It’s football season and one of the lessons we can all learn from football teams is the importance of routines. Once the preseason games start in the NFL the coaches get their players into their seven-day routine, which is includes an off-day, full contact day, planning day, game day, recovery day, etc.
I remember going to a professional group meeting many, many years ago. One of the panelists said her policy (her routine) was to do all her marketing on Mondays. I thought it stupid, but my friend Jerry latched on to this. At least he was blocking out time for it (he wasn’t the most organized of people).
Routines can, and should, cover many areas.
- If you do creative work, what is the best time of day or day of week to do it?
- If it’s keeping a team focused and on-point, when are those meetings and what do you cover?
- Salespeople need to plan for phone calls, emails, in-person meetings, and have a schedule to get these things accomplished.
I have a reminder in my system for 7:30 every morning that is simply one word – reflection. To me it means think about what happened, what I’m going to get done that day, and look at the big picture. It’s a routine to get focused.
“The future has arrived – it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” William Gibson