Are your tasks supporting your purpose?

Published on November 2, 2000

During my sales career, I awoke one day and went from managing a Manhattan sales territory to managing the whole east coast. All of a sudden I had airplanes to deal with and a whole host of other things that took up more of my time. Imagine, if I found it difficult doing what I had to do in Manhattan, how in the world was I going to include the whole east coast in my time management system?

As in life, this new challenge proved to be a major turning point in my success. I was forced to prioritize my tasks. I concentrated on doing my administrative tasks during non-selling hours (time spent on planes), or at least when customers were not available to meet with me. I also married my tasks to my purpose. Before doing a task, I asked myself if this task was necessary and was it going to support my sales objective for the year.

How many times do you find yourself doing things that at the end of the day are not going to support your goals or mission? Yet is so easy for us to fall victim to the emotions and challenges of the profession, some of which detract us from our mission.

So, what’s your purpose? Are your tasks supporting your purpose? If not, then re-allocate your resources so you wind up doing what you are paid to do. If not, you might one day wind up not justifying the investment being made for your efforts.

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