“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” – Bruce Lee

Post written by Jeremy J. Ulmer. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

1. Cut Back Your Hours. Schedule how long you will work each day and in a given week. You will be forced to get things done faster and will notice an increase in sales productivity. To help ensure you leave at 5:00 pm, if that is your cut off time, is to make sure you have commitments after 5:00 pm. Have a recurring event to be working out at 5:30 pm each day with your workout partner, or to be home for dinner by a certain time, whatever it is, stick with it.

2. Work From A Virtual Office. The key here is to set rigid boundaries and to minimize distractions while working at home. You will save on commute time and save your company money, however, you will actually be tempted to work even more hours being at home, so you must stick with #1 above or this will not work.

3. Schedule Times To Check Your Emails & Voicemails. This will help you to increase your sales productivity because you will have less distractions and be able to focus more. Remember, you don’t have to be available every minute and second of the day…In fact, that just will slow you down.

4. Laser Focus. If you truly are committed to working less, then get more efficient at getting things done. This means you must shut off all distractions and focus on one thing at a time before you start the next task.

5. Set Time Blocks. Ever notice how tasks tend to fill up the time that you make available for them to be completed? Knowing this, limit the amount of time you have to complete sales tasks and you will get them done faster.

6. Accomplish The Big Tasks. The most critical sales tasks are the ones that give you the biggest return. Focus your time, energy, and effort on sales activities that will help you attain your goals.

7. Delegate As Much As Possible. Get as many tasks off of your desk as possible so you can focus on the ones that really count. You probably have more resources than you even know are available to you at your organization and you must leverage these to be a #1 sales performer.

8. Reduce Unnecessary Meetings. This is an especially important tip for sales managers. Go through your calender and find any recurring meetings that are not as productive as when they were first initiated. Consider removing them, or cutting the time for the meeting in half.

9. Shut Off Your Internet. Spend less time being distracted and surfing the web. There is always something new to read, a new email or a social media profile at your finger tips waiting to take you off track. One of the best things you can do when you are working on your biggest tasks is to disconnect from the internet or turn off your computer.

10. Find A New Sales Gig. Does your current sales position not give you the flexibility to implement these tips to shorten your week? Then, it might be time to consider exploring what else is out there. If you have sales skills with a proven track record of success, there are many great opportunities for you.

Decide to shorten your hours now and make a commitment to yourself. This can be one of the best things you will ever do.

If this article was helpful, please share it, thank you. Learn more about our sales coaching programs or sales seminars.

Stress is the trash of modern life – we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life. ~Terri Guillemets

Post written by Jeremy J. Ulmer. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Identify Your Work Stress. Before you can eliminate or reduce stress, you must know what you are dealing with. Write down all the stresses that you deal with on a daily and weekly basis. Then create a top 10 list of all the things that cause you stress and determine which items you can eliminate from your list.

Shorten Your Scheduled Meetings. Consider cutting many of your 60 minute meetings to 30 minutes and your 30 minute meetings to 15. With a shorter time frame to work in, you will be forced to be more productive.

Stop Procrastinating. Allowing work to pile up will stress you out. Plan time to get things done and off your desk.

Get Organized. Disorganization can cause a significant amount of workplace stress. Block time to get things organized.

Always Be On Time. Being late will cause a lot of stress at work or in your life. Learn the habit of being early, and this type of stress will disappear.

Stop Trying To Control Everything. Trying to control situations and people does not work. In fact, when we are in the state of trying to control, it just creates more stress at work and in our lives. Learn to let go of situations that are out of your control. The only thing you can control is yourself.

Stop Multitasking. Doing multiple tasks at the same time might seem productive, but in reality it slows us down from completing tasks, reduces the quality of work, and creates stress. Learn to single-task and get more done.

Cut Out Negative People. You know who they are. They can drag you down and create more stress. Surround yourself with other positive minded people and you will feel less stress.

