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As a sales professional, sales leader or business owner, distractions can often be the main obstacle for achieving great success.
If you have too many distractions, you will never achieve your full potential.
It is important to continue to evaluate what sales activities will be most important to reach your goals. Then, you must focus on those activities first, and make a commitment to complete them each and every day without failure.
You must remove and minimize your distractions. You will then have the time to focus on what you have determined is most important.
Here are some tips on how to minimize common distractions:
Limit your number of social networks. Determine which social networking sites are most valuable to you. You may be a member of multiple forums, on line groups, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and will be invited to join other networks as well. Pick a couple that are most helpful for you and drop the rest.
Do not log into social networking sites while you are working. Save social networking for times when you are not at work.
Block time to check your email. When you are working on a task, focus on the task. Emails constantly flying into your inbox can be a constant distraction. Schedule specific times during the day to read and send emails.
Send fewer, shorter emails. Also, do not become dependent on emailing versus picking up the phone. There is value in the personal touch.
Shut off notifications. Are you constantly getting pinged with an email, or tweet, or text or IM? When are you actually focused and present in the moment? Do not forget that the most important time you have is right now. Consider at times completely shutting off your computer or turning off your smartphone.
Clear off your desk. Only keep what you truly need on it. Keep it neat and tidy. Do the same for your computer desktop.
Do one thing at a time. Multitasking can be totally counterproductive.
Do the tough stuff first.
Have a cut off time. Make sure you have set times to complete your activities as well as set times to stop working. Have you ever planned a trip where you left work early at 12:00 noon? Remember how much you got done before 12:00 noon because you knew you had to leave early that day? Exactly.
The next step is to put these sales coaching tips into action and start minimizing your distractions today. Also, consider making a list of all other distractions you may have.
