It is no surprise that the best investors are also the best at time management. It is not enough to have the desire to get things done you need a solid plan of attack. Once you have your plan in mind you need to put pen to paper. By making a to-do list you hold yourself accountable for your actions. From there you need to find the motivation to knock off one task off at a time. While this sounds easy enough many people in business fail with time management and accomplishing their daily tasks. Doing just a little extra every day will help give you a leg up on your competition. Here are five tips to help improve your time management.
- Prioritize Your List. Making a daily to-do list is great but it is far from enough. Anyone can scribble down a few tasks they want to accomplish. The goal is not to knock items off your list but to be as productive as possible. Start by tackling the most important items on your list first. Most people are as productive as they will be early in the morning. If you are not a morning person give yourself a softball task that you can easily accomplish. This will get the ball rolling and lead you into something a little more difficult. If you are a morning person start with biggest thing right off the bat. Instead of constantly postponing and delaying you face your toughest challenge head on. Doing this sets your day in motion and makes everything else a little easier. Don’t put off your toughest tasks until you are tired and sluggish. Start with the most important tasks first.
- Make Blocks Of Time. Good time management is all about maximizing every minute of the day. What happens with most people is that they get bogged down with one task that eventually spills over into the next one. Instead of working on the new one they postpone it to the next day. At the end of the week there are always a handful of items that didn’t get done that should have. One way to combat this is by making blocks for each task. If you are running numbers for new deals give yourself a window from say 8:00 to 9:15. Always allow a small break between tasks to clear your mind and recharge your battery. From there work on your next task in blocks. The longer you are in the business for the better you will become at estimating how long things take. You will end up being more productive if you assign time to your tasks rather than just writing things down and hoping for the best.
- Plan Ahead. When looking at your daily tasks you should also take a peek at the big picture. There will be some days in the real estate world that are busier than others. Instead of taking your free time and wasting it you should work on tasks you may have been storing for later. There should be a balance of time in every day. You shouldn’t work 14 hours hard one day and then four the next. On days where you may not have any immediate work you should look to tackle any long term projects you may have. By doing this you will not only be more productive but you will be in a better position when things do pick up. Every investor should have a colander that they can reference at any time. This could either be a physical colander in their office or simply something on their phone. Use this to help plan ahead and become more organized with your long term tasks.
- Delegate. One of the biggest time eaters for anyone in business is doing everything on your own. At some point you need to let go and trust the people around you. Taking this leap of faith isn’t always easy but is necessary if you want to get more accomplished. Instead of handling time consuming, and boring, tasks you can let someone else on your team take care of them. With everything you do you need to ask where is your time best spent. Sure, you can handle sending emails or developing marketing materials but what are you giving up to do them. Focus most of your time on tasks that will generate the biggest return. This could mean meeting new contacts or talking to homeowners. Whatever it is this is what you should be doing while you delegate smaller tasks to people on your team.
- Balance. One of the secrets to maximizing your time is in finding a good work/life balance. You will be much more productive working six solid hours than working ten halfhearted ones. It is helpful if you always work towards gaining more free time to spend how you like. If you know there is something you want to do with your family in the evening you can adjust your work day accordingly. Hard work is important in real estate but you can’t bang your head against the wall. There are times when you need to take a small step back to take a giant leap forward. Spend an hour during the day doing what you like as long as you make up for it either before or after. If you are all work all the time you will get bored, frustrated and ultimately unproductive.
Everyone is given the same twenty four hours in a day. How you choose to spend them is up to you. Use these five tips to develop better time management and maximize your day.
