Episode 142: Time Management Hacks to Control Your Schedule in the Race to Christmas

We're going to talk about time management, right? Something that we haven't done a lot of on this podcast, but I think is so important as a leader to get right, but so difficult to consistently deliver on. For me, there's some really clear hacks that we can put in that are quick wins, but also ones that we can help allow for us to continue to operate at a long term cadence. That works for us. Hi everyone, I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Team podcast where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate and keep together highly effective sales teams. Teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits. Along the journey, we also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive year is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So if you're an ambitious sales leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, stronger sales teams is right where you need to be. Looking back over what's been a really terrific two and a half year journey of our podcast, and as we close in towards 150 episodes, one thing that stood out to me is how much great content has been delivered through the podcast. And in fact, some of the very early podcasts that we recorded were some of the best tried and tested content that I've been delivering with sales teams for almost 25 years. The type of content that is really worth revisiting after such a long period of time, and particularly because I know that the listener base has also changed, grown and evolved over that time. So for the next four weeks, we're going to do a blast from the past and revisit some of our finest, strongest sales teams podcast episodes. So welcome back to the final of our series of episodes. Looking back at some of the most successful, Stronger sales Teams podcast episodes. Last one. Arguably we leave the best to last is all around time management. Both strategies and hacks that you can implement to get yourself using your time a lot better. Why have I picked this one for this week? Well, in the lead up to Christmas, to be honest, most of the teams and individuals I'm working with are struggling under time pressure. So I thought this was a really good moment to be able to revisit that and see if there's any little pots of gold or any nuggets that you can take out of this to help make a difference for you and how you operate in that really busy run into Christmas. So sit back, enjoy, nice and punchy. There is absolutely some great nuggets in here that will help move the dial for your time management. The question is which ones will work for you. So enjoy and we will catch up with you next week when we have some really exciting announcements coming for the Stronger Sales Teams podcast. Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams where we provide real world and practical advice to help supercharge your B2B sales sales teams. Over the last month or so we have spent lots and lots of time on leadership, particularly on my go to coaching model, which was episode 32 if I remember correctly. And then things like understanding the stages of team development, which was episode 35, and lots of stuff around how you get the most out of teams and yourself. They're topics that really do take time to implement, which can really quickly eat into your day, right? Particularly when you're a leader and you have so many people that you need to focus on working with. So, so how do you keep people engaged? How do you keep yourself engaged? Right? And how do you do all this without hitting burnout? So naturally that for me has led to talking about time management, right? Something that we haven't done a lot of on this podcast, but I think is so important as a leader to get right but so difficult to consistently deliver on. So today we're gonna talk about exactly that, time management and I'm gonna give an example to start here. And this is a story I actually don't share very often, but certainly in my previous life when we had a business of nearing on 300, when you're talking about direct reports and subcontractors, it was a significant team size that we had. I at one point in time had 13 direct reports, I had about 200 emails or so coming in every day and it was at least 50 phone calls and I was sitting through meetings essentially all of the nine to five day. So I was in complete overwhelm. There is just no way that you can manage that on your own. And had absolutely no idea what I was going to do about it. To be honest, I was probably actually hitting 100 weeks at this point in time. And if I had have kept going for much longer, I think it would have had pretty significant health impacts on me. So I very deliberately sat down and said, right, I've got to get better at a whole lot of things and get these hours, halve these hours down so that I'm actually my best at work and not exhausted every day. Now, I did a lot of structural things that changed exactly how I operated and that certainly made a difference. But one of the other things that I did was focus a lot around my time and my time management. So for me, there's some really clear hacks that we can put in that are quick wins, but also ones that we can help allow for us to continue to operate at a long term cadence that works for us. So for me, I'm going to go through some of these, but what I'll recognize before we get into it is that for some people, it's not simply