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Resetting the home-based worker environment
By Charles Martin | January 20, 2010
Working at home like I have for over eight years is no picnic. If you’re in my boat, you know it’s a big uphill climb — every day. For sure, there is lots of upside. But we pay for the freedom as well. Our psyche pays too.
Thinking today about how the home-based crew — me and you — want 2010 to be as awesome as any cube worker, I thought I’d reach out and look at some loopholes for getting your hitch moving.
It’s January. Wherever you live in the recent weeks (in the USA), that means sub-zero temps or torrential rains. That means as you turn away from CNN or whatever your morning grind is, it’s doubly harder to focus on the work at hand. There are also other January distractions like tax prep to deal with. But you gotta keep your motor runnin’.
Break up the day in more parts. Instead of the steady lunch at 12, go out at 10 and see a client that you would have seen after lunch. Then do lunch back at your home office (after all, one of your resolutions was to save money right?) Then go out again before the witching hour (4 to 5 when your cube worker friends begin to head home) and do another pitch or tweak on an ongoing deal.
Remember that time flies. If you think January is a long slog, just wait until it’s August and you have the finish line right smak in your headlights. Don’t delay anything becuase “you have time”. Whatever your professional goals are, they need to be prodded again and again as each day comes about. So, see this:
Break up your projects in more parts. If you are trying to get a big client on the hook work strategically instead of like the US government . You get my drift. I always try to be focused on the details in these things. Stay with it in very small pieces so you don’t get overwhelmed. If you think it takes six calls and two meetings to create success, then do eight calls, three emails, a tweet once a day, and then jettison the meetings altogether. (i’ll never be pro-meeting if I don’t have to). The trick here is spreading out the work and volume so it seems, in your mind at least, that you’ve done more. This is why social media is the call of the day. It’s a mico offering of your thoughts and ideas. This will ultimately propel you to feel more comfortable with what you’ve accomplished. It will show when you ultimately have to meet the client and make the final request for the order.
This isn’t just for salespeople btw. No matter your project — mom working on school function, teacher with deadlines, student working on a big test, speaker getting ready for a conference – it’s all the same. Today’s world and the success we see by others is done more bit by bit than grandiose plan. People are led to believe they are overworked but actually you just “feel” that way mostly. I can take apart your day and fine literally hours of free time. I’ve done it. Then all kinds of excuses ensue but basically you’re just a bad organizer.
If your one of the ones out there that the clock just hates, then work on things in a matter not relegated to time in minutes but in days, weeks, and months. You’re still going to have to meet your goals, but bigger objects on the wall may just help you.
Stick with your big plans for 2010. I am.
Topics: Greats in business, Mind and Planet, Sales Acumen | No Comments »