Steve Hoffacker's Sales Quips

In November when we turned our clocks back the hour to return to Standard Time, 3 of our clocks decided to turn back permanently.

We don't have all that many clocks anyway, and for three of them to quit on the same day seems more than coincidental. I think they were protesting the return to Standard Time. Like me, they like the longer daylight - even when it shrinks in the fall.

Don't need anymore clock failures. Since we're going in the right direction - toward Daylight Time - might be OK.

Have a great unofficial start to your spring.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Quite possibly today was the last Friday we'll have to drive home in the dark for a few months unless we are working past 8:00. Tomorrow night we set our clocks ahead an hour. So beginning Monday we will have more daylight at the end of our workday. By next Friday it will seem like its always been this way and we will have adjusted for the lost hour of sleep.

This is just one of the many changes signaling springtime. We've already had Madri Gras and Ash Wednesday. The time changes tomorrow night, the Big Dance starts next week, and the vernal equinox is a week from Sunday.

All signs point to spring.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Next week at this time - late dusk - it will still be light. It will be an hour earlier (or later, depending on how your look at it), except in Arizona and Hawaii.

Next Sunday is the first day of Daylight Savings Time.

So instead of it being dark by 7:00 or even earlier, it will now stay light to about 8:00. The days are naturally getting longer and will be even with the daytime 2 weeks from today on the vernal equinox. Then the days will grow even longer for the next 3 months.

This is exciting.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Who doesn't like spring? Especially after a long winter.

Unless you live in Hawaii or Arizona - both very lovely places to be - the first outward sign of spring occurs tonight (tomorrow morning actually). That's the arrival of daylight savings time.

This means an automatic extra hour of daylight - growing into even more as we get into May and June.

Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour and enjoy your unofficial first day of spring!

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

I've said for years that instead of turning the clocks ahead in the spring and then back again in the fall that we should just make daylight time the new standard time and then turn the clocks ahead another hour for the spring and summer - sort of a double daylight savings time.

Well, I got my wish today. The clock in the bedroom and the one in the kitchen normally adjust ahead or back for the change in the time. This year it didn't happen - that is, until today. So after manually turning them ahead a month ago, they decided to do it on their own today.

Imagine my relief when I realized I hadn't lost an hour. I still would like to try it if we had some warning.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings. © Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

If you think you're having trouble getting everything done now within your 24-hour day - even to the point of giving up on or reducing the amount of sleep you need or should have - just wait until tomorrow (except in Arizona and maybe a couple of other places). That's right, tomorrow, they take away an hour. So if 24-hours are not enough to get everything done, try doing it in 23. After a few days it will seem like 24-hours again, but there still will be an hour missing from your day.

Since we only had standard time during November, December, January, and February, why do we need it at all? Let's just keep the same time all year.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings. © Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

So tonight's the big night. Unless you live in Arizona or another area that does not observe daylight savings time, tonight's when we recapture that hour that was taken from us back in April.

You realize that this is one of those government programs where they give us something that is supposed to make us happy (in this case an extra hour of daylight during the summer months for those outdoor activities) and then they take it away, again to make us happy (an extra hour of sleep) - but all the while it was our hour to begin with. Great slight of hand. Take what is ours, repackage it, give it back to us, take it away, repackage it, give it back to us, and we're happy. The ultimate government program. And this one didn't cost them anything. What happened?

So the big question? What are you going to do with those extra 3600 seconds, those 60 minutes, that one hour?

Got some big plans do you?

Whatever you do, don't just sleep it away. :)

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.

Just a friendly reminder to most everyone that we need to turn our clocks back an hour before leaving the office tomorrow or Saturday (whichever is the last work day) or on Sunday or Monday, we're going to be an hour ahead of the curve. There are still a few non-daylight-savings-time-non-conformists, but most of the country will be going back to standard time.. The others of you can just stay on standard time.

You may have read about my idea for double daylight savings time - instead of turning the clocks back an hour on Saturday night/Sunday morning, we turn them ahead another hour - maybe even ywo hours. Hey, as long as we're messing with the time, we might as well get as much daylight on the drive home as possible. Do you really like driving home in the dark - before 6:00? In the morning, some of our eyes are barely open anyway, so what does it matter if it's still dark?

Then in the spring, we can go back to the time it is now. That seems to work for the summer months.

At any rate, enjoy that extra hour of sleep Sunday morning!

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.

Well, I survived the first day of daylight savings time but it took a little adjustment. With that extra hour of daylight I tried to cram in too many outdoor yardwork activities and ended up tired and sore but made lots of progress.

Speaking of progress, the time change kind of reminds us of that. Change the time. Change the batteries in your smoke detector. Change your outlook. It's spring. Our life is constantly changing anyway. This is just a very visible reminder of it.

We're either changing for the better each day and growing or we're not. Nobody remains static.

If you read my post yesterday where I advocated that yesterday be the last day of winter, then join me in celebrating today as the unofficial first day of spring. For all of you who have been waiting for spring, it's here. For those of you who follow the calendar, you'll have to wait a little longer.

Today we can start scheduling and planning those spring cleaning projects and take extra vitamins to ward off an outbreak of spring fever.

I think I must have acquired even more clocks and electronic items with clocks on/in them than last fall when I last had to adjust the time, and I probably still forgot one or two that I'll discover later this week.

Enjoy your first day of spring.