you recognize you're at overwhelm before you need to be putting in time management processes. Right. For some people, it's a slow process of time being taken away an extra hour here or there, falling behind on emails or phone calls, or even to the point where you end up saying, right, every Saturday morning is going to be emails. Which is not great to be having to do, particularly when you have a family and they're important hours to spend with them. So how do you take control of your working day back before you hit that point of overwhelm to allow you to operate at that cadence that gets results consistently? Let's get into exploring some of these and having a look about how we can make a tangible impact with only a few little changes to our time management process. Okay, so number one and most things with me, you'll find we'll come back to this because it is just so important and that's being clear around what your goals are. Now, most sales leaders will have goals. I find it very rare that I come across any type of leader who doesn't have a goal in terms of what they need to do to succeed. However, aligning these goals with your day to day activities, so waterfalling the goals into everything you do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis, that's where the time management hack comes in and can be super impactful. Okay, so how do we make sure that we can waterfall down to time exactly what our goals are set? And for me, the really important part here is to make sure that your goals are very specific, measurable, and let's say in total the smart principles that most of us as leaders know. So when we get our goals to be very clear. So let's say it's a sales driven goal around increasing revenue per customer by 10% by the end of Q1, when we have a very specific goal that we know is achievable, you know, we know it's reliable Relevant and that we're going to be able to hit it on time, we can then align our activities to exactly what we need to be doing for that goal versus another goal that's a longer term goal. Say for example, looking at customers and the sales pitch that we have with our customers. Right. So how we're going about engaging with our customers, we know that this will take some time to build out our pitch deck and exactly how we're going to go about presenting to customers. So when we're looking to completely either build those or, or even evolve those or refresh those, we know that that's a goal that will have some stage gates along the journey. So we can align our tasks and what we do on a day to day and weekly basis around small milestones there. So what's really relevant around how setting our goals is crucial for time management is that by having goals that are really easy to comprehend and that we understand what we need to do to achieve them, we can then align our daily, weekly and quarterly activities to them. So now I will say this is a very difficult one to get right from a time management point of view. And I'm going to go through some recommendations later. But certainly from the start, my key recommendation here is make sure your goals are ones that you are very clear on what you need to achieve out of them. And then once you get those clear metrics out on paper, you can then start to align what you do each day to achieving those. Because at the end of the day, everything else is noise. Right. So number two is how do you go about prioritizing your tasks? This is clearly the second key hack that I recommend out to every sales leader I work with. And that's about how you make sure you are doing the right tasks at the right time, rather than those that are screaming, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm in front of you. Right? So for me, I've always worked off Kobi's model. A lot of people will have heard or seen Kobi's model, which is a quadrant around urgent and important tasks. But for those who haven't, there are essentially four tasks or four quadrants of tasks here. So number one is important but not urgent, number two is important and urgent. Number three is urgent but not important, and number four is not urgent and not important. And these all flow in different spaces within your quadrant. However, what's really clear that comes out of this is understanding what's important as your driver for time management. So for me, it's Assigning your day, blocking out time, having your focus built around important tasks. So for me, that's important tasks that are both urgent and important tasks that are not urgent. So a really quick and easy time management hack here is to make sure that each day you have time set aside for your important and urgent urgent tasks. So get what's both important and urgent done as a priority. For me, that's early in the day. The second part of this is those tasks that are important but not urgent. So important but not urgent need to be done, but don't need to be done. Now these are tasks that we want to see scheduled into your calendar at some point, right? So it doesn't have to be today or it doesn't have to be every single morning. But what it does have to be is a dedicated time block. And this is often project based work where you have the important but not urgent task scheduled in. So first of all, important and urgent tasks is a daily affair. And you're putting that and allowing time in your calendar to do that. And what that means is you're staying on top of everything that comes in that's important and