DO REAL WORK

Today’s tip comes from a salesman, a consultant, the host of a Podcast and a pretty solid Tennis player.

He and I chatted last night about the advice he gave me 3 years ago on a flight to Dallas and it was about how I’ve always struggled with “doing real work” and how since then my work ethic has changed into speed in business

and so I’ve got a tip for you today, and you’re going to want to ignore it completely.

You’re going to think it’s too simple.

You’re going to think that it’s not complicated enough to address your personal situation.

“Awww, but Zarir’s got a few good ideas, but he doesn’t know my business”.

Okay.

Well, I’m going to give you that tip anyway, and I’m going to let you decide after you implement it whether or not it was worth it.

Are you ready?

It’s a very simple challenge.

I want you to identify two spots every day on your calendar — in the morning and in the afternoon.

Start with thirty minutes each.

Your job? Very simple.

Schedule a meeting with yourself.

Shut off your phone.

Shut off all your notifications on your computer and do real work.

Salespeople more than other people in other industries, more than other professionals, are constantly in reactive mode.

Every time you send a message, you can’t wait to hear back.

It’s just digging in the back of your mind and it’s really just sitting right there.

You can feel that point in the back of your brain just waiting for a response, and when you don’t get it you send another one.

And when you don’t get that you send another one over here.

Maybe it’s via email, maybe it’s via Slack, maybe it’s via social media, maybe you are just receiving all kinds of information through various channels from your company.

There is noise everywhere.

In order to get any “real” work done.

You need to shut off the noise.

So what I want you to do is create a space for yourself to get real work done.

Give yourself permission for up to an hour, in the morning and in the afternoon.

If you really have a lot of important thought work, some deep work that needs to get done.

Then maybe you can expand beyond that, but what I’ve found is that most salespeople have a hard time giving themselves permission to do that.

Now if you had a tremendously important meeting with your biggest customer, and it was half an hour, and they asked you to shut the phone off, you’d do it.

But you’re not willing to do that for yourself and that’s what I’m challenging you to do.

So what do you do in these 30-minute blocks?

That becomes the place where you put those projects that need your attention. I’m not talking about your expense reports.

I’m not talking about updating your CRM. Sales force or whatever you’re using to disposition or follow up or organize.

I’m talking about thinking through the next steps of that deal that you’re working on.

I’m thinking about putting together the reporting and doing the information gathering and the research that your prospect or your customer asked you to do.

When you give yourself thirty minutes on either side of your lunch break to do real important work, you will get way more done by doing fewer things.

That’s my challenge to you, and I want you to let me know how you did.

Got it? 😉

So today’s question is quite simple.

Did you do it, or are you going to take me up on his challenge?

You might need to mark your calendar maybe a week from now to remind yourself to go to daily zee tip number 003 and comment on your experience, but for everybody who does,

I will send a copy of this book:

Here’s what worries me — listening to a podcast is passive.

It’s so easy to just move on to the next show or the next episode.

In yesterday’s tip, I talked about owning your own development and consciously deciding what you were going to do and what you weren’t going to do.

So what I want you to do right now is decide.

Either you’re going to try this, in which case you might want to pause the show right now and put those first few blocks on your calendar right now or decide.

Thanks but no thanks that’s nope for me and move on with a clear conscience.

Please don’t think, “oh that’s a really good idea, I should try that out and not take any action”.

Because you’ll forget.

I know it, because I am it.

So make that decision right now.

If you’re in the car and need to pull over for a minute, awesome.

If you’re in the express lane in Atlanta then not so much, wait till you get to your destination.

If you’re in the gym and you need to wait another 30 seconds before you do that next set.

Do it.

Then don’t forget to go over in the comments section and tell me how it went so I can send you a copy of this book.

Thanks for listening and I’ll be back tomorrow with another tip.

😉 ✌️