In today’s newsletter, I’ll share a simple tool to help reduce the risk of burning out when working as a remote salesperson. 2024 hasn’t been easy, especially for remote salespeople. Around 2/3 of salespeople are expected to miss their sales targets this year, adding a lot of pressure to their lives.
We’ve all been there. You wake up one day, and you instantly start getting anxious. You know you have a ton of things to do, but you have no clue how you’re going to do them when there are so few hours in the day. Even worse, you know that your to-do list is growing bigger every day.
You start your day with this dark cloud over your head. You can’t stop thinking of what have to do, which makes you less present and more anxious. I know about it because I experienced it when we moved to Mexico in September.
This is where a Mind Sweep will help. A Mind Sweep is a simple exercise I discovered when I purchased Notion Mastery, a few years ago.
Here’s how it’s done, step-by-step:
Start by writing down all of your thoughts. You don’t need to get them structured, or prioritized. Just list everything you have on your mind. It can be professional or personal. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re capturing it.
I don’t know about you, but I often get stressed or anxious because I know I need to do something, but I’m afraid I’ll forget to do it. Something simple like paying the electric bill, or following up with a customer. I know I need to do it, but if I don’t write it down, or act on it, I start worrying.
As the day goes by, I feel anxious, but I forget why I’m anxious. I spend more time thinking of why I’m anxious, and I can’t remember why. Then I become angry, stressed, and soon enough, I’m unbearable.
By capturing your thoughts, you go from worrying about what you have to do, to knowing that your thoughts are captured, and you just need to go back to your mind sweep to see what you have to do.
Here’s an example from my Mind Sweep for Sales:
When you’re done capturing your thoughts, you can start breaking them down into projects and tasks. Projects include multiple tasks and they are bigger initiatives. It’s always important to use action verbs and being really specific with your tasks.
Something like “reach my quota” isn’t specific. “Build a 30-day plan to close Q4 at 110%” is specific.
Here’s an example of what I captured above turned into projects and tasks.
As you can see, some of the tasks and projects weren’t even captured initially. That’s the power of turning ideas into projects. It helps you go deeper and create a complete to-do list.
Now that you have clear projects and tasks, you can start prioritizing them. I like to use two types of prioritization frameworks. One for for projects and another one for tasks.
For projects, I’ll use Top Prio, Mid Prio, Low Prio. This gives you a clear indication of where you’ll need to focus in the next 30 to 90 days. When you’re done prioritizing projects, you can use the Now, Next, last framework for tasks.
Here’s an example to help you understand:
This is how I turn an immense to-do list into a concrete plan. A Mind Sweep is an exercise I recommend doing as soon as you’re feeling anxious or stressed because of your workload. You can use this Mind Sweep for Sales I have created, or use my link to grab Notion Mastery if you want to do a complete overhaul of the way you manage your life.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Thibaut Souyris
P.S. When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
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