urgent without feeling overwhelmed. The second part of that though is to not fall behind on a lot of your strategic goals, which are often aligned back to the goals I spoke about earlier. You're setting blocks of time out so they don't get taken up by other important or not important tasks. They don't get taken up by that. They actually, you then have some dedicated time to allow yourself to do it. And lastly around this is tasks that are not important, whether they be urgent or not urgent. These are the ones we want to be avoiding getting sucked in too much to. So they're not urgent, not important. We want to get rid of them, right? Delegate them out to someone else that can do them, or even better still is get rid of them out of the business. The urgent tasks that are not important. So stuff that does need to get done because there's an urgency around it, but it's not really crucial. That's where you can systemize and have others help you and even delegate them out as well. So how do we do this? So how do we make sure that we're spending our time on the important tasks rather than the urgent and essentially not important tasks. For me, this is all about thinking back to your goals and classifying within those goals what the important tasks are. So if those goals you've set are very smart, like we spoke about a few minutes ago, then what will happen is you can very clearly see, see what you need to spend time on. If we revert back to having an increase of 10% in basket size per customer over the next quarter, we know that that's a really important task and you can start to schedule into your calendar everything that needs to be done around that from a project basis. And then at the same time, as tasks come in that are both urgent and important, you can spend your time worrying about those at a daily level. Right. So what we're doing is we're setting the goals, making sure we're really clear about what we need to do, and then we're prioritizing within those goals using a bit of a framework. And I love that Kobi framework. And if you want to know more, then please get in touch with me. So last but not least, in terms of hacks here, and then I'm going to get into how I run my day. All right. I'm very, very organised, I think, as an operator and I always have been, even to the point where I got to that overwhelm about five or eight years ago now, I still managed to bring that in through a level of organization. So I'm going to share some of my advice around what I do at a very specific level. But before I do that, understanding how you go about your work is the third of these time management hacks that I want to talk about. So that's understanding what's important to your operating method. So are you a person that thrives with meetings, with emails, via phone calls or social media? Right. What's your medium? Because all four of those combined are more than a full time job for any leader. For me, five to eight years ago, I didn't even have social media really as that key driver of my time. But I imagine if I had layered that in, it would have just been horrendous to be able to manage. So for you, as a leader or as an individual, what are the ways that your business needs you to operate and what are the ways that you like to operate? So the best people that I see working in this time management space, they have a very clear formula here which we can go through now. So firstly and really critically is they know their clear and preferred communication and operating modalities, then they let everyone around them know what that is. So communication is critical here. So everyone that knows me knows that if something's urgent, you call me and if it's really urgent, you call me twice. Because if I see my phone ring and then it rings a second time from someone that I know I will stop what I'm doing and answering, and I've been consistently, really clear around that with those around me for a long period of time. Then for me, if it's less urgent but important, email me. I'm very organized, so I will get to all of my emails, but they won't necessarily be same day. And then lastly, for me, if you need to discuss something, so if it's more than just a piece of communication or a quick phone call, book a time, book a meeting or come and find me. Because when you get some dedicated time with me, you'll get that headspace that people often need. So for you is have a think about what's your preferred method and then communicate like crazy to those around you how you work so that people start to get used to it. It'll take some time, but if you start to live it, and when I mean live it, is you build the support around what you said is important. So for me, if I'm saying that phone calls are important, I need to make sure I'm living answering my phone. If I'm saying that emails are a slower method to get in touch with me, I need to make sure I'm actually getting back to emails. But more importantly is I'm not prioritising them in every day because people around me know that phone call is the way to get me if it's absolutely critical. And then at the same time, for meetings, my calendar needs to be visible, right? So that people can always see when they can book time. So set your communication goals, leave them, and then from there set up the practices for you that allow that efficiency. So for me, I make sure that I have time every day to clear out my phone calls. I make sure that from an inbox point of view, because most