Real estate agents are often told that they need to spend more time doing business development. But what if you’re already busy? How can you find the time to do all of these different tasks, and still be productive? The answer is that it’s not about finding more time; it’s about managing your current time better. I’ll show you how in this blog post.
There are three basic ways that I recommend to manage your time better as a real estate agent is: planning, prioritizing, and blocking.
We will dive deep into each of these then I will give you my real estate agent time-blocking strategy that I learned that helps me get more done in my business.
Plan your day ahead of time.
When you plan your day ahead of time, this will help you stay organized and ensure that you don’t waste any time.
One of the best ways to manage your time as a real estate agent is to plan your day ahead of time. This will help you stay organized and ensure that you don’t waste any time.
There are a few things you can do to plan your day:
Start by making a list of the tasks you need to do early on in the day. This will help you stay focused and make sure that you don’t forget anything important. The reason why you want to do this at the beginning of the day is because new things to do come up all through the day. Therefore it’s important to know what has to get done, especially when you get distracted.
You should avoid scheduling meetings first thing in the morning. Make sure you start your day with the most important task and not a meeting. You will want to be focused and present at those meetings so that you can get the most out of it rather than having your mind wandering about other things.
If you use Google Calendar, like I do, you should drag and drop tasks on your schedule based on priority starting from 7AM to 5PM. You will learn more about prioritizing next.
Prioritize your tasks.
Next, when you are trying to get more done and grow your business, you need to prioritize your tasks. This will help you determine which tasks are the most important and need to be done first.
You should start by making a list of all the tasks that you need to do in order of priority. This will be different for each agent depending on your business and personal goals. For example, if you are a new agent, you will want to focus on taking more listings. If you already have a lot of business, you may focus more on serving your existing clients while focusing on closing more deals as an experienced agent.
After you make this list, go through it prioritizing two times:
First, prioritize your daily tasks; this is most important because it’s most likely that the most tasks are due today even if they aren’t considered “most important”. Then prioritize your weekly tasks; this is most likely less urgent but still needs to get done.
Finally prioritize tasks that are not time-sensitive such as paperwork activities, ordering supplies, social media, etc…
Once you have these lists and have prioritized them twice, drag and drop the tasks from high priority to low priority on your calendar. This can be placed day by day or you can use the whole week. This will help you stay organized and focus on what needs to get done first, then second, etc…
Again, prioritizing tasks is important because it allows you to focus on the most important things first.
Block your daily schedule.
Every real estate agent needs to time-block. You’ve probably heard this term thrown around your office or in real estate videos. Blocking your daily schedule is absolutely necessary.
Time-blocking is a productivity strategy where you schedule time specifically for certain tasks. This can help you focus on those tasks and get them done without distractions.
When you’re trying to get more done, it’s important to block your time specifically for those tasks. This way, you can focus on them and not be distracted by other things going on around you. You can use this strategy for certain activities throughout the day such as working on your business goals, answering emails, making calls, or working on paperwork.
By blocking your time, you’re committing yourself to complete those tasks within that timeframe. And it’s easier to stay focused when you know that you only have a limited amount of time to complete that task.
When you are blocking your time, you must remember to block time for other activities such as eating, exercising, and taking care of yourself. This will help you stay healthy so that you can accomplish your goals more effectively.
The best way to time-block is through the use of a calendar. You should schedule these blocks of time on your Google Calendar just like you did for prioritizing tasks. Doing this helps you see what has to get done throughout the day and how much time each activity takes up.
To get started, you should plan out at least one hour blocks of time. This may seem like a long time because you think you can do more in less time but it gives your brain and body the adequate rest they need to focus properly on your task at hand.
When your day starts, start by blocking off your first hour for that task (following the steps above). Then block off each subsequent hour until lunchtime or 1PM. After lunch or 1PM, switch out that activity with another one for three hours. Block three hours for something else other than what you did before lunch if possible. These should be things related to your clients such as showings, appointments, social media or paperwork.
After this four-hour period is done, block your last hour for something else such as marketing or social media.
The most important hours to time-block is between 9AM and 10:30AM and again from 1PM to 3PM because this is when we tend to be the least productive. This means that if you sit down at your desk during these times, chances are you’re getting work done.
In order to get this done, you even need to block a time for time-blocking. Identify a time of day when you can block your schedule so it’s easier for you to plan out activities that need to get done during this time. I recommend doing your time-blocking on a Sunday. That way you knock it out before the week starts.
It can be challenging to manage your time as an agent because you have so many things on your plate. But if you use the tips in this blog post, it should help make managing your time easier and more efficient. The best way to do that is by blocking out specific times for certain tasks throughout the day or week with a calendar like Google Calendar–it will take some getting used to but it’s worth it! Give these strategies a try and see how much better you feel about yourself when you’re crushing deadlines instead of feeling stressed about them.
