Sales professionals, regardless of production, are busy people with a lot of balls in the air including finding new business, serving existing clients and running a business (in many cases with very little administrative support.) But why is it that we all get the same 24 hours yet some people seem to be far more productive than others? The answer. It’s because productive people are good busy.
Good busy is when you wake up in the morning, review your goals, create a schedule based on those goals, do some lead follow-up, call back your past clients, touch base with your sellers and connect with your buyers about new listings. You get the idea.
Bad busy is constantly checking and responding to email all day, wasting time on social media, surfing the internet, and trying to complete every little task as soon as it lands on our lap.
Good busy is being proactive. Bad busy is being reactive.
The Busy Trap
Our ego likes to be busy; for some reason it makes us feel important. I’ve seen people get completely addicted to the busy rush, feeding off the adrenaline of madly crossing items off his/her ‘to do’ list. It’s almost like a drug. But the trouble is, when we are so busy doing we’re not bringing any clarity to our actions and asking these three important questions:
- Do I need to be doing this now or at all?
- Is this something I could be delegating to someone else?
- Is this serving my life or my business in any way?
The only way to consider these questions is to slow down, step off the treadmill, and take a step back for a clearer perspective on what uses up all of your time each day.
Stop Saying “I’m Too Busy”
It always amazes me that “busy” can seem like something that just happens TO us rather than something we actually created ourselves. At some point, we choose to take on all of those things that make up our “busy” lives. If you’re too busy, you have only one person to blame. YOU.
Once you start being more intentional about how you spend your time, you’ll start to see that you’re not actually busy, you are over-committed. Once you begin being less reactive and more proactive, you’ll begin to see that you are in charge of how your day goes. YOU are the captain of your own ship.
I know, I know… there will always be exceptions to this rule. I’m not saying that unexpected situations and unforeseen disasters won’t strike from time to time. Stuff happens. But for those who have chosen to take the reigns of their life, versus letting life drag them all over town, I’m sure they’ll find that life’s hiccups become a little easier to handle.
So are you good busy or bad busy? Be honest, share your comments below.
Until next time, make it count.
Richard Robbins