The Importance of Routine

young professional working at computer
Derrick Ramage, demand generation at Gallagher Security, is a member of SIA’s RISE community.

There’s no doubt that we have all spent a considerable amount of time discussing, planning and setting goals.

And while they may vary tremendously, there are a few key principles that we can apply to our daily lives that will dramatically improve how we achieve those goals, particularly as they relate to the importance of creating a daily routine.

So, how can you set a routine? Here are three steps you can take today:

Work Backwards From Your Goal

The best way to start this is to reverse-engineer your goal. 

Let’s use the example of a salesperson. When looking at what it will take to achieve their quota, the first step would be to determine their average sale size ($) and how many sales it will take to achieve that quota. From there, figure out the average number of appointments it takes to sell one deal. Finally, assign a quantifiable output to each activity, such as the amount of time it takes to book one appointment, and multiply that by the total number of activities you need to reach your goal. This will give you a great foundation when creating your new routine. 

Based on your job function, this formula can be easily applied to other roles as well.

Determine a Daily Goal

Using the earlier example , our salesperson should now have a total number of “activities” they need to reach their quota for the year. But let’s take that a step further and break it down to a daily goal.

For our salesperson to determine their daily goal, they would start by assessing how much time is spend on an average day doing mandatory or repetitive tasks such as attending internal meetings, logging information into CRM and traveling to and from meetings. According to this Get More Done article, the average salesperson spends just 10.8 hours per week on activities directly related to selling, meaning there are almost 30 hours available to put towards other goal-achieving activities. 

Once you are able to determine how many hours a week you have available for other goal-achieving activities, you can  better allocate your remaining time in a way that contributes towards accomplishing your overarching goals.

Create a Daily Routine

With the level of activity outputs (dials, emails, etc.) required to achieve your goals coupled with the number of hours you have to actually dedicate towards these activities, leverage your schedule to help turn plans into action. Start by narrowing down your workday into “ideal hours” or identifying the best time to accomplish certain tasks. 

For example, our salesperson probably doesn’t want to be doing cold calls at 5 p.m. on a Friday. But midday on Tuesdays and Thursdays may be more ideal.  Narrowing down your week into “ideal hour” buckets, protecting and prioritizing your time becomes easier. 

From there, schedule your time in a way that is realistic and achievable for you day in and day out to hold yourself accountable and prevent people from booking time that is vital to your success. One recommendation is to set a recurring calendar event during these “ideal hours” to make the most of your time. 

Now that you’ve identified the key components to your routine, test it out for a few days and adjust as needed to achieve your goals!

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association. 

This blog was originally published as an article in RISE Together, SIA RISE‘s newsletter for young security professionals.