A low estimation is that 75% of my company's first-time clients put in 60-plus hours a week on the job. It's one of the most common traits of salespeople today. And while that may be translated in today's society as highly ambitious or hard-working, the fact is that overworking is much more often an outcome of unproductive work habits.

If I had a hidden video camera follow you around for an entire workweek, would I discover that you spend most of your work days actually selling, actually building one-on-one relationships with your prospects and clients? The statistics say no. My company has found that most salespeople spend more than two-thirds of their days doing tasks that either don't need to be done by them or don't need to be done at all. What if I told you that the majority of salespeople waste nearly 800 hours a years on non-selling, non-relationship building tasks. Does that shock you? It should, especially if you think you might be in that category. When you consider how many more days of selling 800 hours means for your business, it's easy to see why spending some time to clean up your work days can reap huge rewards - not only in your business, but in your life.

The fact is that workaholic salespeople aren't the only ones to suffer when the days get long and priorities wane. Sure, for years studies have shown all the physical ailments that overworking leads to in the salesperson. But what about the second-hand consequences? What about the families that have to see less of their husband, wife, father, or mother? Aren't they just as much victims of the disease? Of course.

Let's put it this way: The "it just comes with the territory" excuse is getting old. The truth is that becoming a successful salesperson doesn't take 60 hours a week. It just takes proper priorities and the discipline to stick with them. How do you do that? By asking yourself three questions of every task that arises throughout your workday:

1. Does this need to be done at all? If you took the time to record the different tasks that you spend time on each day, you'd probably find that many of them are counterproductive to your sales success. And what you have to consider is that not only are those tasks a waste of your selling time, they are a waste of your living time. What many salespeople don't seem to comprehend is that time wasted on the job is time stolen from family or friends or other priorities, which are many times more important than the wasteful tasks being performed. To stop wasting time on counterproductive tasks, make sure what you spend time doing on the job is integral to your success.

2. Does this need to be done by me? Now, I understand that not everyone has an assistant provided by their company to whom they can delegate tasks such as copying, faxing, and answering the phone. But there comes a point when you have to take into consideration how much more productive your business could be if you did. And if you determine that having several more hours a day to sell will reap you more than the cost of hiring your own assistant or outsourcing your work, it's not difficult to understand that it would be a wise trade off to make. Take the time to determine how much an hour of your time is worth based on your last two months' worth of earnings. When you have that figure, then determine how much time you could add to your day if you delegated every task that you spend time on besides prospecting and selling - then multiply that certain number of hours by your per hour dollar figure. You will come up with an amount that indicates how much your earnings could increase if you took the time to delegate. If you can delegate for less than that amount, make the trade-off and begin to delegate your tasks to others - even if it means spending your own money.

3. Does this need to be done now? We've all probably heard of the "tyranny of the urgent." And what that means is simply that when we work in an emergency mode, we tend to just do what's on our plate to do. The fact is that you can spend your entire day on tasks that must be completed in order for your business to thrive, and still end up overworking. The trick to keeping your most important work priorities tops on your to-do list is simply to discipline yourself to first get done what you must get done in order to succeed, and then, and only then, complete less-important-but-necessary tasks like returning non-urgent phone calls or emails, preparing for meetings, previewing marketing material, etc.

In the end, when you make it a habit to ask the previous three questions throughout your working day, you will find that the length of your days decrease as readily as your woes.

At one time in his sales career, 70-hour work weeks were common for Jeff. What was also common was calling home to tell his wife he'd be late for dinner, calling his 6-year old son to tell him he'd was going to miss his baseball game, and calling off the family vacation. Sure, Jeff was doing fairly well at work. He was closing more sales - but he was losing more life in the process.

It wasn't until Jeff's wife finally talked him into taking a week off and spending it with his family in the mountains of Colorado that things began to change. Jeff had been promising his son he'd teach him to ski ever since he was about 3 years old. Since that day, his son had been very excited to learn. In fact, every Christmas from age 3 to 6, he had asked Santa for something to do with skiing - a pair of gloves, a new hat, a pair of skis, or a pair of boots. And Santa had come through. But the boy's father hadn't. But that would soon change.

In Colorado, husband, wife, and 6-year old son skied, laughed, and played to their hearts content. After long days of skiing, they'd return to their cabin and find the biggest hill to sled down. Afterward they'd eat a big meal and drink hot cocoa while playing board games or watching rented movies as they snuggled up on the couch. It was like a family vacation should be. And Jeff knew it. In fact, amidst it all, Jeff was beginning to remember why he'd become a salesperson in the first place. It had never been to become filthy rich or win awards or even get lots of promotions. It had been his job of choice because he knew he had the freedom to choose his own hours. To work around his life schedule. But that's not what was happening. The truth was, and Jeff knew it, that selling had taken precedence over living. Though it made him sick to think of, Jeff had gotten caught up in the promise of more success and in the process, sacrificed his life.

On the fourth night of their stay in Colorado, Jeff stayed up late by the fire and began to write down some of his thoughts - mostly disappointments with himself. He was hoping to understand what he really needed to change in order to get his life back. Sure, he knew he could just work less hours, and he would, but that didn't seem the best solution. Surely, he thought, there was a way to be successful at work and still maintain his life's priorities. And then it hit him. Satisfaction in life was all about productivity on the job. Like a flood, all the wasteful tasks he spent time on at work came to mind. Chatting with co-workers, standing at the coffee maker, making copies, watching faxes, emailing friends, eating long lunches that weren't work related. He was a study in lack of productivity. And that would have to change. If he could become more productive on the job, he knew he would reap more life off the job - and that, after all, was why he took the job in the first place. He knew he could succeed at sales. But could he succeed at sales and life? He was anxious to try. But deep down, he knew that in the end productivity was merely a matter of keeping his priorities straight...doing what needed to be done by him, delegating what he didn't need to do, and disposing of the rest. That was the key to reaping more life from his work.

Much of what we've been taught as salespeople, leads us to define productivity as an increase in business without an increase in hours working. But that's not the most accurate definition. In fact, it may very well be the most dangerous definition. Let me explain.

Most salespeople have two mental buckets: one for work and one for life. When work is productive, it means you have more work success. When life is productive, it means you have more life satisfaction. But the notion that business and life must be separated to be successful is the biggest farce in the sales industry. The fact is that you must not put aside pleasure to pursue business. Contrary to what you may have been taught to believe, your sales business should be the biggest promoter of pleasure you have.

The truth is that when sales productivity is seen as separate from life satisfaction, it becomes easy to justify working longer hours in order to increase success. In your mind, one doesn't necessarily affect the other. But the problem, as you may know, is that this thinking often leads to taking from one "bucket" in order to fill the other. Or in other words, adding business success at the expense of losing life satisfaction.

However, business and life are not two separate entities - and therefore cannot be thought as such. Business is a means to get more life. And seeing it any other way is a dangerous insight.

You see, the truest definition of productivity is an increase in business along with an increase in life. You must see business productivity as not merely a means to gaining more clients or more money, but as a means to increasing your satisfaction in life. The truth is that your sales career is the single greatest instrument you have to promote your priorities in life. And when that is your paradigm of productivity, you will find it much easier to make decisions at work that uphold your priorities, rather than shun them.

Over the course of the next week, consider what your paradigm of productivity has been up to now. And if you've been separating business and life in your thinking, take on a new resolve to see your sales business as your single greatest opportunity to advocate and advance the things that are most important to you in life. That's the only way to both success AND satisfaction.