You broke the dam in my head

Rylan O'Conner is a producer on the video team at Appalachian State University where we conducted our Kellar Radio Talent Institute earlier this month. One of the components of the institute is that the students go through our Radio Marketing Professional (RMP) course. Our final module of the course deals with time management.

If you're like most people, you struggle to get the things you want to accomplish done in a day. So, in the class we share 10 time management tips:

Keep only one calendar.

Plan your work.

Give yourself a deadline.

Minimize travel time by geographically planning your appointments.

Solve little problems right away.

Eat the frog first. Do the most important and likely the least favorite tasks first.

One bite at a time. Meaning, break big projects into small pieces.

Always have work with you.

Manage information, don't let it manage you.

Prioritize daily.

Rylan approached after the module and admitted, "I struggle with time management all the time but when you said, eat the frog first, you broke the dam in my head. It was like 'Wow, that makes total sense.'"

Each of those ten tips can help you manage the enormous number of tasks you have to do in a day. We can all admit that a career in media sales these days is far from easy. It can be simple, but not easy. At RAB, we teach the 7-Steps to Selling Success. Simply put, sales is a repeatable process. Everything you do to be successful in sales is part of that 7-Step system. Following the recipe, following the steps in order and sequence will help you avoid the chaos; stick to a plan and be successful.

If you're new to radio sales, or even if you've been doing it a while, you might benefit from a back-to-basics approach by enrolling in either our Radio Marketing Professional(RMP) class or attending our Radio Sales Essentials class on July 19. For more details on either or both, just click here. If you're a manager, Kim Johnson, RAB's director of sales, would love to have a conversation with you about developing a strategy to help you maximize the performance of your team. Email Kim at kjohnson @rab.com.

Jeff Schmidt is SVP-Professional Development at the Radio Advertising Bureau. You can reach Jeff at jeff.Schmidt@Rab.com or follow him on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn.