Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can put off until 3 weeks next Shrove Tuesday.

If it’s not urgent, it can wait.  If it is not critical, don’t bother.  “I’ll just do this for now, I can do that later.”  Why aren’t you more productive?  Easy, it’s because of the excuses, the reasons and great justification.

I once worked in an open plan, sales operation.  30+ sales people, desks and phones and little else.  The manager, Richard, sat in the corner.  No partitions, no walls.  It was an amazing environment on many levels.  We were expected to make calls.  That was how we operated.

Tedious work

At least 3 hours of calls in the morning, perhaps 3 hours in the afternoon.  The only reason not to make calls was to take time out to see clients, also in the open plan office.

Actually, although the clients were talking about quite confidential topics, on the whole they loved it.  The buzz was amazing and with so many people on the phones, there was enough ambient noise that when huddled up to a desk, it felt quite private.

Keep going

Make a call, when it was over, without replacing the handset in the cradle, cut the line and dial again.  (Hey, who remembers dials?)  From time to time, the tedium cut in and the momentum lagged.  I would put my phone back on its cradle and think, perhaps shuffle some paper, just finding the next number to ring of course.

Give up

Then I would glance up and over towards Richard.  He would be standing, phone to ear, himself leading by example.  But out of the corner of his eye he would spot me looking.  Without missing a beat or breaking his conversation, with his free hand he would mime picking up a phone and putting it to his free ear.  My queue to get back on the phone.

Whenever anyone looked up from what they were doing, it seemed Richard was watching and would make the same gesture…”pick up the phone”.

After a while, every time I took a breath, relaxed and stopped, I would simply imagine Richard’s gesture and start on the next call.

Why work so hard?

Well we were all commission only sales people.  If we worked we earned, if we worked hard we earned a lot, if we worked hard and effectively, we earned an awful lot.  But the incentive to keep going was Richard.  I would feel guilty if he gave me “the sign”.  I felt I was letting him down.  I was letting myself, my family and my bank manager down, but it was Richard’s gesture that drove me on.

What drives you?

What gets you to go the extra mile, be more effective, more productive?

What gets you doing the things you know you must?

How do you deal with the tasks you hate?

Is it your boss (well that’s you)?  Your family, do you keep a picture of the children in front of you, perhaps with a picture of a university alongside?  Are you driven by debt or ambition?  The desire for fame or fortune?

A little help here please

It has been proven that even the most apparently driven people still find strength to excel from outside.  From someone else.  Who is it for you?

The conclusion here is that finding someone who will hold you accountable, but without sentiment so perhaps not your partner, can be one of the most productive relationships for your business.

The concept of an accountability partner is not new, it is not unknown.  It is talked about and encouraged in almost all advice to business owners.  But do you actually have one?  Is it proving effective?  Have you found the need in the past to change accountability partners to become even more effective?

Some time ago, my accountability partner cried off our routine weekly time-slot.  I felt alone, abandoned and useless.  I wondered aimlessly for hours like a lost dog, tail between my legs…well I exaggerate, but it was very noticeable how much I relied on that shot in the arm.

Find an accountability partner

Perhaps more than one, perhaps form a Mastermind Group (more on that another time).  Be one for someone else as well as it doesn’t always have to be reciprocal.

But make sure if you are someone else’s accountability partner, you are totally reliable and are there for them.  What goes around…

And if you need to make a change, have the courage to make the change if it is the right thing to do.  After all, you didn’t take vows together, did you?