Always looking to get better at the craft of leadership, I recently posed the following question on LinkedIn: “As a sales leader, what time management tricks and tips do you rely on?” Without further introduction, here is a synthesis of the amazing knowledge folks dropped in response.
- Getting Things Done (David Allen)
- Delete: Prioritize high value tasks by eliminating everything that does not ultimately generate revenue
- Delegate: Outsource tasks you are not uniquely qualified to accomplish
- Do it now: Knock out anything that takes 5 mins or less
- Schedule it: ‘Time-block’ on your calendar to get deep work done
- Take care of yourself
- Meditate
- Exercise
- Get proper sleep
- Eat breakfast
- Take care of others
- Teach others how to manage their time
- Truly care about your people; give recognition
- Tailor how you motivate others based on their wants and needs
- Plan & Review:
- Spend time Sunday night planning for the week ahead. Start every day with a plan. Moreover, limit items in a given day to no more than 5.
- End every day reviewing successes, identifying blockers, and adjusting priorities (x1)
- Focus
- “Eat that Frog:” Do the hardest thing first
- Batch similar tasks
- Single-task (don’t multitask)
- Use the Pomodoro Timer technique (take breaks every 25 minutes)
- Start your day at 5:30 am (Note: Almost as many people disagree with this)
- Meetings:
- Avoid/delete meetings that don’t have a clear agenda and outcome
- Start on time, end on time.
- Let go – you don’t need to own or control everything
- Regularly attack deep work at your most productive time of day (the morning for most)
- Leverage Technology:
- Use the “reminder” functionality in Slack and Gmail/Outlook
- Turn off notifications/snooze (Slack, Email, etc.) when focused on deep work
- Schedule and adhere to set times for checking emails and other notifications
- Use project management tools (Asana, Trello, Monday, Jira, etc.)
- Let your calendar be your to-do list
Thanks to so many great contributors: Adam Pingel, AddA Sales, Alex Monteiro, Amanda (Obermeyer) Muhovich, Anthony Conrad, Alfie Isa Marsh, Azzy Aslam, Bill Piacitelli, Brandon T. Eyring, Brian Walker, Brian Angelson, Byron Druss, Callum Stuckey, Catie Ivey Coutinho, Chris Bondarenko, Christian Borrelli, Costas Perkas, Daniel Hebert, Dan Marrazzo, Dominic Taylor, Drew Oros, Eric Steeves, Esteban Cornejo, Faizan Patankar, Gene Gerrienne, Haylee Taylor,, James McArthur, Jason Lalk Jason Potter, Jesse Schmohl, Jim Barker, Justin Hyde, Kathleen (Rosensweig) Lima, Ken Baldo, Kyle Sapp, Louis (Lou) Casados III, Luke J. Rafferty, Mark Asten, Martin Hans Franke, Matthew Talarico, Michael C. Souza, Mo Moran, Neil Rubenstein, Ollie Sharpe, Sam Silverman, Simon Portwain, Steve Shannon, Travis Connell, Travis Janko, Ty Carlton, William (Bill) Leys, Zachary Ellis, Zach Selch