The POWER of Time-Blocking

Do you know the difference between being busy and productive?  Most don’t.

Take a look at your fellow agents and investors.  A handful are producers and the rest are not.  Heard of the 80/20 rule?  Eighty percent of the closings are done by only 20% of real estate professionals.

So what is that sets these two groups apart?  It is an efficient use of their time and consistent commitment to income producing activities.

It is very easy to stay busy all day.  You work and work and work some more, but before you can say “good morning” the sun is setting you don’t know where the day went.  If this is happening to you, you simply MUST re-evaluate you use of time.

A simple career changing move is to time-block your day.  You can time-block or schedule appointments with yourself to complete tasks that are income producing activities.  Any time that you block off needs to be treated with the same level of respect as you would a doctor’s appointment or soccer practice for the kids.

What are income producing activities?  These are activities that advance your business.  You can argue that all activities advance your business.  But without a clear break-down of goals, action steps, and departments, you can easily become confused, overwhelmed, and end-up un-productive.

Take a look at the goals you must accomplish on both the small and large scale and then schedule committed time to complete steps towards the goals.

Using some personal examples, I time-block a window each day for cold-calling.  During that time I prospect for leads that meet needs of current projects.  I don’t allow anything to interfere or interrupt that prospecting appointment even if I am sitting in my pajamas at my kitchen table.  That means, that I don’t answer emails, answer inbound calls, or allow myself to procrastinate or be easily distracted.

Taking it one step further, I time-block an appointed time to enter and schedule follow-up with leads I generated while prospecting.  This way my time spent is not wasted.

As entrepreneurs, agents and investors especially, we are pulled in hundreds of directions.  It is very difficult to know which way to go and what is the best use of our time.  By prioritizing projects and committing time to completion, your business will move forward at break-neck speeds.

To everyone’s success!