Simplify Your Work. Look for ways to make your tasks more streamlined and simple.

Give Back & Help Others. Whether you volunteer for a charity or just make an effort to be more compassionate to those around you, you will notice it lowers your own stress levels. Try it out for a day and see how you feel.

Take Mini Breaks. Studies have show that concentration levels decrease 25 to 30 minutes into a task. If you don’t take any breaks, your focus and productivity will drop. Plan and enjoy mini-breaks during your work day.

Exercise! This is hands down #1 in my book and it works like magic. Exercise reduces stress and helps prevent it. Also, a healthier and fitter person is better equipped to handle stress. The key here is to be consistent and make working out a habit, just like brushing your teeth.

If this article was helpful for you, please share it below, thank you!

Want to take your sales results to the next level? Check out our sales coaching programs, sales seminars, and sales coaching seminars or contact us to learn more about how we can help you or your organization.

Post written by Jeremy J. Ulmer

In a 2009 International Vacation Deprivation Survey from expedia.com:

One in three employees do not use their allotted vacation days each year, even though they said they are more productive after returning from vacation.

In the sometimes grueling world of sales, the negative impact of not taking vacations could be even greater.

Sales professionals are becoming less and less productive as they push on without vacations. They often feel compelled to keep working without vacations, to be available for every client call, and for every lead that may come their way. They don’t want to miss a beat. They end up “over working” and hurting their progress.

Here are 5 reasons why sales professionals should take all of their vacations days each year:

Avoid Burnout: We all need a break. Think about how refreshed and motivated you felt after your last vacation. If you keep going full force without a break, where are the rewards for all your hard work? Once you reach the burnout stage, you will often feel out of control and even less likely to take a vacation. Sales results will suffer and motivation will be lacking.

Reduce Stress: We all know stress can literally be a killer and no one is immune to stress. However, vacation can be one of the great ways to reduce stress and rejuvenate your energy and spirit. The bad stress won’t stop building until you give yourself some time to recover.

Increase Quality of Life & Work: We remember experiences more than anything. Science has even shown that material objects do not provide the lasting joy or happiness that positive experiences can create. Vacations are often all about experience and help to increase the quality of life. When a person experiences a greater quality of life, it is often the case that their quality of work will improve as well.

Creativity Boost: When we are constantly living on a schedule going from one task to another, it is hard to have the space and freedom to be creative. Think about when some of your best ideas came to you? Most likely, you were not at work. You were probably not even thinking about work at all, and were in a relaxed state. Those are the moments that creative genius can strike. But, it can’t strike if you are always on the go!

Productivity Spike: Think about what happens on a Friday when you have planned to leave early or take a half day. Ever notice how you get so much done in less than 8 hours? Funny how that works, but tighter deadlines and looking forward to something can sure help you get more done faster. Use the vacation as something to get excited about and to work very hard up until your last day at the office. This will increase your productivity prior to the vacation. And, after relaxing for a week, when you come back, you will be energized, stress free, and ready to make a huge impact.

Don’t wait any longer. Plan and book your next vacation now!

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Post written by Jeremy Ulmer. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

I have worked successfully from a home office in various sales roles in the past, and there are many benefits from working at home; however, there are also many dangers.

Sales managers and sales professionals need to be aware of potential pitfalls.

Avoid the following dangers and you will be able to create a highly productive home office environment.

Never Shutting Off The Work
One of the main problems with working from home for sales people is that you are technically always at work. It becomes very hard for your mind to separate your free time and your work time. This can result in an unbalanced life-style and addictive work behaviors. Some common negative habits that are formed consist of constantly checking emails, always taking calls even during non-working ours, and working well into the night.

To help prevent these negative habits, set up a separate office space, maintain set working hours with a clear start and end time to your day, shut your computer down, and turn off your work phone during non-working hours.

