One subset of employees that we regularly study is sales reps. Their main job function is to call on prospects and customers, aiming to increase sales and service existing needs. On a weekly basis, their planning time typically takes up 4.8 hours per week, or 10 % of a 47 hour work week. Planning activities are what we refer to as “A priorities” These are activities that affect one’s results a month or more in the future.

Included in these activities are determining long term strategies, territory management, account planning, deciding which customers to contact and presentation preparation. It also includes team meetings to plan strategies and share information, plus planning one’s daily to-do list.

Within the 4.8 hours per week on planning, most sales reps spend about 2 hours planning their daily schedule and activities. Another hour is spent in presentation preparation, and just under an hour in team meetings. The remainder is other planning activities, listed above.

So what do we know about planning and results? Are time management trainers correct to encourage you to do more planning? The answer is yes, to a degree. There is in fact a correlation between daily planning and time spent directly selling to prospects. (Selling time includes making presentations, calling, and sending emails.) The chart below shows four groups of sales reps, distinguished by how much daily planning they do each week.

Those who plan more are able create more time for selling – but only to an extent. Spending 2-3 hours per week, or 24 to 36 minutes per day results in 12.5 hours for selling. This represents 26% of the time. However, too much time spent doing daily planning (over 3 hours per week) becomes counterproductive and as a result, selling time decreases, as shown in the bar on the far right.

So be sure to invest the time to plan well. It’s easy to procrastinate, or to let interruptions get in the way. Instead, take the time to focus on your goals. But don’t go overboard. Your time is worth it.

In the survey, employees reported work hours of 45 hours per week. This closely matches data from our own time and motion study projects from the last 22 years. Our data shows the average work week is 47 hours, including breaks.

The key finding from the Microsoft study that causes alarm is that employees consider about 17 hours per week to be unproductive. That’s more than a third of the work week!

Some of the common “productivity pitfalls” that were reported include unclear objectives, lack of team communication, ineffective meetings, unclear priorities, and procrastination.

Microsoft is in the technology business, and no doubt a couple of its survey questions were designed to support its mission. Sure enough, 55 percent of respondents said they relate their productivity directly to their software. Not surprising. But wait. That leaves 45% who relate productivity to something else. Whatever that is, it is not about technology. It’s likely that employees are thinking about soft skills that enable them to run better meetings, overcome procrastination, set priorities, and enhance other time management skills.

Those are the skills that get overlooked. An on-line service called Google Trends shows relative search volumes over the past few years – what terms people are interested in. A search on “training” shows a decline from a score of 1.5 in 2004 to a score of about .75 in late 2011. Meanwhile “smart phone” skyrocketed from 1.0 to over 2.0 between 2009 and late 2011. Clearly, smart phones today have a greater appeal than training.

Yet what if everyone who lined up for hours to buy the latest version of a smart phone spent their money on training instead? Something needs to be done to address all those unproductive hours. As we study the use of time, our data confirms that employees are not becoming any more productive in achieving their highest priorities than they were twenty years ago. Much has improved about how we do our work, but there is farther to go. Do we need the latest app? Or should we invest in new training methods to improve personal productivity?

Tomorrow is coming fast. Do you know where you are headed? The goals you set for tomorrow are your pictures of success. By setting them today, you aim your activities in the right direction. But a goal shouldn’t just be “I want to lose weight,” or “I hope to be rich someday.” Those goals are too vague. They’re like New Year’s resolutions—well-intentioned wishes that are short on substance.

So use a handy acronym known as SMART to clarify your goals. There are different variations on this formula. I have looked at them all and made a subtle change to the acronym that I think works better. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic and Timely. 

Specific

Goals such as being happy, getting rich or having a good time lack specificity. But when they focus on more concrete aims such as getting married, reducing accounts receivable or taking regular vacations, they take on more definition. Being specific also means being focused. Many people find themselves frustrated because “there are just too many things to do and not enough time.” They can’t get more time, but they can specify fewer goals.

The s in “specificity” also stands for “substantial.” It means a goal is concrete and worthy of pursuit. You might decide that cleaning up your desk is a goal. But it’s not the sort of lifetime accomplishment you would want to be praised for in your epitaph. If cleanliness is an issue, then certainly establish a goal to improve. But put it in context with more important pursuits. What will you be proud of five years from now? If you had to write a resume right now, what would you want to put in it? Your accomplishments would be based on goals that are specific and substantial.

Measurable

The second criterion a goal should meet is measurability. State your goal in a way that an outside observer could measure it objectively. For instance, “We will reduce delinquent accounts by one third,” or “I will take two vacations this year,” or “I will stop smoking in two months.”

Something that is important can be measured with more than one goal. For instance, a sales rep might aim for specific sales dollars, profit for the territory, introductions of new products and an increase in distribution channels. It’s possible that she would be successful in one criterion, but not in another. Multiple goals provide greater perspective.

Appropriate

An appropriate goal is within your area of power or responsibility. Don’t try to work on someone else’s goals. Appropriate goals are also consistent with your organization’s aims, culture or standards. For instance, it’s difficult to have a goal of increasing customer satisfaction levels while simultaneously introducing discount pricing.

Appropriate goals also relate to your personal style. What are you capable of accomplishing, given your background, your skills, your training or your physical limitations? People who are only five feet tall have little chance of making the Olympic basketball team.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t extend yourself. It is possible to go beyond anything you’ve done before, and to push yourself past the limits you thought were unsurpassable. It is possible to stretch your imagination to conquer heights you thought were unreachable. Allow your dreams to flourish. But make sure you have the appropriate resources, time and makeup to turn your dreams into reality.

