Time is money.
The more productive real estate professional you are throughout your workday, the more money you’re going to make, the more time you’re going to save for the things that really matter in life, and the more satisfied you’re going to feel.
But you already know that. You know that if you were more productive, then your business and your personal life would benefit.
Still, social media, email, and endlessly ringing phone — it’s all wildly effective at distracting you from the important tasks, the lever-movers that can grow your business and fulfill your entrepreneurial dream.
Here are a few quick stats:
- 90% of adult Americans spend two full workdays per month on Facebook.
- 15% that’s the productivity boost you’ll enjoy if you exercise before work.
- Productivity improves by 20-25% in organizations with connected employees.
Based on statistics, we compiled this list of strategies you can use to be a more productive real estate professional and business owner.
We hope it helps!
9 Ways To Be a More Productive Real Estate Professional & Business Owner
1. Make a Plan Before You Execute It
When you wake up in the morning, you have a million different things to do.
It’d be easy to take a 5-minute shower, throw on some clothes, and rush to the office to dive right into your lengthy to-do list. Heck, that’s almost logical — the faster you start working, the better for your productivity… right?
Not always.
In fact, planning ahead, course correcting and making sure that your to-do list is full of the right tasks is an important step toward increasing productivity. If you don’t plan beforehand, then the things you work on might end up being a total waste of time.
Here’s how real estate agent, Casey TeVault, explains it:
“To stay productive in the moment, it is necessary that planing is done ahead of time.
Every Sunday, I spend an hour reviewing the previous week, course correcting if needed, and planning out the following week; ‘War’s are won in the general’s tent, not out on the battle-field.”
2. Use this Energy Audit
When you’re building a business, you have to do a lot of things that you might not enjoy. You have to file overly-complicated taxes, you have to create new processes, hire people and manage systems, and you have to put out unexpected fires.
But one great way to make yourself and your business more productive is to focus your own work time on doing things that you actually love doing. Hire, delegate, and automate everything else.
Here’s a talk that Trevor Mauch gave about this topic…
When you do the things you love, you’re naturally more productive. And you’ll have a lot more fun building your business — who wouldn’t want that?
We even have a free energy audit resource that will help you determine what you love doing, what you hate doing, and how you should be spending each day.
Download The Energy Audit Worksheet
3. Lock Yourself Out of Distractions for the First 4 Hours of Each Day
Distractions are a big problem.
When we’re talking about increasing productivity, growing your business faster, and doing more deals every month, distractions are the last thing you need. They’ll derail your momentum faster than almost anything else.
We’re talking about mindlessly scrolling through social media, doddling with unimportant tasks, and chit-chatting when you should be working.
Think about it. Instead of spending 30 minutes on social media, you could be crafting an interesting piece of content for your customers. According to SquareFoot Homes, focusing on the client and taking care of all their real estate needs is a powerful success driver.
There’s nothing wrong with having fun, of course.
But it’s far easier to stay productive when you’re not interrupting your workflow with random and unimportant distractions.
Ryan Dossey, the owner of Christopher Ellyn Homes, explains how he starts every single day:
“My biggest productivity hack is a three-part system. I start my day by journaling to get all the random thoughts out of my head.
I also write down 5 quadrant-two activities that will move my business forward. Next, I use an app called ‘Off Time’ to lock me out of social media and email for the first 4 hours of each day.
Lastly, I don’t check my email until those 5 things are checked off. This makes it almost impossible to get sidetracked.”
In case you don’t know what Ryan means by “quadrant-two activities,” he’s referring to this famous graphical prioritization graph from The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People.
Quadrant 2 — not urgent but important tasks — is where the real magic of business growth happens. Unfortunately, since those mission-critical tasks (polishing processes, optimizing marketing, hiring A players, etc) are almost never urgent, it’s easy to shove them to the side.
But you can use Ryan’s strategy of writing down 5 quadrant-2 activities every morning and then tackling those without any distractions to make sure you start every day focused on the tasks that actually make a difference.
4. Have Intermittent Movement Snacks
I recently came across this productivity hack in my LinkedIn feed.
That’s a great idea!
We are human beings, after all, and we’re designed to move, use our muscles, and exercise every once in a while.
But you don’t have to go run a marathon or do 100 push-ups. Even a quick walk or a few jumping jacks can put the pep in your step and get you ready for your next round of to-dos.
Have “movement snacks” intermittently throughout your day and you might be surprised at how much you accomplish.
5. Create Deadlines
Without a deadline in place, you just have an idea — an idea that may or may not come to fruition.
Top real estate investors and business owners don’t just prioritize their tasks throughout the day, they also create deadlines for tasks and unerringly hit those due dates.
In fact, April Crossley, the founder of Lazy Girl Real Estate Investing, says…
“I stay productive by writing a to-do list every night for the next day and I have deadlines for everything. I work well under pressure.
