As an internet marketing account manager, I service 30+ clients of my own, and these days am covering a vacation for another account manager and a partial load for yet another account manager who is on part-time maternity.
Needless to say, there are never enough hours in the day, days in the week to get all the tasks done that are on my continually expanding list of things that I need to accomplish for this set of customers. Tasks can be miniscule, such as changing or adding a link to a page, or they can be middle of the road – like setting up an email campaign – or at the total opposite end, it could be something as daunting as getting a customer set up with a new online credit card processor.
Here are my tips for staying organized motivated…
Color Code/Stay Organized… I keep a running list of tasks. I tend to color code based on priority and status – if it’s in progress I highlight in Yellow, once it’s done, I highlight in Blue – if it’s a high priority task – it gets Pink so it jumps off the page at me. Green is just another story altogether – I use Green on problem tasks.
Follow up… Often times I have phone conversations with clients where many things are discussed – lets add this product category, lets do an online press release by this day, we should run a promotion on the home page, AND, lets offer 50% of this product. AS SOON AS YOU HANG UP – FOLLOW UP – send a list of tasks confirming what you spoke of and who is responsible for what. This will keep you focused on what you just promised to deliver.
When you get totally overwhelmed focus on a few small easy tasks to complete… you’ll feel accomplished and this will help you get movitated to jump on some of the larger more daunting tasks.
Re-Review your task list daily… This keeps it all fresh in your mind and some days your mindset may be more focus on one type of task over another. I find on some days I’m totally focused to do a certain type of work over another.
Remember to breathe… You cannot conquer the world in one day, and you customers cannot either – be realistic about the volume of work you need to manage and work it into manageable chunks. When you get overwhelmed take a few deep breaths and re-focus on what you can accomplish now.
Always remember to laugh at yourself when you get worked up – it’s the best way to relieve pressure, and realize that you are not God. You did not create this universe and you cannot solve all of it’s problems in one day, but you can accomplish little things along the way if you stay positive and focused.
So for me now, I’m re-motivated to get back to work and it’s time to review my to-do list again. Good luck with yours!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good advise. Haven’t mastered my own version of the ToDo List. Maybe I will try yours. Sounds like you may need a vacation soon.
Someone once said that work expands to exceed the time available.
One of my favorite stories is about a 90+-year-old gentleman in a nursing home. Each night he would ask his nurse to write down all of the things he had done that day. Then he would take the list and check them all off. He’d go to bed a happy camper.
It’s all about managing expectations, isn’t it?
@wvpmc
Wendy, great advice. With that many clients, it’s great to have a to-do list in order to make sure everybody knows what they need to do. Even having 5 clients that you talk to on a daily basis can greatly help. I have a daily to-do list for myself but I will start doing what you mentioned here because I think it will really help me in my daily interaction with clients.
Thanks, Doug (@dougmcsorley)