Ten Tips to Win Your Day & Get it All Done

Do you often find yourself heading home after a long day of work feeling like you’ve worked really hard, but didn’t actually accomplish much? You start each day with a plan, but soon find yourself becoming distracted, focusing on low-priority tasks, and spending most of your time being reactive instead of proactive.  

You’re not alone! Most business professionals wrestle with the question, “How do I get it all done?”  

If you are in sales, we believe you can win your day in just 90 minutes with our IMPACT Tracker. Inside our one-page form, you will find the secret to crushing it in sales in ten simple steps.  

The following ten steps are designed to help you crush your day by winning a 90-minute time block. We know you have a lot to accomplish throughout the day. A lot is out of your control. But with just 90 minutes of intentional proactive behaviors (with the right attitude and effort), you can control the momentum of your business and the output for the entire day. 

Apply these ten tips inside your business to help transform your workday.  

1. START YOUR DAY WITH A 15-MINUTE TEAM MEETING (Do this even if you don't have a team)

• Have an agenda! If you don’t have one, use the back of the IMPACT Tracker as your guide.
• Review daily and weekly to-do’s & delegate what you can!
• Review your calendar for the day/week. How many appointments do you have? How many do you still need?
• Pre-fill as much as you can into the IMPACT Tracker for your day ahead. Example: Any new leads or referral sources can immediately pre-fill into the Handwritten Card section.
• Once a week, include script training/role play.
• DO NOT EXCEED 30 MINUTES!

2. TIME-BLOCK 90 MINUTES A DAY FOR PROSPECTING

• Use the IMPACT Tracker as your guide.
• Spend one hour making your 20 phone calls.
• Spend the last 30 minutes keeping any promises you made.
• Use Do Not Disturb on your phone.
• Put a do not disturb sign on your door.
• Do not check or reply to emails.
• Already have your call sheet printed out and ready to go.

3. USE AND STICK TO THEME DAYS FOR YOUR WEEK

• Give each day a theme around the people you plan on serving that day. Examples:
  • Monday: Target List (top referral source).
  • Tuesday: Active Clients (work on your active pipeline, send status updates, communicate with all active third parties).
  • Wednesday: Lead, Leads, Leads (manage your active, dead, delayed, and disqualified leads).
  • Thursday: Past Clients (Have a plan for 30, 60, & 90 days after a client closes with you, annual check-ins, and celebrate their birthdays).
  • Friday: Wealth Team/VIP List (work on growing your Cadre).
• Make your call list for the day based on your theme.
• When possible, schedule all next touch dates according to your theme days.
• When possible, schedule all appointments according to your theme days.

4. MAKE AND STICK TO A TO-DO LIST 

• Contrary to VERY popular belief, your email is not your to-do list!!!!!
• Your to-do list gets written as the last thing you do before you leave the office for the next day’s tasks. When you get in the next morning, spend the first 30 minutes reviewing your emails, add any tasks needed to your to-do list, and reprioritize, if necessary.
• Use A’s, B’s, and C’s. A- before lunch, B- by the end of the day, C- next day or later in the week, and my favorite letter D- delegate! This is about being proactive, NOT reactive. Being reactive enhances your stress and keeps you in a fluster- ALL DAY.

5. DO AT LEAST ONE OR TWO NON-WORK ACTIVITIES THAT BOOST YOUR ENERGY

• Dedicate one of your scheduled breaks towards activities that you know help you feel refreshed and re-energized.
• Meditate for 15 minutes
• Go on a walk around your neighborhood or office
• Listen to a podcast or read a book

• If you need to physically leave the office to remove yourself from work, do that!
• Choose an activity that uses a different part of the brain than was being used for work, allowing the part of your brain being used for work to rest.
• Have fun! Choose something that you look forward to doing.

6. SET PROPER EXPECTATIONS UPFRONT

• Under promise and over-deliver (trust is a series of small kept promises). If you think something will take a day to complete, set the expectation for two days. If you plan on calling them back in an hour, ask if you can call them back by the end of the day. Not only does this remove the stress of a deadline, but it also gives you the opportunity to exceed expectations.
• Set clear expectations on what you need from others, when you need it, and what the consequence is for not receiving it on time. For example, “ I need your signature on that document by the end of business tomorrow, or we will have to push back your closing date.” (Use their why to hold them accountable) 

• Ask the client to confirm if they can deliver on their promise. And don’t be afraid to tell them, “in order to______, I’ll need these documents before noon on Wednesday- will you be able to meet that deadline?” If the answer is no, find out what is keeping that deadline from happening and negotiate an alternative solution.

7. DON'T COMMUNICATE VIA EMAIL

• The goal is to talk with someone over the phone. You get way more accomplished with a phone call than you do with an email. If you default to emailing as your primary method for relaying information, you are robbing yourself of the opportunity that comes with a phone call.
• Emailing should be for recapping information only. On the flip side, every phone call should be followed up with an email. 
• You’re not saving time by communicating via email; you are GUARANTEEING A FUTURE INTERRUPTION. This is how you avoid miscommunication!!!!!!!

8. LEARN TO SAY NO

• Say no to working with bad leads. Punt early and punt often. There are several indicators that make
  someone a bad lead. Typically, they aren’t referred and are difficult to work with. Bad leads take more
  time to work with than good leads. They are less likely to close, and they are more likely to leave a bad review or talk negatively about you in the community. They also drag down the morale and culture of your team.
• Say no to meeting with people you have zero interest in working with. You don’t have to meet with everyone that calls you asking to go out for coffee. Guard your time above all else!
• Say no to talking with people that constantly ask you for advice, but never take any of it! They are time suckers.
• Say no to pointless meetings. Most meetings should have been emails. Learn the difference.

9. ASK FOR HELP

• Do you need to hire someone?
• Do you have someone on your team that can permanently take something off your plate?
• Are you delegating everything you can?
• Do you have a boss or manager that you can ask for help?
• You can have control or growth… you can’t have both.

10. LEARN FROM OTHERS

• Consider hiring a business coach. 
• Do you have a mentor? (Someone in the same job/position as you that makes more money, has been doing it longer, and is well respected). We also encourage you to be a mentor. Remember, we are students first... teachers second. 
• Join a Cadre Sprint designed around competition, collaboration, and community. When you sprint with us, you pay a one time membership free giving you access to our resource library, training videos, and community of like-minded high achievers. 
• Join a mastermind group where you can learn best practices from other professionals. Who has the best checklists, forms, scripts, email management, client satisfaction surveys, etc.? (Facebook Groups are great for this. Join ours by clicking HERE)

At the end of the day, regardless of my results, I remind myself that I’ve done my best, and my best is good enough. I even have a sticker above my light switch in my office that says, "I've done my best, and my best is good enough." Maybe you could make that a mantra you say to yourself at the end of your workday. 

Start today by choosing one of the ten tips to implement in your business. Any one of these ten tips will increase your productivity and ultimately help you win your day!