Another end of the month has come and gone. Are you still preparing your numbers? Already turned them in? Have you had the conversation with your GM or Salespeople about how this month is going to be better than last month? I've had a ton of those talks with my superiors who expected me to do better than a bad month, or even better than a good month. 

I'd leave the meeting so stressed out, that the rest of the day would be a wash. I'd spend the day praying to God/Allah/whomever to please give me a good month so that I wouldn't get written up or fired. 

This month HAD to be good.

A month is a long time and it's a short time. Though I know everyone looks at the length of a month differently, my problem lied solely in the fact that if it was the 1st of the month, I figured I had 29-30 more days to make things happen. This state of mind would continue on through the 10th of the month. I still had more time.

Finally, around the 20th, I'd realize it was go-time, and I'd put in a good 10 days of work. Sometimes I'd even hit quota. 

....so where am I going with this?

Super simple, guys. When you put that pressure on yourself to have a good month, it's too broad-a-goal to focus on. It needs to be more centralized. More precise. 

For me, it worked for me to drill it down to the day. "Today, I must make X calls/X contacts/X appointments/Xsales." This way, there is no putting it off until tomorrow or next week. 

Goal achievement is the result of consistent work, not a spur of the moment sprint to the finish line. 

It might seem a little too obvious a point, but too many times I see people fooling around on the 1st-5th of the month because "the entire month is left". 

All I'm saying is USE TODAY.