Procrastination....

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nate124

Guest
Lately I've noticed myself procrastinating about literally everything in my life. I need to lose weight... I consistently tell myself, "I'll eat better and work out starting on Monday". Monday comes... no go. Then I start over.... I need to make more calls... I tell myself "I'll start next Monday making X amount per day because it will give me a fresh start to the week". There seems to be a pattern here... haha.

In High School I was horrible with things like this... then I got a lot better about it as I got older, but now find myself falling back into old bad habits.

What are some of the things that motivate other agents... regardless if it's in general life, or in your business? How do you stay focused on your goals and not procrastinate? What kinds of things to do you do to curb procrastination?? I am in the process of really working on bettering myself by setting weekly, monthly and yearly goals... and giving myself certain rewards if I accomplish these goals. Hopefully I'm starting to turn this around again... but wanted to hear what others have done in the past, or present to help themselves?
 
I don't. I'm all over the place and only work in spurts. I need to be in the right mood to call clients and don't do a good job of faking it. That just means if my heart isn't into calling prospects it really comes across over the phone.

The good news is you don't need to work 40 hours to be effective and in fact heaven forbid any talented agent actually worked a full 40 hours. They would make no less than 10K a week - guaranteed.

However, I am responsible to my wife and son for making money and they count on me. As a man, husband and father I have a ethical duty to quit being independent and get a "real job" is I cannot make money doing this.

Just the sheer terror of even thinking about having an interview with some 28 year old "manager" for another sales job sends chills up my spine and gets me working enough to make good money.

However, being independent at home is costing me probably $2,000 a week. If I was in an office and banged out 6 hour days with fun and atmosphere I'd go nuts with this.

The best way I have found to make this work is simply be very effective when I do decide to call. Effective beats hard work any time of the day. You can call for 4 hours, be ineffective and not make squat. You can also call for 2 hours a day, be incredibaly effecive and make a great living.
 
I love to procrastinate but find that I don't have the time anymore. If I did I would fall so far behind that I would never catch up.

I get up at 5:30 am. Drink a cup of coffee while I check my e-mail, check out this board and then workout for 30 to 45 minutes. I then go out to feed the critters. My day is divided between insurance, YIO and another business I have.

I have about 4 acres that I mow, an enjoyable task for me, a garden to tend to, we are building a 12x16 little barn for our goats, something else we are having fun doing. I also mow about two acres at another place we have that is all wooded except for the area around the cabin.

We enjoy target shooting and try to do that at least once a week in the evening. When Jacqueline is in town, at least two evenings a week it is my turn to "make dinner". I know nothing about cooking. The only thing I know how to do when it comes to food is make reservations. The evenings we go out to dinner are the times when we communicate the best. We generally spend the evening dining and will frequently stay and help them empty the ash trays and turn out the lights. LOL

I'm very fortunate that Jacqueline enjoys doing things like that with me so it gives us a lot of opportunity to do things together. She also enjoys the outdoors as much as I do.

My day typically ends around 11:30 pm.

I only find myself procrastinating when I don't have enough to do to keep me busy. It is so easy to put off until tomorrow what really needs to be done today.

Before we moved to the country I had way too much time on my hands and not nearly enough diversity to keep me motivated on a daily basis.
 
Make a list.

I use my planner. I have a 8x11 planner (at a glance spiral type) that I use for my to do list. I put little triangles next to the tasks I have. As I complete the tasks, I fill in the triangle. So, when the day is over, I can see what is not done by an empty triangle.

As I told my wife, if it is not written down, it will not get done. Some days I open it and have a fuller day they I thought (honey do list).
 
healthagent said:
I don't. I'm all over the place and only work in spurts. I need to be in the right mood to call clients and don't do a good job of faking it. That just means if my heart isn't into calling prospects it really comes across over the phone.

The good news is you don't need to work 40 hours to be effective and in fact heaven forbid any talented agent actually worked a full 40 hours. They would make no less than 10K a week - guaranteed.

However, I am responsible to my wife and son for making money and they count on me. As a man, husband and father I have a ethical duty to quit being independent and get a "real job" is I cannot make money doing this.

Just the sheer terror of even thinking about having an interview with some 28 year old "manager" for another sales job sends chills up my spine and gets me working enough to make good money.

However, being independent at home is costing me probably $2,000 a week. If I was in an office and banged out 6 hour days with fun and atmosphere I'd go nuts with this.

The best way I have found to make this work is simply be very effective when I do decide to call. Effective beats hard work any time of the day. You can call for 4 hours, be ineffective and not make squat. You can also call for 2 hours a day, be incredibaly effecive and make a great living.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your input John. I'm currently the only one in my house earning an income as well. My wife is in her last year of medical school.... so not only does she not get paid, she PAYS to go to work. :D Because of that, I need to learn to really focus so I can set us up for a good future. It would be nice to be able to start paying off some of her loans quickly once she graduates!

I agree also about the office atmosphere. I miss it. I do enjoy some of the things about working from home, but do really miss making friends in the office, and going to lunch, swapping stories, etc. It's also much easier to get distracted at home.

Thanks again for your input on this!
 
midwestbroker said:
Make a list.

I use my planner. I have a 8x11 planner (at a glance spiral type) that I use for my to do list. I put little triangles next to the tasks I have. As I complete the tasks, I fill in the triangle. So, when the day is over, I can see what is not done by an empty triangle.

As I told my wife, if it is not written down, it will not get done. Some days I open it and have a fuller day they I thought (honey do list).
Click to expand...


Great advice! I'm going to go pick up a planner tomorrow and start trying this. I've been using my computer as a planner... but there really is nothing like actually writing our your goals for the day/week/month, etc. Thanks!
 
One of my biggest issues will be solved soon. Right now I have a 5 year old (soon to be 6) bouncing around the house all day. He comes upstairs often with "daddy, will you play with me?" All I have to do is not be in the mood to make calls and I'm downstairs playing. He's off to school in three weeks.
 
I love procrastinating, and I truly believe that I couldn't be as effective during my periods of effectivity, as I am, if I were to curtail my procrastination.

However, one thing that helps me is having a whole bunch of various businesses and projects that I am involved in at any given time. This enables you to still be productive when not focusing on selling insurance.
 
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