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My calendar is filling up this holiday month — cocktail parties, happy hours, art openings, out-of-town friends, and even baking dates. During the holidays, we become super-sized taskmasters: we plan, we shop, we party, we watch, we eat, we share...Oops, did I forget something?
Oh yeah, we sell — when we can find the time.
Selling is all about being self-motivated. But when we throw ourselves into planning-shopping-partying-watching-eating-sharing mode, we are in danger of being caught by the holiday sales-unproductivity bug. Ouch!
Watch out for these Top Holiday Distractions — don’t let the holiday unproductivity bug catch you!
With all those online deals popping up, shopping is a becoming a prime holiday activity that saps work productivity. Over half of American workers (54%) planned to shop online from the office going into last week’s Cyber Monday deals. Workers who expected to online shop for more than two hours at work also identified a decline in productivity during the holiday season at a much larger rate than those who did not plan to shop from the office.
Just one…more…purchase.
No matter what time of year it is, this still ranks as high distraction. Loud colleagues tend to be louder this time of year as they talk about gift exchanges, parties, happy hours, etc. If you dare online shop at work, be sure to add a pair of noise-cancelling headphones to your cart.
Another productivity killer is those “quick” meetings that management wants to have. According to a Fortune Magazine study, nearly 1 in 4 complain that they would get more work done if they didn’t have to spend so much time in meetings talking about the work they’ve got to do.
You have to respond to all those invites to parties and gatherings, not to mention your interpersonal issues. Did you forget something? Oh yes — your prospects!
Here are four suggestions that will keep your productivity strong and help you get noticed:
It’s always hard to accept a period of lower productivity, but it can work in your favor. If you scale down your list of projects and focus on what is both important and manageable, you’ll be better off than trying to do too much while finishing nothing. Focusing on fewer, important objectives is a great way to get a motivation boost, too.
This is always a good rule, if hard to follow. But during the holidays, mixing the two up can leave you with unfinished business at home (like holiday shopping, planning visits, and coordinating family schedules) that can in turn creep back into your work time and disrupt your productivity there.
If you don’t keep moderation in mind, you’re going to find yourself swimming in booze and eating your way through a mountain of sugar and butter with weeks to go until vacation. Just try to get up, make that early commute, and stare at a screen for hours after bingeing on spiked eggnog and the better part of a gingerbread house. It’s not going to work, folks. Keep things moderate if you still have to return to work soon. Then, when your vacation finally arrives, consume like a Roman Emperor!
Just try to get up, make that early commute, and stare at a screen for hours after bingeing on spiked eggnog and the better part of a gingerbread house.
There are going to be parties. Lots of parties. Ugly sweater parties, white elephant parties, pub crawls, SantaCon. Keep the festivities manageable and balanced between work, family, and friends.
Josiane Feigon is the CEO of TeleSmart, a provider of inside sales training and coaching. She has trained 20-thousand-plus salespeople and still counting. Consistently recognized among The Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals, Feigon is one of the world’s leading experts on inside sales team and management talent. She is also a #1 Rated Inside Sales Training Bestselling author, speaker, and sales futurist. Follow her on Twitter, connect on LinkedIn, and join the conversation on Inside Sales 2.0 Trends Talk LinkedIn Group. If you want epic inside sales training for teams and managers, contact TeleSmart.
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