Beat the Brain Fog and Think Outside the Sales and Marketing Box
... or if you're me, cut it up, douse it with glitter and make a star instead
Everyone suffers from groggy redundancy within their job. Whether you've written the same email 10 times already that day, you've said the same exact thing on every single phone call, or you're at the point where you're just staring at your computer screen, you need a break, a breather, and some inspiration.
Within the sales and marketing profession, at times you need to think differently by looking at an issue from a unique perspective or delivering a message with personality in order to captivate your audiences. You need more brainpower to communicate more effectively.
Here are four tips on refreshing your thoughts and fighting brain fog.
1.) Play to your strengths
If you need to communicate to a prospect and you find that you're rambling in an email but you know you communicate more precisely on a phone call, pick up the phone! There's nothing wrong with an old-fashioned conversation. If you're afraid of public speaking in a sales meeting, but can consult like nobody's business via email, then type up talking points and walk yourself through your speaking portion. Not everyone is built the same way, and we all have different strengths. Use yours to your advantage!
2.) Take a break and read
No, I don't mean read your crazy college friends' Facebook updates and "like" your way through your Facebook feed. Instead, read relevant content and posts from thought leaders. Sometimes you get too caught up in your own rituals and the way that you habitually think that it becomes difficult to get out of your own way. If you brush up on ideas from individuals who have an altered way of thinking or read up on why their process is different, then that may allow you to open your mind. As Robert Frost states: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."
3.) Chat with a fellow employee for a few minutes
If you're feeling stuck in the same old same old, it might be time to take a break. Walk around the office and talk to a co-worker and see what they're working on. Remove your mindset from your current project and focus on something else. Even better: talk to someone outside your company for a little while. Let's face it, if you removed yourself from your specific job and were placed in a completely different company doing the "same job," you would most likely be up against different challenges and would need to create different solutions. It's always good to talk to other people within your industry to see how their approach may differ from yours or your company's.
4.) Do something different
If you're struggling to think, find an answer to a question, or create a closing presentation and you're at the point of almost no return, stop. Take a different approach; change your focus and mental process to something "different." Focus your mind on something dear to you, perhaps a picture of your family, your crazy lazer-eyed cat, something that for a few seconds soothes your blood pressure. Change the music you're listening to. If you're on your way back from lunch and need to jump right into a project, but the only thing you've thought so far was, "How many hours until I can put my sweat pants on?," do something different. Take a different route back to the office, grab coffee from somewhere new, sit somewhere and people-watch. Reset your mindset; wipe your slate clean and find a different inspiration to complete your task outside of the pressure related to the deadline.
Let's face it, we're all human and we all fall into a brain fog. It will happen. The challenge is learning how to escape the brain fog and create a mentality that will allow you to produce your best work by thinking outside of the box. Think a little differently, continue to learn, grow your curiosity, find new inspirations, oh and don't be a work hermit.