Time study results

The results are in!  Last week I talked about figuring out exactly how you are spending your day and analyzing the results to see if you can figure out time saving areas.  I believe you have to practice what you preach, so I did just that.  All week I religiously recorded each of my activities.  At first it was cumbersome, but by the 2nd day it was habit.

I started seeing areas I could improve in almost immediately.  You would be suprised how frequently through out the day you are interrupted or your focus drifts to another topic.  I found since starting to track my time, I have been able to remain more focused in completing one project before starting another one.  The end result is more checked off of my “to-do” list and a greater sense of accomplishment.

The other time saving tip I implemented for myself was to turn off the automatic send and receive option on my e-mail.  This has helped DRAMATICALLY!!!!  Not only do I not waste time going back and forth to e-mail as much.  I found I was much more focused on the task at hand.  For some reason just knowing that there was an e-mail in my inbox was enough to distract me and cause stress, feeling the “need” to check my e-mail.

I recommend either (or both) of these suggestions to anyone.  If you would like to discuss my experience with them in more depth, feel free to send me an e-mail (twallace10@sc.rr.com).

Practice what you preach

Everyone knows what they should be doing, the question is why don’t we do it?  This goes for everything in our lives (exercise, work, home improvement projects, etc..)  You set your schedule, have a to-do list, know what your goals are and what you need to do to achieve them.  You start out strong and focused and then somewhere during about 1/3 into the project/week/day your focus starts to wane and you begin doing tasks not on your list or finding excuses why you need to do “something else”.

The only way to get back on track is to force yourself to re-evaluate where you are and what you are doing every so often.  I recently did this and found I needed to practice what I preach.  I had a very unproductive week last week and had a high level of frustration.  After looking at what I was doing and where the time went I decided to follow two of the tips more closely that I have reccomended in the past.

1)  I was still having a hard time resisting the urge to check my e-mails every few minutes, so I decided the only way I will break the habbit is to completely turn off my auto send/receive function on my e-mail.  This forces me to actually push a button to receive my e-mail which I have to do consciously.  This has helped dramatally and, as a suprising side effect, I find that I am able to complete tasks with a lower level of stress.  Not worrying about what just came in my inbox really makes a difference and helps me remain focused on the task at hand.

2)  I also decided it was time to do an activity log again to re-evaluate my work habits.  This means keeping a log of every activity I do during the day and how long it takes to do it.  Every time I check e-mails, answer or make phone calls, work on a client project, take a break, etc. I simply write down the start & stop time.  At the end of the week I will add it all up to evaluate and see if I can make some process improvements.  This seems like it may be a time consuming process, but it only takes seconds to jot down a note.  See my previous post for more detailed instructions.

I will give everyone an update on how my Activity Log turned out next week….

E-mail is killing your productivity!!!

I admit, I am an e-mail junkie.  It is my lifeline.  Being in a technical field and working with real estate agents across the country, I rely on e-mail for basic communication.  The ever popular ding “You’ve got Mail” slogan from AOL has really become a phenomenon.  It is another example of Pavlov’s theory.  We hear that “ding” and immediately feel the need or sense of urgency to check the e-mail to see what just came in.  As I write this now I saw an e-mail come in and I am resisting the urge to check it!  When I’m away from my desk I’m always checking my e-mail from my PDA.

From a time management standpoint, this is a HUGE time waster.  If you add up all of the seconds it takes for you to stop whatever task you are doing and go to your e-mail then come back to your task and reorganize your thoughts to complete what you were doing, you would be suprised at how many minutes/hours you accumulate.

I challenge you to do two things to break the “addiction” to your e-mail.

1.  Turn off the e-mail notification option.  This is essential!  No sound to let you know a new message is in.  No pop-up box to tell you what “important” message you are missing.

2.  Force yourself to only check your e-mails every 2 hours at the MOST!  Unless you are expecting an e-mail there really is no need.  If an e-mail topic was so important that it couldn’t wait a couple of hours to do action on, the person sending it would have called you.  Most time management experts suggest only checking your e-mails 2x a day.

I know you are all thinking there is no way I can do this, but you CAN!  If I can resist checking my e-mail knowing one came in while typing this post, I know you can too.  Just try it and you will be surprised at how much more you can get accomplished.

Planning Your Day in Advance

I am very much a “go with the flow” type of person.  The creative side of me likes to let my mind wander and get caught up in the moment doing whatever task I feel like doing at the time.  I happen to be married to a “list” person.  My husband will make a list for everything.  Sometimes it drives me a little crazy because it can take the “creativity” out of things, but over the years I have learned to embrace this list habit of my husband and have learned when it can benefit me to implement this practice.

 

In the book “Manage Your Time and Double Your Productivity”, by Brian Tracy, he suggests practicing the six “P” formula for high achievement.  This formula says, “Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance”.  The approach he describes in his book would be easily adopted by my husband (being a list person).  He suggests making a list at the beginning of the month that covers everything you can think of that you will have to do in the coming weeks.  I suggest starting smaller.  Try making the last thing you do during the day be making a list of the things you want to accomplish the next day.  Be realistic and specific in what you can accomplish.  Cross items off of the list as you do them and you will get a sense of ongoing accomplishment which will give you more energy to get more done.  According to Tracy, time management experts state that working from a list will increase your productivity by 25%.  I know it has helped increase my productivity.

