Melbourne Cup is known as the “The race that’s stops the nation”, well it seems that the nation doesn’t get going again until after Australia Day!
Last week has to have been one of my least productive weeks. Yes, it happened to me, I caught the unproductivity bug. Usually Melbourne Cup is a great reminder to watch out for what I like to refer to as “End-Of Year-itis”. You know that feeling where you are tired and just can’t wait till the end of the year, you become lethargic and just show up and do what you need to do. You start thinking that wow that’s a great idea but I think I’ll do it next year. Being completely honest, that is what was going through my mind for the first few days last week.
The problem with “End-Of Year-itis” is this is the time of year that when you make the extra effort, you really reap the rewards. What you do between now and the end of the year makes not only the difference between what you achieve this year but also what you are going to achieve next year.
Remember your competitors are also tired and they are starting to slack off. Just a little extra effort from your side will make a massive difference. Many companies do 20% - 40% of their sales revenue in the last 45 days of the year!
Now is the time to start “building the bank”. What I mean by this is you need to start booking in appointments, meetings and work for January so when you get back from your break, you have work already planned. Otherwise you will come back from holidays and it will take you another couple of weeks before you get any work coming through the doors.
Lucky for me I caught it early and this is what I did and what you can do too:
1) Set a date for when you are going to finish for the year, this is your finish line. Commit to giving it everything you have got until you cross the line.
2) Decide what you are going to do once you have finished and how you are going to reward yourself. Find something that you are going to look forward to doing.
3) Set a date of when you are going to be back at work and start booking in appointments, jobs and work so that when you get back you come back to a full diary and get productive straight away.
Now dig deep, remember your competitors are also tired, that little things make a big difference and get back on the “productivity pony’ and giddy up!