How Do You Stay Organized?

[LifeWorth]

I have a serious problem with organization. Every damn morning I wake up, and every damn morning the ball is up in the air. Sometimes, before I know it, it is 10 AM and I'm still "organizing" the things I have to do that day, who I have to call, making the lists to cold call, checking what appointments I have that day, etc etc.

I need a time and organizational system. Right now all I use to remind me is alerts in my phone. For example, if I have an appointment tomorrow at 2 pm, I make an alert for my phone to remind me at noon of such appointment. In some instances, due to me never being reminded of the appointment until the alert pops up, there have been times I wasn't even in the city of the appointment!

I need something I can look at every morning that tells me what I need to do. I need a system that prepares my life even months in advance.

So many prospects fall through the cracks because of this.

What do you use? A tickler file? Al Granum's One Card System? An electronic database?

Can I make the One Card System myself or do I have to drop $400 on it by ordering it online?

 

[DHK]

My only problem with using a sales-based organization system (like OCS or SAM books), is that it seems to assume that you have NOTHING else to do in your life, other than work in a sales capacity.

http://www.insurance-forums.net/forum/life-insurance-forum/one-card-system-t2727.html

This is how to begin to think and build new time-management habits:
How to Master Your Time

This is how to organize your stuff:
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: David Allen: 9780142000281: Amazon.com: Books

If you're set on the OCS... just subscribe to the VSA (free for 30 days) and it includes its own blueprint to build your own card-file box and an annual "business manager" planner that you can have spiral-bound at your local office supply store. BTW, once you know the principles of this, you can get Microsoft OneNote and use IT as a CRM/CardFile tool. OneNote 2013 is FREE and can sync to your smartphone using an app.

Microsoft OneNote | The digital note-taking app for your devices

I'd go this route. PM me so I can get referral credit with VSA.


But starting now, your biggest habit is to do a "brain dump" at the end of every workday. Just write down everything on paper whatever is on your mind. Later on, you can incorporate it in Outlook or any other database... but it's best to start out on paper. You'll sleep better knowing that it's all written down and all you have to do is follow your plan.

Learn to procrastinate strategically. Some things you write down don't have to be done that particular day. Put it off, as long as it's okay. Eventually, you may decide not to do that thing at all. Until then, just keep it on your list.

Something else that's in the OCS textbook, is that it designates every 3rd Friday of the month for monthly planning: review the past month and the upcoming month. I think this is a good discipline.

Just some ideas to get you started with.

 

[Larry Tew]

I use Outlook (Office 365) synced to my android. Of course, you still have to actually LOOK at it.

 

[Rearden]

I know this is slightly off-topic but I think still relevant in controlling your most precious commodity (time) to work in your advantage.

With my increased workload in both appointment volume and agent training, I have had to force myself into efficiency.

Some things I do differently to repatriate time:

1) Exercise and do follow-up emails/forum browsing simultaneously.

2) TOUCH THINGS ONLY ONCE. Very important concept. Instead of looking at an email, or a call-back list, multiple times, and putting it off until later, actually DO whatever it is the FIRST time. This eliminates a ton of wasted procrastination.

3) Focus on strengths - outsource weaknesses.

4) Do first things first.

 

[The Colonel]

All good advice Rearden. I'll add plan your next day the night before you go home.

 

[rousemark]

I know this is slightly off-topic but I think still relevant in controlling your most precious commodity (time) to work in your advantage.

With my increased workload in both appointment volume and agent training, I have had to force myself into efficiency.

Some things I do differently to repatriate time:



2) TOUCH THINGS ONLY ONCE. Very important concept. Instead of looking at an email, or a call-back list, multiple times, and putting it off until later, actually DO whatever it is the FIRST time. This eliminates a ton of wasted procrastination.

This one item will save you more time, help you stay on point and make sure things do not slip through the cracks than anything else you can do.

It doesn't matter if you use a digital or a paper process, the biggest time killer is to read a memo, letter, etc. and then out it in a to do box to handle later.. even if that handling just means filing it away or throwing it in the trash. Take action while it is is in your hand, file it away and move on. Otherwise you will wind up looking at it a half dozen times and maybe still never get around to taking care of it. I have been in teh office of many people who have files piled a mile high on their desk, in chairs, on the credenza, etc. They look busy and successful and some are. But, the men and women I know that are the most successful seldom have anything on their desk other than their planner and the file they are currently working on.

 

[scagnt83]

To do lists should be made the day/night before. Not the day of. Prospect lists I make a week at a time.

Stop living day to day. Plan your days/weeks in advance, know where you need to be....!!!!

I use corporate gmail along with google calendar and tasks to keep track of my schedule. I use excell for prospects and am trying (without much luck) to convert over the Access.

But as I have said before, if your ball is up in the air get on infoUSA and make calls and dont stop until you have set 2 appointments... just be sure to plan for those appointments ahead of time and not the day of!!

As an example, today I had no meetings for the morning and no real paperwork to worry about. So from 8-9 I was on the phone prospecting. 9-10 calling current clients to set up yearly reviews or just to say hi and check in with them. Doing something makes a lot more money than planning to do something. Morning hours are your prime hours to get stuff done. It is not planning time.

 

[LifeWorth]

Thank you for all the replies.

Another concern I have is how to live a normal day to day life as a business owner ( which is what we are). Maybe I'm just having a hard time transitioning from my college careless chaos into professional adulthood or something, but how do you guys schedule time for breakfast, lunch, cooking, ironing your clothes, etc?

I know of some agents who start prospecting at 7 am. Those of you who are super efficient and start working super early, how do you do it? Do you take time to cook breakfast in the morning? Do you cook at night tomorrow's lunch and put it in Tupperware?

I in general spend so much time just getting READY for work that some days I don't start working until 10 or 11 am!

Wake up, shower, start ironing my dress shirts, polish my shoes, start cooking breakfast, which takes at least 15 minutes, eat the breakfast, start making lists for me to call, do service work, check underwriting, call clients for this and that, put work clothes on, BOOM, it's already 10 or 11 AM. Oh crap, now I gotta go walk the dogs before I leave, gotta feed them, gotta pack my briefcase with everything I need, etc etc.

I guess you guys spend much less time doing all of this every day? Do you guys ever take time to cook breakfast or lunch or dinner, or are your meals usually quick grabs on the go at a fast food joint?

I know these probably are stupid questions, but I get real thrown out of schedule sometimes by these daily things.

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Thanks DHK. I'm gonna order a couple of these products, of maybe see if the library has the book

 

[EugeneM]

I agree with Rearden... tasks have a pre set amount of time it takes to complete. The main way you prolong tasks is the time you take switching between them. (pulling up screens, looking up accounts etc..)

Make a habit of doing things in a certain order and dont switch to another task until it is 100% complete.

Reminders set for a couple hours before is not efficient. You should leave yourself with more time before the appointments. Every Monday I sit down and look at what I have going on that week for appointments - make driving plans/routs etc.

 

[rousemark]

One last word.. Make sure are not confusing organizing with work.. A lot of us will push papers from one side of the desk to the other and back all day long and then go home thinking how busy we were and how hard we worked when, in reality we did nothing. We hide behind the organizational chores and the paperwork in order not to have to go out and actually make a call on a prospect. I can't tell you how many sales kits I have organized and reorganized over the years. Never did make a presentation out of them but they sure were organized if I decided to do so.