of these tasks are one that need to be attended to, right? But aren't necessarily urgent if they take less than two minutes. When I'm looking at my emails, I'll clear them out. I use my email and I think of my email as a physical post box. There's only so much that can go into that inbox. So I want to make sure that, that I'm clearing it out as emails come in at my dedicated email times. So when you're actually setting up those practises, so you've set what your modalities are, you've started to make sure that you are living up to those modalities and now what you're doing is you're setting practices that allow you to both live up to those modalities and make it easy for you. So for me, I've set end of day for phone calls, emails I batch and I make sure I move emails through so that they don't sit in an inbox. I'll certainly say that those in the hundreds, probably thousands now of salespeople I've worked with, those who run clean inboxes, are generally the ones that are the best operators. Those who run dirty inboxes with thousands of emails in there, they're the ones I can generally rely on or not rely on to get things done for me in time. Some other ideas around this around setting practices is having meetings, try and collate meetings with teams instead of individuals when it's more effective and impactful to do things together. So when someone comes to me and wants to talk through something, if I think it's better at a group level, I'll move that into a group meeting. If I think it's better at an individual level and it's quite personalised, I'll do that in that individual level. But certainly where you can batch content together or batch ideation or batch decision making, that really helps you live your communication modalities. And last but not least on this, if social media is one of your big communication modalities, really, really. See quite deliberately a lot of the great creators globally, they're setting times. Even those that are spending hours and hours on social media, they're actually setting times in their ring fencing when they're doing that, having your social media open in the background and continually going back and forward from it. Yes, it certainly allows for urgency when you're posting, reposting, commenting, getting engagement on your posts, but it can be very distracting. So these people will actually batch and they might even batch down to the hour, 10 minutes every hour spent on social media. So bringing together hacks around time management, I'd be recommending there are three areas that you can narrow in and focus on to make your use of time the most effective and impactful it can be. Number one is getting your goal setting really clear, so not only understanding what your goals are, but extending those out to what the tasks are that you need to make happen so that you can achieve those goals. Because when you know what you have to focus on, you can then plan your time around it. Number two would be to put a framework around how you approach tasks. And for me and many of the teams I've worked with, it's using Covey's model around urgency and importance and prioritising important tasks into your workflow to make sure things are done. And third around this is understanding how you work. Phone, email, text, meetings, whatever it is, making it really clear to those around you and then setting up the very effective principles that work for you so so that you can be delivering on those goals. Now they are three very simple time hacks, but they, I can assure you, have made the world of difference to so many people that I've worked with over a 20 year period. But rather than listen to the words, let's go through a bit of a practical example as to how I run my daily schedule to keep things on track. Okay, so before I start this, my disclaimer is that you know your game, so make sure you tap into what works really well for you and then tweak it. Right? You'll also find that you'll need to practice this a few times before it gets right. For me, what I'm about to go through is you'll see that my days are predominantly around goals rather than actions. So I'll focus more on the processes or tasks that need to be done rather than emails, phone calls, social media. For me that works a lot better because I can then understand and recognize what I'm getting done or what I need to get done for the next days. Okay, so I'm an early riser. By 6am I am up and going every day, right? Normally my days will start with exercise because I know if I get it done, I'm sharper and in more tune to what needs to happen. So I'll nail it, I'll get it done and then I'll have a quick breakfast with family. Quick hello. And I'm into work by 8 o' clock every day. Not too early, but early enough. So from 8am to 10am every day I will do my most important tasks that need to happen. These are mostly actually my important but not urgent tasks because I know that between 8am and 10am I can think the best. The best that I will think for the day comes in that period. So I will make sure that really I'm getting important stuff done and then moving into my day at 10am so at 10am, here's when I start to focus on the important and urgent tasks. It's about customers, it's about my teams, it's about my goals, it's about making sure I get the work done. The grunt work of the day. I'll also across that six hour period, I'll take short breaks and I will definitely check in with family or those around me because it keeps