It's Just a Matter Of Time

Half-empty or half-full? Ethereal vengeance or a blessing in disguise? Whatever your view of the industry’s recession, know this: Those who can, will. Those who can’t will cease to be. And simply put, those who can are the agents who are most effective at self- and time-management. Economic duress will weed out the sun-dried agents in your office that aren’t producing, leaving more on the plate for those of you who are hungry and harbor a willingness to manage your time effectively.

The average full time worker, according to Salary.com, wastes 2.09 hours on any given 8-hour day, not including sanctioned lunch or break times. This sort of lax work ethic reportedly costs employers $759 billion a year on salaries for which real, profitable work is projected but not delivered. So how do you keep yourself from becoming just another time-wasting statistic? Follow these steps to become a modern-day Chronos, the mythological figure responsible for turning the Zodiac Wheel and thus, time.

Step back, pump fake…analyze. Just like when making a monetary budget, the first step to time management is to dissect both your ‘spending’ and your ‘income’. How much time are you physically in your office? And of that time, how many hours are spent surfing the web, how many spent reading emails, and how many are spent on the phone? By visually breaking down your typical day you will be able to honestly self-analyze your productivity hour by hour. It will become glaringly obvious that you spend too much time on the Drudge Report and not enough in your MLS database. Doing this will help you to…

…set time limits and plan out your day, the right way. Take the self-dissection one step further and break down what exactly you’re doing on the internet/phone/laptop/Wii. Are you spending your internet time playing flash games and searching for dinner recipes, or are you researching SEO and keeping up to date on the industry? There’s nothing wrong with internet usage, but there is a definite difference between productivity and foolishness. For example: FullTiltPoker = Foolishness. Inman.com’s Daily Headlines = Productive and Informative. If you have one area where you seem to be throwing your time away by the bucket-load, set yourself a designated time-slot or hour-limit and restrict yourself to staying on-task within the specified parameters. For example, as task queues allow, I set aside the 8 a.m. hour and read all incoming emails and new, daily headlines. By the time 9 o’clock rolls around, I’m up to speed on my associates’ happenings as well as the latest and greatest news of the industry. Doing so provides me with a confident base to make sales calls from for the rest of the day and does loads for my mental organization.

Once you have some time slots set aside, it is easier to commence planning out your day. Set blocks of time apart for each individual task; be it how long you will spend in your inbox, what time of the day will be spent on the phone following up with messages, and how many hours will be logged working to better each listing. My father, for example, sets aside several hours at the beginning of every winter week to shovel the sidewalks in front of each of his listings. If he did not purposely allot time for this, it would never get done. But he makes a point of it, and it has worked well to improve his standing with the neighbors, homeowners, and developers around town.

Speaking of being organized…it’s always a good idea to take a minute and organize the spit right out of your computer. My ‘Bookmarks’ tab is as organized as the National Library of Congress, and the same can be said for my ‘Documents’.

Most of the agents I know don’t stop at owning one computer. They have the office desktop, the home desktop, and the portable laptop so the office can join them on vacation. So how do you maintain continuity between home and work? Some tricks: make an effort to set up your folders in a mirrored fashion. Since most of the files will be the same, the only variable is the way you categorize. Set up folders to look exactly the same on all your hard drives. Speaking of hard drives, if you have issues with transporting files, consider investing in an external hard drive. These are basically jumbo versions of the common 2GB flash drive, and are available anywhere from $50 - $200.

Another trick: don’t underestimate the power of a ‘New Folder’. When you begin compiling files and end up with two or more of like-mindedness, put ‘em in a folder. And then put that folder in a folder. And then…you get the idea. My Documents are set up to contain one master, constantly changing folder entitled ‘Ongoing Projects’ surrounded by multiple broad storage folders, ranging from ‘Blogging’ to organization-specific folders containing organization-specific documents. As soon as I finish a task or project, all pertinent documents kindly remove themselves from my ‘Ongoing’ folder and distribute to a surrounding storage container. This helps me to find documents very quickly, both old and new, and I encourage you all to take some time and organize every last file on your hard drive. If nothing else, at least you’ll look busy…

Do work. Lastly, but possibly most important, it is imperative that you leave your personal life exactly where it belongs: at home. Remember your first job, where you weren’t quite sure what was expected of you, but still had the good sense to know what not to do? For example, no one had to tell you that you weren’t to use the office computer to check your MySpace or play games, or that you weren’t to be using your cell phone in view of customers, let alone the boss. And, of course, no napping! A good rule of thumb for the office: if you wouldn’t do it when the boss is around, don’t be doing it at all.

“But Austin,” you may say, “I am my own boss! How can I be kept accountable?”

The answer is simple. If you truly want to ‘make it’ in this day and age; if you sincerely hold the desire to work hard and close listings; if you are serious about being a profitable real estate agent; then you are the type of person who will know when you aren’t helping yourself. Plan your day like you would want a hypothetical employee to plan their day. Industry experts say this: Success for tomorrow starts today. Take the 4-5 p.m. hour to plan out exactly what you want to accomplish when you come back the next morning. Doing so will not only assist your next-day productivity, but the ‘cool-down’ period will ensure that you leave the office at the office, and are better capable of picking up the reins at home when you set down your briefcase.