The site for sales professionals
Enhance your time management by reducing your collection points
If you’re like most sales people at the moment you might be having to work much harder to get the business in to achieve your targets. There are more steps now to sales, longer processes and additional people to see to reach the results we want.
As a result we’re finding our time management under scrutiny more than ever before and we may need to tighten up on this vital skill if we want to succeed during this recession. I’ve also heard of salespeople and sales coaches losing their valuable support teams as companies make cutbacks which creates even more work to do in the same time available.
Here’s a really neat life changing tip that’ll make a difference to the way you handle your time.
It’s called reducing your collection points.
I’m referring to the places where communication and information enters your life. The more we have, the less productive we are. Let me give you some examples of what I mean.
Email inboxes, postal letter boxes, mobile phone voicemails, office landline voicemails, home phone voicemails, paper in-tray, kitchen table, desk, car seat, car glove compartment, top pocket, text message inbox, briefcase, paper diary, conscious memory, partner’s memory, faxes, to do lists, second mobile voice mail.…..and so on.
And I’m sure you can add some more.
The time management secret is to reduce the number you have so information isn’t scattered everywhere and pulls us all over the place just collecting this information let alone dealing with it.
Read on and I’ll tell you how I reduced my collection points from 22 to just 4. Boy was it hard work but an incredible time saver.
Here are my 4 and the assorted collection points they replaced.
Paper pending file
This has become the home for all paper that enters my life before the paper is processed. My family have been instructed to deposit all post in here addressed to me and not the kitchen table. Receipts, ideas that I’ve jotted down on paper, article ideas, mind-maps, train tickets, parking tickets, phone messages taken for me. They all find their way into this file. And the best bit which I learnt years ago is to have it out of view i.e. in your filing draw, not in a plastic tray on my desk. And I also have a mobile paper in-tray that fits into my briefcase when on the move.
Microsoft Outlook Category None
Possibly like you, I use Outlook extensively and use the task list feature which is an essential time saver. I’ve categorised each task to help time management but have one called “Category None”. Quite simply when I type in something into tasks it appears in this category which acts as a holding bay. So the “Category None” becomes a collection point for loads of things that used to get written down on pieces of paper, in paper diaries, on the back of newspapers, on paper “to do” lists, Paul’s memory, top pocket of my jacket. And because I carry around a Smartphone which synchronises to Outlook, I can type these in where ever I am and then forget about them until I next synchronise.
Mobile voice mail
Untouched and I’ve also diverted the home phone to my mobile when we’re not in as I’ve finally got over this unnecessary yearning to keep home separated from work. We live and work in the 21st Century – home and work have combined into one.
My mobile messages come through as text messages so I don’t even have to dial 901 to see if I have any messages.
Email inbox
Pretty much untouched except so much more finds its way to this valuable collection point. I have a PA service which directs phone land line messages to my email inbox. I have a fax to email service which transforms incoming faxes into emails (really useful this one). I even have my brainwaves, ideas, to do’s that I can’t write down, turn up in my email inbox when I’m on the move.
I do this using a brilliant free service called www.dial2do.co.uk which operates here in the UK. All you do is phone a number and speak into the phone whatever it is you need to remember. They then cleverly turn this into text and email you. I have the number set up as a voice speed dial on my mobile phone so even if I am in the car I can still note down my ideas. And the best news is that I can then forget it, concentrate on my driving because I know that my email inbox will get the idea delivered when I next log on to email.
There’s nothing worse than trying to remember lots of things in your head.
So you can see that I’ve cut down all my collection points into just 4. This means I don’t spend huge amounts of time just checking collection points, trying to remember things, worrying about paper getting lost, dialling 901 or 1571 on various phones, sieving through the kitchen table for important post, panicking about the amount of paper I have to deal with.