If something doesn’t have a deadline I will never do it. So I give myself deadlines for even the smallest tasks.”
Partly, this is just a matter of how well you work under pressure. If pressure stresses you out and paralyzes you, then you might find a less intense way to get stuff done.
BUT… for the vast majority of us, deadlines are a good thing — they push us to be efficient and finish tasks in a timely manner.
Here are some ideas to help you stick to your deadlines:
- Make Them Urgent
- Make Them Personal
- Make Them Actionable
- Make Them Meaningful
6. Create a Routine
We are creatures of habit.
The more of a routine that you get into with your everyday work habits, the more efficient you’re going to be and the more seamlessly you’re going to transition from task to task.
I like the way that Psychology Today explains this…
“Habits help us through our day. When we are doing something that is habitual, we are not engaged in the task in the same way as when we are doing something that is not habitual.
Just as an example, consider making breakfast in your own kitchen on any given weekday. Next time you do it, watch how effortlessly it happens.
It’s not exactly like an out-of-body experience, but it’s close. Your movements through the kitchen are stereotyped. You grab the milk out of the fridge, turn toward the counter and give the door that little nudge you with your foot that you know it needs.
If something is on your mind, you might not notice that you’re sitting at the table and munching on your second piece of toast until you’re halfway through it. Now, compare that to getting breakfast at a friend’s house.
Maybe you’re dog sitting (you’re so nice!) Where’s the milk? The bread? Oh my goodness, so complicated!”
That’s the power of habit.
Of course, entrepreneurship is filled with unexpected surprises — deals fall through, due diligence goes wrong, seller and/or buyers get angry.
But still, it will benefit you to designate different hours of the day to different kinds of tasks. The longer you stick to the routine you create, the more productive you’re going to be.
Carrot CEO, Trevor Mauch simply puts it as…
“Habits Create the Person You Want to Become”
Watch Trevor Explain His Daily Habit Tracker!
Download Your Daily Habit Tracker Worksheet
7. Focus on Organizing Your Day and Just One Thing at a Time
Some people think they’re great multi-taskers.
Other people think they’re terrible at it.
But the truth is, we’re all terrible at it — according to research, multi-tasking is scientifically impossible. Human beings simply can’t focus attention on two different things at once.
That’s why you can fleet from task to task throughout the day and finish feeling like you didn’t accomplish anything.
We’re much more effective when we just focus on one task at a time and do the best we can with it.
Grady Sullivan, the founder of Henry Street PG, explains…
“The best way for me to stay productive is to block out 3 to 4 hours focusing on a single task, or the most important task of the day. If I don’t turn off all distractions during that time it’s almost impossible to get done what you need to.
You gotta focus on that one thing, whether it’s building a new system, dialing vacant property owners, creating a new marketing funnel.
That’s how I stay focused during my day.”
Download The Organizing Your Day Sheet
8. Hire a Virtual Assistant
There’s a lot to be said for having an assistant who can help you with menial tasks throughout the day — tasks that kill your energy.
And virtual assistants, in particular, can have a major impact when trying to become a more productive real estate professional.
VA’s are inexpensive and easy to find. You can go to a site like UpWork to find a great virtual assistant who can help you clean up emails, reply to emails, schedule appointments, and maybe even answer the phone (if you hire an experienced VA).
Watch: Real Estate Investor Virtual Assistant: 3 Key Mindset Changes You Need to Make Before Hiring
Additional VA Resources:
- EP 168: From a Mud Hut in Vietnam to True Financial Freedom | Khang Le of Wholesale to Millions
- Ep 12: Building A Business Of Freedom, Purpose & Profits w/ Trevor Mauch and Adrian Nez
9. Find Needle-moving Tasks Every Day
It’s easy to work on stuff that doesn’t really matter a whole lot — that’s probably why we sometimes work hard without making much progress.
The truth is, you don’t have to work 15-hour days to build the business of your dreams, you just have to work smart. You have to work on the right things.
Of course, knowing what the right things to work on are is easier said than done; which is why you might consider taking some time before every day to write down the tasks that are real lever-movers for your business. Paul doCampo, an investor who also works a full-time W2 job and the founder of Real Estate Audios, says this about his smarter-not-harder working habits…
“With little time to work with and because getting wrapped into ‘busy work’ is very easy to do… I have to ask myself EVERY DAY,
‘what are the most important tasks that are going to move me forward today; has the needle moved ahead at the end of the day?'”
Conclusion
If you’re going to build a productive real estate business, then you’re going to need to be productive — day-in and day-out.
That doesn’t mean working 12-hour days and it doesn’t mean constantly thinking about work. But it doesn’t mean working smart and hiring people who can help you achieve your goals.
In the end, building a profitable business is a matter of managing money and time, because those resources are one and the same.
But enough from us.
What do you do to stay productive throughout the day? Hit us up in the comments! :-)