Creating Time

I have found that I am good for about four hours of work each day. Does that mean I only do four hours of work? No. It means that I know if I can do four hours of good quality work, I need to work my calendar to support that.

Meaningful change starts on the calendar. Everything can be controlled from there. Want to work out? Put it on the calendar. Friday lunches with your significant other? Put it on the calendar.

The calendar is a compass. If you build it that way and trust in yourself enough to let your calendar guide you. It only takes a few elements: self-reflection, honesty, and being accountable to yourself.

Easier said than done, I know. Using the calendar as a guide can create time where you didn’t think you had time available. And most of us want more time.

Know Thy Self

The first step in building a calendar is understanding yourself. I started by saying I am only good for about four hours of work each day. That was not the most comfortable realization for me.

Knowing that I can provide four hours of quality work allows me to schedule accordingly. I only want these four hours to go to revenue generating activities. So each day, I have four hours to focus on making money.

The next step is to know how your mind and body works. For prospecting and new business development, I do my best work in the mornings. I am most focused then.

I am most creative in the afternoon. As such, I schedule all of my writing, course creation, and anything else that needs creative thought in the afternoon.

This process takes trial and error to lock it down. A good practice is to review your calendar at the end of each week. Ask:

Did my calendar support me?

Is there room for improvement?

Did I have things in the right place?

What can I do differently next week?

Make adjustments as needed. Overtime, your calendar will start to favor your strong traits and support the areas where you might not be as strong.

What Pays the Bills

After analyzing your personal traits and qualities, look at what you are spending your time on. For most of us in sales, the answer should be selling. If we are not making money, we are not doing the right activities.

This process takes some very honest assessment. It is very easy to trick ourselves into thinking that we are doing enough activity. Usually the reality is that we could do ten times more than we are doing.

To avoid that trap, take accurate account of how much selling activity you are doing. Measure the results against your goals. If you are on target, then you are scheduling and doing the right amount of activity.

Once you know if the amount of selling time is correct on your calendar, look at where the time is placed. If I need to prospect, that goes in the mornings when I do my best work. Everything else for the day (meetings, emails, trainings) goes in the afternoon on those days and that switches on the days when I write in the afternoon.

“But wait a second you said you only do four hours of work?” I said I am good for four hours of work. Quality work. I still work more than four hours a day.

Shouldn’t everything get my best effort? Sure. In a perfect world. And our world is far from perfect.

So what gets my not perfect effort? Things that do not make me as much money or any money. Also, things that do not require creative energy.

Business financials is a great example. It is very important and it requires no creative effort. At least I hope I do not have to get financially creative. This is something I do before coffee in the morning. It has to happen. I am eager to do it. But it is numbers and as long as I can comprehend what I am doing and spot discrepancies, I am good to go.

You might be different and that is ok. That is why you get to build your calendar to support you and I get to build mine to support me.

Building Blocks and Filling Slots

The actual mechanics of the calendar are fairly simple. Create a template for what you want your week to look like. Do this using recurring blocks for each activity at each time.

As a note, I want to point out that I found it easier to use two calendars for this. The example I am going to show depicts one calendar. This does not work if you need to use Calendly or similar tools.

Above is a the calendar that I use to help new insurance producers get started. Usually, they work off this calendar for the first month. Then they start to customize it.

Each day is blocked off with specific activity blocks. As the week gets planned, individual activities get added into the calendar. This way the calendar can guide the week.

The above sample is a morning of in-person prospecting. The block has been filled with the individual companies that will be seen. Inside each block is the address and all relevant information about the prospect.

All the rep needs is the calendar and the day is planned. The only responsibility is to actually do what is on the calendar.

After each week, look at what works and what doesn’t. Then adjust.

When you have a good feel for your calendar, start looking at what can be delegated and what can be outsourced or outright eliminated. This will keep you hyper focused on selling and producing revenue.

Take Aways

Want to make a change? Make the change on your calendar. The calendar is a compass. Set it up to support the areas that you want to focus on. Do a deep dive on your traits and qualities. Learn yourself and build a calendar that supports you.

Review your calendar weekly. Make changes often. Move things. Cut things. Add things. Make it yours. You do not have to have your calendar accountable to anyone but you. Use it to get the most out of your week. Even if the most is only four hours of good work every day.