Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Until Tomorrow?

Articles, Selling

Or the next day, the next week, or even the next month? I spent the majority of my life as a terrible procrastinator. I would study for tests the night before (Cliff’s Notes). I would write papers the day before they were due. Most often I got by with good grades and thus … a habit was formed.

This trait carried through to the business world. I rarely made my time commitments to clients. If there were problems with a particular project, I’d generally wish them away. That never worked. As a silver tongued devil, I could usually talk my way out of these situations … but barely and not always.

This all changed in 2006. I think I know why, but that’s not really important. What is important is that all of a sudden I found myself to be born again proactive.

It never fails. Procrastination is like leaving the welcome mat out for “Murphy’s Law”. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. This will generally manifest itself in one, or both, of two general areas …

  1. When you plan to finally get around to doing whatever it is that you have put off, a problem will arise that requires your immediate attention. Something is going to have to wait. Or …
  2. An opportunity will unexpectedly present itself. Too bad that you have a prior commitment. Opportunity … lost.

Here’s what I do. I have a steno pad with dates marked for the next two weeks with every task for that day. One sheet only. I review this sheet first thing every morning and several times during the day. I am looking for two things …

  1. What can I scratch off this sheet even though it might be due two weeks from now?
  2. What can I move (up) to another time slot in order to make better use of my time? For example, if I have to go out, what tasks can I combine on this trip?

I do everything in pencil so I can erase and move items as needed. Next, at the end of every week I completely rewrite the sheet so that it is always showing the next two weeks. I also scan my calendar a month in advance.

I complete a lot of paperwork during early mornings and on weekends. I’m writing this on a Sunday while watching “The Americans” on Hulu. I will upload this to my website and schedule it for my next open publication date. When I do this, I will be set through the end of October.

Exceeding customer expectations is a critical element of this. I will always promise something at least twice as far out as I know it will take me to get it done. I will then complete it in half the amount of time, or less.

There may be occasions where your client will drive a completion date. It has been my experience that they will generally expect you to set that expectation. It is extremely rare that I will get any pushback on this from a customer.

Remember that busy people want to work with busy people. Old habits are tough to break. New habits will eventually take their place and become reflex, but only if you perform them religiously. Repetition. What old habits would you like to break and replace?

Craig M. Jamieson

Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services
Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!
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