Not Getting Any Exercise
Sitting on your butt for 8+ hours a day is never a good recipe for physical fitness and health. If you do work from
home, then make sure you are scheduling time for your workouts or participating in some sports or activities to stay active. The body and mind are all connected. Without a strong body, your mind will lack the energy it needs to be productive day in and day out. Without energy and a high level of fitness, you will not produce the same results.

Lack Of Sales Motivation & Procrastination
When you are on your own working from home, it can be easy to slip into procrastination mode. You can help prevent this by setting weekly and daily goals. Make sure you complete your toughest work activity first thing in the day. Consider finding some accountability partners to help you stay on track.

Distractions
This can range from laundry, to cleaning, to TV, to personal calls, to running errands, and to nice weather. I have heard of sales professionals and sales managers who simply were so distracted at home, that they wanted to find an office away from home, even if it meant driving well over an hour each way. You must minimize your distractions and set clear guidelines of what you should be doing and should not be doing during working hours.

Not Feeling Like “Real Work” Was Accomplished
Despite working from home being more popular than ever before, a lot of people still don’t see it as “real work.” They think if you don’t commute an hour each way, dress up in a suit, drink coffee with your peers in the morning, and sit in a daily sales meeting, that it isn’t “real work.”

To others, working from home means you have a license to do what you want, when you want. Although this is not true, you need to make sure you set the boundaries with your friends and family. Just because you are at home, does not mean you are free to help them with favors. They need to understand the hours you work, and that you are serious and disciplined when working and can not be disturbed.

Trouble Getting Up Early
Most people don’t like getting up at 5:30AM or 6:00AM to get ready and drive into work. Working from home will
often give you some degree of flexibility in this regard, however, be careful that you don’t take advantage of this too much. Make sure you are getting up, taking a shower, getting dressed, and eating before the time you want to start working. Give yourself a solid hour to prepare for the work day. So, if you want to start work at 8AM, make sure you have an alarm going off at 7AM. Here are some tips on how to wake up early.

Trouble Sleeping
The fact that you can feel like you are always at work means it becomes hard to shut down. Too often sales professionals will check email a few minutes before going to bed. This means the last thing on their mind are emails from their management, clients, and prospects. This is not a good way to prepare and relax the mind for sleep. To avoid this, make sure you do not log into your email within 1-2 hours before getting ready for bed.

I love working from a home office, but it is not the paradise that many people presume it is unless you are very disciplined and regimented with your approach. Avoid these dangers, and you too can enjoy working from a home office productively and successfully for many years to come.

You might also like to read: Top 10 Tips To Increase Productivity When Working At Home

Article Excerpts Below Are From: The Wall Street Journal, Article By Sue Shellenbarger

Be Your Own Boss

In the broadest, most-comprehensive survey yet of how occupation affects happiness, business owners outrank 10 other occupational groups in overall well-being, based on the landmark survey of 100,826 working adults set for release today. Defined as self-employed store or factory owners, plumbers and so on, business owners surpassed 10 other occupational groups on a composite measure of six criteria of contentment, including emotional and physical health, job satisfaction, healthy behavior, access to basic needs and self-reports of overall life quality.

Measuring Well-Being

In a study of how occupation affects happiness, business owners came out on top.

Source: Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

Note: Scores are based on respondents’ answers to six categories of questions about work and life quality.

Read the rest of this Wall Street Journal article here

Contact me to learn how I can support you to achieve your goals.

As people get busier and busier with their lives, career and work, often the things most important to them, get neglected. The path to a more fulfilling life is to honor your values on a daily basis. But how can you honor your values if they are not crystal clear to you, or if you have not even thought about them in a long time?

Here are a few ways to help clarify your values so you can raise your awareness and start to honor them more in your life, career or business. The faster you start to honor these values more, the more fulfillment you will experience.

A Special & Memorable Experience
Think about a time in your life, a moment in time, when life was sweet. A moment or experience that was particularly poignant and rewarding. Where were you? Who was with you? What were you feeling at that time? Now, notice what values were being honored in this experience.