Goals should also be appropriate to each other. For some businesses, a goal to increase sales by 20% by the end of the quarter may be inappropriate with simultaneously reducing bad debt accounts. In many cases, one or the other can happen, but not both.

Realistic

Goals should be a bit of a stretch, but not so much as to be out of reach. A goal might be achievable within the next three months, but this deadline may be unrealistic, given the other constraints you’re facing. In your business, don’t aim for a market share that is simply not going to happen. Often new businesses will make claims that seem to be very modest; a very conservative 1% share would satisfy them. In reality, that’s a huge amount!

How do you know what is realistic? Look for relevant comparisons. Examine historical trends. What has been done in the past? Or look at economic indicators. What are the trends for the future? Or industry trends. What has the competition been able to achieve? Has someone else embarked on a similar journey whose results might indicate what is possible?

A dose of good old gut feeling also helps. Tripling your salary in your current job by the end of this year is a specific and measurable goal. But it’s not very realistic if you’re earning minimum wage by washing dishes at the local greasy spoon. In that case, perhaps your goal should be to find a higher-paying job or to start your own business.

Timely

Put a deadline on your goals—this Saturday, the end of the month, the end of the year, your fiftieth birthday, whatever. Start with the end in mind. What will the final picture of success look like and when do you want it to happen? By determining the end time, you can then work your way back to see what you need to do on the way. The challenge you might face is that your goal seems overwhelming. You just don’t know where to begin. If that’s the case, break your larger goal into smaller ones.

Perhaps the SMART acronym should have one extra letter, and that is “p” for “passion.” Pursue your goals with passion! Don’t become complacent about not meeting them. For example, saying, “We didn’t meet our goal last month, but that’s all right, we’ll make up for it,” should never be good enough. Rework your goals if necessary, but pursue them with a renewed vigour and with a sincere desire to succeed.  Always give it your best, and then some. In Who’s Running Your Career, Caela Farren says, “Passion and purpose go hand in hand. Passion is the fire in the belly, the willpower, the courage you harness to achieve your mission despite all the obstacles and reversals.” Go for it!

Your time is worth it.

Time study data collected by Pace Productivity indicates the typical knowledge worker plans his or her day for a total of 2.3 hours per week. Results from sales reps indicates that those who spend more time in planning tend to be more successful. Here is how to plan your day:
• Visualize your long term picture of success and put it in writing. Review your goal frequently. Your goal should be specific, measurable, achievable and compatible with where you are now. There should be an end date as well. Steven Covey calls this “Begin with the end in mind.”
• Write out a To Do list every day. Include items that can be completed, such as “Prepare exhibits for monthly report”, rather than just “Work on report.”
• Separate your To Do list into A, B and C priorities.
• “A” items are important to your long term success (If you had nothing else to do today, these would be the activities that would affect your results one month from now),
• “B” are things you must do today as part of your job description (they may be urgent but not as important)
• “C” are unwritten or unavoidable but necessary (administration, travel, personal)
• “D” are things you could delay, delegate, or delete
• Start with the A items. Don’t work on a C just because it’s easy to do. Also, break your A items into small manageable chunks, so they’re easy to accomplish.

• Check off items as you complete them to give yourself a sense of accomplishment.
• Block off time for major activities. This might include a block of time for working alone on major tasks. If someone wants to meet you during that time, say “I’m sorry, I already have an appointment.”
• Don’t jam your day full of activities. Leave time for emergencies, special opportunities and thinking time.
• Be your own manager. Ask yourself if you have met your goals, and what changes you plan to make to achieve them.
• Do it now. People will often say “Call me next week, and we’ll book an appointment then.” Respond by saying, “Let’s save ourselves a call and do it now.”
• Always plan time for balance; include family, fitness, recreation, social and spiritual activities.
• Conduct a time study to see how you’re doing and where the opportunities for improvement lie. Many people are only able to spend one quarter of their time on top priority activities. Moving this up to one third of the week means almost 4 more hours per week on key activities.
  

1. Write down your long-term goals. Use the SMART formula; make them Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic and Time-bound.
2. Every day, divide your tasks into A, B and C priorities. Always start with a high priority “A” task, even if you can only accomplish a small part of it.
3. Block off time for activities that are important. Make an appointment with yourself, and don’t let anyone schedule anything for the time you’ve put aside.
4. Stop spending time on trivia. Don’t spend hours preparing a high tech presentation when a good conversation will suffice. And stop fussing over routine administrative tasks. Delegate or automate them.
5. Have the courage to say no. Don’t try to please others all the time. Create personal policies that make it easy to say no and stick to your plan.
6. Always start meetings on time. Don’t punish those who show up on time and reward those who are late. Do something however minor, but get started.
7. Slow down. Productivity isn’t about going fast. It’s about doing the right things. Stop rushing around, driving too fast and getting upset at things you can’t control. A couple of minutes gained aren’t worth the added stress.
8. Avoid procrastination by completing unpleasant tasks first. The tough stuff usually turns out to be not so bad. Break complex tasks into easy pieces and give yourself a reward for getting something done.
9. Don’t be a slave to technology. Communication devices are simply adding more and more ways to be out of touch with each other. Simplify your life and leave your phone off now and then. Plan for people to reach you some of the time, not all of the time.
10. Create time for balance in your life. Set aside time for family, fitness, social, educational and spiritual needs. Plan for balance the way you plan for work.