If you’ve enjoyed this longer article, we have a brand new free service called Knowledge Bank on our website. Here you’ll have access to dozens of articles ranging from 800 to 2,000 words each. Click http://www.archertraining.co.uk/articles.htm
As a result we’re finding our time management under scrutiny more than ever before and we may need to tighten up on this vital skill if we want to succeed during this recession. I’ve also heard of salespeople and sales coaches losing their valuable support teams as companies make cutbacks which creates even more work to do in the same time available.
Here’s a really neat life changing tip that’ll make a difference to the way you handle your time.
It’s called reducing your collection points.
I’m referring to the places where communication and information enters your life. The more we have, the less productive we are. Let me give you some examples of what I mean.
Email inboxes, postal letter boxes, mobile phone voicemails, office landline voicemails, home phone voicemails, paper in-tray, kitchen table, desk, car seat, car glove compartment, top pocket, text message inbox, briefcase, paper diary, conscious memory, partner’s memory, faxes, to do lists, second mobile voice mail.…..and so on.
And I’m sure you can add some more.
The time management secret is to reduce the number you have so information isn’t scattered everywhere and pulls us all over the place just collecting this information let alone dealing with it.
Read on and I’ll tell you how I reduced my collection points from 22 to just 4. Boy was it hard work but an incredible time saver.
Here are my 4 and the assorted collection points they replaced.
Paper pending file
This has become the home for all paper that enters my life before the paper is processed. My family have been instructed to deposit all post in here addressed to me and not the kitchen table. Receipts, ideas that I’ve jotted down on paper, article ideas, mind-maps, train tickets, parking tickets, phone messages taken for me. They all find their way into this file. And the best bit which I learnt years ago is to have it out of view i.e. in your filing draw, not in a plastic tray on my desk. And I also have a mobile paper in-tray that fits into my briefcase when on the move.
Microsoft Outlook Category None
Possibly like you, I use Outlook extensively and use the task list feature which is an essential time saver. I’ve categorised each task to help time management but have one called “Category None”. Quite simply when I type in something into tasks it appears in this category which acts as a holding bay. So the “Category None” becomes a collection point for loads of things that used to get written down on pieces of paper, in paper diaries, on the back of newspapers, on paper “to do” lists, Paul’s memory, top pocket of my jacket. And because I carry around a Smartphone which synchronises to Outlook, I can type these in where ever I am and then forget about them until I next synchronise.
Mobile voice mail
Untouched and I’ve also diverted the home phone to my mobile when we’re not in as I’ve finally got over this unnecessary yearning to keep home separated from work. We live and work in the 21st Century – home and work have combined into one.
My mobile messages come through as text messages so I don’t even have to dial 901 to see if I have any messages.
Email inbox
Pretty much untouched except so much more finds its way to this valuable collection point. I have a PA service which directs phone land line messages to my email inbox. I have a fax to email service which transforms incoming faxes into emails (really useful this one). I even have my brainwaves, ideas, to do’s that I can’t write down, turn up in my email inbox when I’m on the move.
I do this using a brilliant free service called www.dial2do.co.uk which operates here in the UK. All you do is phone a number and speak into the phone whatever it is you need to remember. They then cleverly turn this into text and email you. I have the number set up as a voice speed dial on my mobile phone so even if I am in the car I can still note down my ideas. And the best news is that I can then forget it, concentrate on my driving because I know that my email inbox will get the idea delivered when I next log on to email.
There’s nothing worse than trying to remember lots of things in your head.
So you can see that I’ve cut down all my collection points into just 4. This means I don’t spend huge amounts of time just checking collection points, trying to remember things, worrying about paper getting lost, dialling 901 or 1571 on various phones, sieving through the kitchen table for important post, panicking about the amount of paper I have to deal with.
If you’ve enjoyed this longer article, we have a brand new free service called Knowledge Bank on our website. Here you’ll have access to dozens of articles ranging from 800 to 2,000 words each. Click http://www.archertraining.co.uk/articles.htm
Add a Comment
About
Badge
© 2009 Created by Paul Archer on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
You need to be a member of Rapport Selling to add comments!
Join this social network