Example A: Your peak experience takes you to a time when you graduated school. You were so proud and others were there to witness you. Maybe “learning” or “knowledge” or “accomplishment” could be a value for you to explore.

Example B: Your peak experience takes you to a time when you were on a calm lake with somone close to you. Maybe “connection” or “peace” or “natural beauty” could be a value.

Hidden Values
What makes you angry and upset? What burns you up inside when you witness it or experience it?

Example A: People who do not tell the truth is what comes to mind. So we flip that over and identify that you greatly value “honestly” and “truth.”

Example B: You hate being stuck in traffic more than anything. It makes you hot under your skin. Maybe you feel trapped or that you have no control? So we flip that over and identify that “freedom” may be an important value for you.

Things You Must Have
Beyond the basics of food and shelter, what do you have to have in your life to feel fulfilled? What can you not live without? Partnership? Nature? Creativity? Adventure? Those things that you must have are core values.

Jeremy J. Ulmer | Sales Coach | Business Coach | Life Coach
Interview on Business Burnout & Fatigue: Tips to Achieve Better Results

Audio: Business Burnout Part 1

Audio: Business Burnout Part 2

The following question was posted on linkedin.com: “Work-Life Balance…Any suggestion on how to find symmetry?”  Below is my public answer.

Hi, these are very important questions.  As a professional coach, both for business, sales and life, I find that these areas area critical for success.  I started a linkedin.com group that is fully dedicated to “Balance & Fulfillment for Business Leaders” that you might want to join.  We are sharing and helping each other with these exact types of questions.

First, it may be helpful to look at balance from a new perspective.  What is Balance?  Balance is not about having equal weight on each part of life.  That simply is not possible.  IE- equal parts family, work, recreation, and friends.  That is not the goal.  It is a constant flow and it is never resting or idle.  The way we balance, is by being aware of the CHOICES we can make, and we can then move toward more alignment with the balance that we decide we want to have.

Jeremy J. Ulmer, Professional Coach, Sales Coach, Business Coach, Life Coach, Executive Coach

Remember when you were a little kid? Or maybe you can’t, but you may have witnessed kids, who ask question after question, about something new and exciting to them, right?  They are genuinely curious to know more!  They are filled with wonder, excitement, and a playfulness about their questioning.

It seems people tend to loose some (all?) ability to be curious as they grow older.  I don’t think it is because people think they know all the answers, I think it is because, well, being in a truly curious state of mind might seem child-like?  Right?  And we are supposed to be grown-ups, and have the answers, right? 

Look what happened to Curious George, he was thrown in jail for being too curious!  Well, what if you shifted your mindset, and became more curious?  What would happen in your life?  In your business?  With your clients?  With your relationships?

Curious questions are open-ended, inviting, somehow less threatening, and non-judgemental.  They also have a sense of excitement surrounding them.  Think about that for second.

How powerful would it be, to ask questions in a manner that lowers guards, shows genuine interest, is exciting, and from a place of curiosity and wonder.  From this place, surprising answers and unexpected truths can be found. 

Curious questions give space for the person responding to answer it in many different ways.

Think about how you can be more curious?  Can you get more curious next time you meet with a prospective client?  What could you ask?  Maybe take it a step further.

Maybe ask a question that starts like, “I wonder what…”  In professional coaching, life, business and sales, getting curious will only help you achieve more success.  Get more curious!  Do you have any questions about how I use curiosity within sales, business, coaching or my life?  Feel free to get curious and ask me or write a comment!

The inquiry I will leave you with is, “What is it to be curious?”

Jeremy J. Ulmer, Professional Coach, Sales Coach, Sales Mentor, Business Coach, Life Coach

I appear as a guest on the Cultural Fusion Experience Radio Show to discuss changing your perspective and staying positively focused during challenging times. Music will play until ’4:50′ when the interview begins. (You can fast forward)