The Time Thief (Procrastination)

They say procrastination is the thief of time, but this is one thief that salespeople often willingly invite into their lives. Many reps are adept at wasting time, sometimes consciously – chatting with co-workers about last night’s game, looking up old college roommates on Facebook – and sometimes unconsciously, as when they stay busy with low-priority tasks to avoid actually calling on prospects. So how can you bar the door against procrastination, aka the time thief?

Make Sure the Task Is Worth Doing in the First Place
Watch out for tasks which Dr. Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, and James B. Duke, professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, call “urgent but not important.”

“People waste an unbelievable amount of time at work with distractions like email,” they say. “A goal needs to be something that really matters.”

With so many demands on your time, how do you choose? Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, suggests asking yourself, “If I were to be called out of town for a month and could only do one task, what would it be?” He explains, “The answer will tell you what you should start first.”

Tracy reminds us that the Law of Three states that of all the things we do, only three of them account for 90 percent of our income and results. “For salespeople,” he says, “the big three are prospecting, presenting, and closing. A salesperson is really working only when he’s doing one of these things. Everything else is a support activity.”

Start Each Day with the Most Important Task
The title of Tracy’s book Eat That Frog! is a metaphor for tackling your most essential, most challenging task first thing in the morning. “In its simplest terms, the way to overcome procrastination is to make a list of everything that you have to do in the coming day and then set priorities on that list,” he says. “Identify the one activity or task that is more valuable than any other, then discipline yourself to start with that task and concentrate until it’s 100 percent complete. When you develop the habit of starting on your most important task and completing it at the beginning of each day, you will get more things done faster and move ahead more rapidly in your life than with any other single technique.”

If this task is too large to complete in one day, still start your morning by working on it for a set amount of time. “We like to finish things,” Dr. Ariely says, “so we often put off important long-term tasks for those that we can accomplish quickly.”

The solution is to break complex, multi- stage projects into smaller, more manageable steps so that you get at least the emotional payoff for finishing that segment of the task. Doctor Ariely points out that psychologist B.F. Skinner completed numerous books by writing 800 words first thing each morning. “By not doing anything else until he finished those 800 words,” he says, “Skinner accomplished a large task in small steps.”

Besides increased productivity, there’s another reason to “eat your frog” early in the day. “When you start and complete a task, your brain releases endorphins,” Tracy says. “Endorphins feel so great that they’re almost an addiction, but this is a positive addiction because, unlike adrenaline, endorphins are only released when you’re doing something that’s good for you.

“If you imagine a scale of one to ten, completing a small task like packing your briefcase would give you an endorphin release of one, but closing a major sale could give you an endorphin rush of ten. It launches you into the day. You’re more positive and focused, with a higher level of productivity that lasts for hours. Successful people find a way to kick themselves into this endorphin release earlier in the day. They consciously create it by completing a significant task first thing in the morning.”

Keep Temptation out of Sight (and Thus Possibly out of Mind)
As most of us are painfully aware, studies show that humans are adept at postponing gratification and making good choices in the abstract but have trouble resisting temptation in the here and now. “The major source of human misery is that we tend to forsake long-term goals in favor of short-term desires,” says Dr. Ariely. “When the waiter appears with the chocolate soufflé and we can see it and smell it, there’s an emotional impact few of us can resist.” 

The answer is to either strike temptations from your workspace or learn to use them strategically. “Most of us know what our time killers are,” Dr. Ariely says. “If you enjoy walking to the corner for a cup of coffee, don’t start the day that way, but rather use it as a reward. If you hate to make cold calls, tell yourself, ‘I’ll make five calls and then go have a cup of coffee.’ And don’t take the reward until you finish the task.”

Practice Creative Procrastination
One of the ironies of procrastination is that some things actually should be put off…or not done at all. Which means you should feel free to consciously procrastinate on activities that contribute very little to your major goals. “Ask yourself, ‘What would happen if this task was not done at all?'” says Tracy. If the answer is, “Very little,” then you can put it off.

In contrast, something is important if putting it off has serious potential consequences, and these tasks are almost always financial, something that relates to the bottom line, such as picking up the phone and making an appointment, finishing a sales proposal, or getting in the car to go talk to a client. Low-priority tasks are those that have few, if any, consequences. Put them off for a while, and the odds are you won’t have to do them at all, which gives you more time to focus on the things that really count.