My job is selling technology. Actually I'm more of a translator. I sell technology to other businesses and that's where things get weird. There is a bewildering array of tech out there and unfortunately many companies think technology sells itself and the value that the technology delivers should be obvious. Wrong. That's where I come in. I said I was a translator. My job is to translate techno babble into value that customers understand. This blog share my adventures with high tech sales. Selling high tech is fun so come join me on my sales journey!

Friday 11 January 2013

What difference does 5 minutes make?

Five minutes isn't very long. It's only 0.35% of a whole day or 1% of an 8hr working day.

What can you do in 5 minutes? Not much you are probably thinking.

Make a cup of  tea.
Walk quarter of a mile

You can't listen to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody - it's 5:52

Some people can do more with 5 minutes - some can run a mile.

Interestingly 5 minutes can be a very productive period.  I've been experimenting with "I've got 5 minutes spare, what can I do with it".

The results are surprising.  You can achieve quite a lot in 5 minutes.  I've been experimenting with this technique for less than a week but the interesting thing is if you pick a small task and just do it, it gets done. No internal procrastination.  Just 5 minutes of intense focus. Job done.

I've achieved several things in just 5 minutes that would have been too low priority get done when they are competing against big urgent tasks - they always slipped down the importance pile.

In a typical day I probably have about 3 spare 5 minute periods that normally I would squander.
Over a period of a year, I can potentially deliver 660 things that would have slipped down my priority list and never got done.

I haven't picked the item from a to-do list or anything as structured as that.  I can imagine wasting 5 minutes figuring out which item I wanted to do.  Instead I have literally done the first thing that came into my head. No consideration to whether it would fit into 5 minutes - I just did it.  Most of the time it gets done. If it doesn't I have made progress and when I next get 5 minutes I pick it again.

Take this blog post - just over 5minutes for me to write it and post.

This technique has really surprised me. I'm beginning to think these 5 minutes are the most productive of my day.

Try it. I'd be interested to hear your experiences.

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