The Easiest Way to Be More Productive

This is the scariest time of the year to be a financial adviser. Over the next two months, someone, somewhere is bound to ask you “the question”.  You really hope is doesn’t come up.  But it will.  Your manager (if you have one) could pop the question.  It could be your spouse.  It might even be one of your kids -- which only makes it worse. It doesn’t matter who really, it will always be a very hard question to answer.  Interestingly though, the right answer can dramatically increase your productivity and performance. Do you know what it is?

It was June 1984 and I was leading a large life insurance agency.  We were always looking for ways to promote more business.  Campaigns were always useful and I decided we needed a summer campaign. 

But, I put a twist on it.  To qualify for the campaign, you had to tell me what 3 weeks over the summer you were going to have your summer vacation.  The top prize was having me pick up the adviser first thing in the morning in my new Mercedes be chauffeur for the whole day.  Advisers wanted to see me work…

But, you’d think I’d asked for a human sacrifice.  So many advisers were totally unprepared to tell me when they would be taking time off.  Some were OK with it.  But at least half had to be cajoled to set a date – for their own family vacation. 

“Jim, I can’t decide now. I have to wait till later.”  

Wait till later, when? It was already early June.  When was “later”?

It was already later.

It still amazes me how many advisers squirm when I ask when their last vacation was. “Hmmm… let’s see.  I didn’t make any money the last couple of weeks.  I guess I was off!” that doesn’t work.  You can’t decide you were on vacation in retrospect.  You miss all the advantages of a vacation.  So does your family.

I appreciate that not taking vacations is like a badge of honor to some people.  “I haven’t had a day off in five year!” they’ll state as though they’d won the Nobel Peace Prize.

It’s actually pathetic.

Hey, I was part of the brigade that pushed for this over the years.  I was dead wrong. So are you, if you think that working without time off helps you produce more. 
 
It actually does the opposite.

I learned this from my old friend Ray Van more than 30 years ago.  Just never caught on until later… When I started, Ray seemed to always be off on vacation.  One quarter it was Whistler.  The next it was his cottage.  Then Palm Springs…

I told him he was a setting bad example for new guys like me.

“Au contraire” he said.  He told me that he had plotted his production over a few years and discovered that regardless of what he did, his production always tailed off every 10 to 12 weeks. Finally he decided, if he wasn’t going to produce, he might as well go on vacation.  So, every quarter, away he went.

Instead I sat around trying to force production. It never worked. 

I’ve since tested this out hundreds of times can have some lessons you have to know if you want to be more productive:

1. Slumps are the natural consequence of working too long without a re-energizing break.  What’s worse, they are demoralizing and self fulfilling. Slumps tend to get much worse, before they get better. That’s hell.

2. “Sickness is God’s way to tell you to slow down”.  There is no need to test this proverb.

3. You must set at least a one week vacation every quarter.  Anyone in a performance business has to refresh or they get stale.  Sales is one of those businesses.  So is TV and Radio.  Do you know any of your favorite personalities who are on EVERY show EVERY day? Never.  The same applies to you.  You need a break, emotionally and physically. 

4. Set vacations a year in advance.  Each quarter needs at least a week.  Make sure that your family knows the dates. Anticipation is more than half the fun and value of a vacation.  Don’t pop a vacation on your kids.  Let them savor the waiting for it to come. You too.   

5. And, even if you can’t make it a big deal, take the time anyway.  Do day trips.  Loose the Blackberry for a while.  Don’t check in for messages.  Take a chance on yourself and your family.  Sure, tell people you’re gone and make back up arrangements, but go.  Trade the back-up time with a colleague for their vacation.

6. Just setting a vacation date begins the natural process of increasing your productivity in anticipation of going away.  (And, booking a flight or a vacation makes it that that much more real and effective.) You know you have things to do before you go.  You know you want to have the money to go. It is part of the “vacation slingshot”. Production accelerates to the last work day and then snaps back to form when you return because you now have to catch up and pay for the time off.  Do not underestimate the power of this process.  It is the essence of Principle 5 “Make reality work for you”.

7. The upshot is that even though you take 2 weeks off, you actually produce more before and after a vacation than you would have had you stayed plugging away.  In the process, you are more relaxed and rejuvenated and prepared to help more people.

8. Vacations have a way of giving perspective to what’s important in life.  My good friend Father Peter Watters always says, “Never trade what matters least for what matters most.” Your health and your family always matters most. As I write this, I’m looking at a note my daughter Abigail brought home from school.  We all have to remember it:

“One hundred years from now… it will not matter what your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in or the kind of car you drove… but the world may be a different place because you were important in the life of a child.”

I say that writer was talking about your children.  Be important to them.  Take time regularly to be with them.  Summer vacation is the perfect time.

What’s more, you’ll be dramatically more productive because of it.  Vacations are the easiest way to be more productive.  Don’t make the mistakes I made.

So, contrary to what you may have heard, taking more time off is the best way to get more done.  Set up a year’s worth of vacations and your production will increase… almost immediately.
 
I’m Jim Ruta, and that’s just the way it is.

June 30, 2010