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Stop reading this if the first thing you do daily is turn off your smartphone and research new clients, cold call, write proposals, return emails, and do paperwork.
Congratulations. That means you aren’t spending 5+ hours a day checking your phone 85 times.
Like the rest of us!
Constant smartphone distractions, surfing non-work-related websites, or twenty-minute gossip sessions make it difficult to focus on high-leverage activities. The lure of instant gratification is robbing us of achieving our long-term goals minute by minute each day. Time-blocking techniques can manage distractions like smartphones to regain focus and improve productivity. Smartphones can serve as a significant distraction in several ways:
1. Constant Notifications and Multitasking: Emails, texts, and social media notifications can interrupt focused work. Proposal writing, prospect research, and outreach are not meant to be multitasked. If you switch between tasks like researching new client promotions while responding to texts and listening to the radio (use noise-canceling airpods), you are robbing your ability to concentrate. How can you finish anything efficiently?
2. Instant Gratification: The quick dopamine hit that comes with checking a notification or scrolling through Insta can be a tempting escape from cold-calling or CRM inputs. Yes, it’s a break, but it comes at a cost. The long-term focus required to build a pipeline gets disrupted when smartphones constantly divert attention. And it wears you out.
3. Mental Fatigue and Reduced Focus: Switching between tasks, especially from mentally demanding tasks like building proposals to checking a phone, creates mental fatigue. This task-switching wears down mental stamina, making it harder to focus on big-picture activities like creating annual marketing plans for key clients. I believe our energy is our most important asset, and we should be overly protective of where we place it.
4. Procrastination Enabler: Avoiding the emotional effort of cold calling, the tediousness of CRM inputs, or client research by checking your phone only delays your overall progress toward your goals. The excitement rush when we read headlines about our favorite team, politician provides a quick escape from uncomfortable tasks. Why let the phone delay necessary actions and deny you the long-term benefits of increased sales, a full pipeline, and actual selling appointments?
Here’s an alternative: BLOCK IT OUT.
Try to structure your day more effectively while managing distractions—schedule blocks of time for specific tasks like client research, prospecting, or proposal writing. Use your 2024 one-word mantra to propel you to change.
1. Do What’s Most Important First
Prospecting for new clients, researching ideas to pitch, and meeting with clients are all high-leverage activities. Try dedicating the first two hours of the workday to prospecting, research, cold calls, and emails without distractions. Put your phone in a drawer. Challenge yourself to remove the temptation to check your phone or non-work-related websites on your work pc to maintain focus on the most critical work you can do.
2. Combine Related Tasks
Rather than jumping between tasks all day, batch similar tasks into time blocks. For example, you may want to schedule all client meetings after 11 am and block off time for proposal writing, paperwork, station communication, and research in the morning. Save your energy for like-minded activities and cease the stop-and-go style. Freeing up mental energy for high-priority work and knowing you have made time for it can make change happen.
3. NO Smartphone Use During Deep Work Periods
Writing proposals, new client efforts, and any task you find essential but challenging to perform should be done with your phone in your desk drawer. Whatever you avoid most, and your results monitored, should be distraction-free.
After completing a major task, let your phone be the reward!
4. Schedule Time for Follow-Ups
Block out time each day to focus specifically on follow-ups. Return calls, respond to emails, or check in on digital campaign performances. Maybe allow checking for work-based emails or texts only. Now you can put in production or request a business office function. Just avoid social media, games, or your preferred time waster.
5. Take a Break
Time-block a 5-minute break every few hours to stretch, stand, or walk to recharge. Stay away from reaching for your phone. Your neck and back will thank you.
Smartphone distractions can significantly impact our productivity, but time-blocking offers a solution. We free our minds up and maintain high energy by scheduling dedicated blocks of time for high-leverage activities. By not changing, you will continue to lose time and energy. It’s like football. Sales wins can come by blocking time and tackling your phone addiction.
Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio and digital sales for Cumulus Media in Dallas, Texas and Boise, Idaho. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop Sports Radio The Ticket in Boise, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at jeffcaves54@gmail.com or find him on LinkedIn.