me grounded. The other really impactful piece for me is that I'm very focused on what I eat during the day and my lunch will generally be reasonably light to moderate but healthy so that I don't get those post lunch downers in terms of my energy levels. I've refined this over a long period of time, but it absolutely works and it's critical for me to make sure I'm focused on that during the day across that period. Between 10am and 4pm, I'm often returning phone calls as needed as well. Because I like to be available on the phone from 4 to 6pm, I generally try and make that meeting free. This is where I'll look to nail my urgent tasks, but not necessarily the important ones, right? So this is where I'll do emails, this is where I'll make sure I've tied everything up, loose ends up in a bow. This is where I'll start to plan for the next day, right? I'll cross off what I've done today and I'll make a list for tomorrow. So so that when I'm in tomorrow I know what I need to be achieving. I'll also plan ahead if things have changed and make sure that my calendar is looking very balanced for the rest of the week. By 6 o' clock it's family time for me. So from 6 to 7:30 every day it's just myself and my family or we're out or friends are around or whatever it may be. But that's non negotiable and that gives me about an hour and a half to two hours a day on weekdays that I get with the family. Once 7:30 hits, that's where I allow myself a little bit of grace if things haven't gone to plan, I don't do my overflow. I try not to do this frequently, I try to do it less often than I do, but that is my flex time. 7:30 to 8:30 in case I need to get things done. Because hey, days just don't always go to plan. But by 8:30 I am always finished work off the computer and I use that until bedtime, which for me is about 9, 9:30 I'm up early, I'm to bed early, I make sure then I have a little bit of time for myself and I get back to it the next morning. What I will say is I generally will go very hard Monday through to Wednesday and sometimes Thursday and then by Friday I'll ease off. Generally try to have very few meetings on Fridays and by 2 o'clock. I'm rounding up the week and making sure I'm perfectly planned for next week. So that altogether gives me about a 45 to 50 hour working week, which is perfectly balanced for me. I don't work weekends. I've made that a golden rule. It's been that rule since, what are we up to 12 months now and I am yet to break it and I'll be sticking to that. So. And for me, that works if I'm really organized during the week. Okay, so the final word on here, time management is very brutal. It's very difficult. You need to be very deliberate, very organized and very disciplined and understand that you can't be everything to everyone. For me, being really organized means that I know that I get back to people at certain times, but not necessarily when they need me. Now, an exception here will generally be around customers. For me, it's really critical that I'm making sure people are aware about how I work and why I work that way. And that then tends to flow into what I can do really effectively for others. So before we finish today, something I'd like to ask of you listening is think about five things that you can get out of today. Five little changes you could make or three to five, even little changes that you can make and then go about implementing one at a time for the next three to five weeks. I'd love to know how you go. So DM me if you've got any questions or you'd like to hear more. If you weren't able to get to everything we've gone through in the show, you can go through the show notes in your own time. They're on the website strongersalesteams.com or if you'd like a little bit of extra help, of course, DM me book a time. And more than happy to help you. I get across every connection made into the business so you'll typically hear from me directly. But before we leave today, health and fitness tip. We go through these every week and you betcha this is all around time management. So the digital world is absolutely everywhere. We can't avoid it. For me, making sure that we as leaders reduce our digital time when we're around family is unbelievably impactful to how present we are. So for me, between 6 and 7:30, my phone goes on to do not disturb. It's such an easy adjustment you can make to your day. I put my phone down silent, do not disturb and then I'm with family. So very, very simple can be difficult when you've had a busy day to switch off like that, but if you're communicating to those around you that that is exactly what's happening, then it can be a lot more effective for you. So give it a go. I'd love to see how it works for you. But until next time, keep living in a world of possibility and you'll be amazed by what you can achieve. Want to be kept up to date with any of our free free materials to help you build the best sales teams possible? Well, the easiest way you can do so is to follow us on your favourite social media channel. We're ongerngersalesteams on most of them and if you DM us stronger, we'll send you right back some great resources to help you build your super powered sales team. If you'd like a little more help, please get in touch directly and book a free discovery call with me. I run a limited number of these sessions and there free for my podcast listeners. I'd love to help you out. Until then, see you next week for another podcast of stronger sales team.