occurrence.
Plan Ahead
Photo #1
Lack of planning is often a root cause of stress. Photo #1 depicts a young man who welded a crossbar into place before realizing that his head was on the wrong side. When I speak at events, I often show this picture and ask audiences for their opinion on this man’s predicament. On a scale of one to ten, audience members say his stress level is 15! I ask how they think he ended up getting stuck. Most reply that he failed to plan ahead.
Photo #2
Photo #2 is a clip from a video that shows a man chipping a golf ball over a pyramid of beer cans. In so doing, he topples over a bottle of beer. The tipped bottle pours beer into the cup. The golfer picks up the cup, straightens the bottle, and enjoys a drink of the beer. This is a man with a plan. When I ask the audience to estimate his stress level, the consensus is zero.
Get Organized
What created the difference in the stress levels of these two men? The welder was disorganized. He did not think ahead. The golfer had a perfect plan. In business and in life, to reduce stress we need to operate more like the golfer.
Manage your stress with better work habits. Replacing bad practices with good organizational skills helps you live a more ordered life and achieve success.
As a consultant to small- and medium-sized distributors, I often focus on project management. I generally begin an assignment with the question, “How are you progressing with your top projects?” Most respond that they have difficulty meeting deadlines and completing projects in a timely manner. This leads to high levels of stress and a loss of enthusiasm for the sale. “Too much to do, and not enough time to do it,” is a recurring theme.
Most of the business executives I work with do not keep a written record of active projects. While they may record one or two, another 10 to 15 projects are not laid out on paper. As a consequence, the team often bounces from one project to another at random. Tasks and schedules are not managed and this leads to inefficiencies.
The Solution
It’s time to take charge. Here are some suggestions on how to better manage your projects.
Record all projects – In Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (the-7-habits), he suggests you start with cultivating these habits: First Things First and Begin with the End in Mind. Create a mind map (illustration) to differentiate the projects between Important and Urgent and Important but Not Urgent. Then, list all projects currently under consideration.
Prioritize projects – Prioritize your top 5 projects. Consideration should include time to completion and return on investment. Patrick Lencioni, author of The Advantage, (the-advantage), advises that corporate projects should receive special attention. However, all of your top 5 do not need to be large projects. Smaller short-term projects sometimes yield faster momentum and build morale.
Review weekly – Establish a consistent review process. Each week date your mind map, review the order of the top 5, and list next steps for the ensuing week. Include your executive team in the review as it highlights the company’s direction. Engage the team in refining the review and solicit support by delegating responsibilities. Each participant should review their departmental mind maps.
Record all completed projects – Your team will accomplish more with greater results if a year-to-date recording of completed projects is maintained.
Management = Growth
Lastly, these four steps improve communication and allow you to manage your projects more efficiently. Meeting weekly with my clients to review projects enables them to accelerate their company’s growth.
