If you're like most successful professionals, your calendar gets filled up pretty quickly.
You also know that if something isn't on your calendar, there's a good chance that there simply won't be time for it.
That's just a time-management fact for a lot of professionals. And it becomes even more important when you're doing something that's uncomfortable, new, or even somewhat painful.
Prospecting can be any one of those things, depending on your experience and the way you're wired. For a lot of people, prospecting is something they put off because they don't like it and would rather do anything else on their to-do list instead.

Thinking back to your calendar—if you're not blocking out time for prospecting, and it's not high on the list of things you'd like to do, how likely is it that it's going to get done? I talk with a lot of professionals who have great goals for prospecting but simply don't follow through with them because they aren't making the time for it.
I recommend making a prospecting plan and sticking to it. That plan has to include two things: your budget and your schedule.
Budget
This is the estimated investment you'll be making on your prospecting activities. That will often include some kind of financial investment, of course. But you should also think about the investment of time and the amount of energy your prospecting activities will require from you.
Schedule
To create a schedule, you're going to have to decide what prospecting activities are worth budgeting time, energy, and money for. That might be making cold calls, setting up specific types of appointments, going to networking meetings, scheduling speaking engagements, responding to emails or social media—anything that makes sense in your world.
Once you've figured out what activities are worth investing your time, energy, and money into, create a schedule for how often you will do them. How many cold calls do you need to make to close a sale? How often should you go to networking meetings? Do you need to spend an hour a week on LinkedIn, or an hour a month?
Create a plan for how often you will carry out your prospecting activities, and put them on your calendar. Then, choose a date a month or two or three out in advance where you can reflect on your prospecting schedule and decide if it's working, or if you need to change up any part of it.
Just like anything that's important and a little challenging, prospecting needs to get on your calendar if it's going to happen.
Scheduling it out ahead of time means that you're choosing to make an investment in your success.