Time Wasting “Lies”

Everyone has heard of the “little white lie”.  Those stretches of truth that you tell to others, or yourself, that make the truth a littler easier to swollow or justify why you do something.  I’d like to focus on some of those “little white lies” that you tell yourself that are just a big waste of your time.  If you recognize when you are telling yourself these “lies” and simply tell yourself the truth you can greatly improve your productivity!

- “This should only take a few minutes”- The reality is that most people have a poor judgement of how long tasks will take to complete and things end up taking longer than you thought.  Next thing you know you have over committed and get the feeling that you can never get anything completed.  One way to help calibrate your “internal clock” is to try documenting your time as I’ve explained in a previous post.  Or when scheduling your day, schedule in a cushon of time to allow for how long a task will actually take.

- It’s quicker to just do (insert task here) myself, rather than showing my assistant how to do it.  This may be true in the short term, but in the long term you will never be able to grow your business unless you learn to delegate those time consuming administrative tasks that eat away at the time you need to grow your business.

- I can’t do that, I’m not a technical person- This is one I’ve heard over and over again while helping real estate agents.  The fact is you CAN do it, you just haven’t learned how yet.  Welcome to the 21st century!  We live in a time where it is essential to your business to learn technology in order to be successful.  The fact is, learning technology can help improve your productivity thousandfold!  Either hire someone to do the technical tasks for you or hire someone to sit down with you and teach you.  I recently jumpstarted an agent on how to use the contact management software “Top Producer”.  After 1 1/2 hour session, she got over the overwhelming feeling of “Where do I start?” and can now jump in and start utilizing the tool to help her grow her business.  The small investment upfront will benefit you down the road.

What do you DO all day?

Do you ever get to the end of your day and wonder “Where did the day go?” If you always have that feeling of being overwhelmed and that you are not being productive, perhaps it is time to take an inventory of what you actually do during the day.

Before you can effectively manage your time, you need to know how much time you are spending on various tasks. Once you have this information you can make decisions on how you can either re-organize your day/time block/leverage tasks with new systems or people, etc..

Try the following exercise for one full week. It is important to do this exercise for a full week because, as real estate agents, each day brings new tasks and if you only do it for one or two days you will not get a true picture of where you spend your time.

1. Create a tracking sheet. A simple Excel form will do with headers of: Time Start, Time Stop, Task, Total Time. Make it as simple as possible. You can even assign a number to frequently performed tasks so you don’t have to write them out each time. For example: 1=Phone Call, 2=E-mail, 3=Drive to appointment, 4=Marketing, etc. You may want to break down a little and specify if your phone call is prospecting, client work, etc.
2. Start tracking your time!
3. After the week is over start adding up how many minutes/hours you spend on each task. Look for patterns & trends.

Some examples of things you may find that you are doing that you could alter to save time include:

• Do see that you are checking e-mail every 10 minutes? Or when ever your incoming mail beeps? if so, turn off the notification beep and just check your e-mail once an hour. It will be hard to resist at first, but you will quickly see how much time you save during the day.
• Are you finding that you are spending hours on marketing your listings? Is it because you struggle with technology, or do you not have a system in place to help you perform the marketing tasks quickly? Create a checklist of marketing activities you do on every listing to save time and to make sure you don’t miss something or hire someone to do some of the more administrative work.
• If you are in your car a lot driving to appointments, what do you do with that time? Many agents use that time to make phone calls and keep in touch with their past clients. If you are not comfortable talking on the phone while you drive, buy a Book on CD. There are some wonderful self-help books that are out there on all sorts of topics to help you with your business.

If you would like some help analyzing your tracking sheet, give me a call I’d love to help (803) 397-4996!

Time Management Techniques for the Over Extended

I’ve been reading a book titled “Succeeding in a Slash Life” by Marci Alboher.  I picked it up because it is what my career is turning into being a Realtor/Virtual Assistant/Wife.  The more I read the more evident that all Realtors really are “Slashes”.  The job of a real estate agent is so varied and requires many different skill sets to be successful.  No wonder so many agents quit after 1-2 years!  If more agents realized just how many hats they wear and learn some techniques for how to manage them, perhaps there would be more longevity in this profession.

Some of the “slashes” that fall under a real estate agent are:  real estate expert/negotiator/home stager/marketing expert/relationship building expert/market expert, etc…  It wasn’t until I got into the business that I realized exactly how hard agents work.  With all these different “slashes” it is easy for an agent to become overextended.  As Alboher states in her book, “There are a few things you can do to minimize the chanes of feeling you need to be in two places (at once).  Stay on top of your Schedule. Delegate when possible. Build relationships with colleagues who can cover for you in crunch times.”

Stay on top of your schedule- It is essential as a real estate agent to have a good system for keeping track of things.  A contact management system such as Top Producer or Act!  will help keep your contacts organized and help you remember when activities need to be perfromed for each of your clients.

Delegate when possible- If you do not have a licensed assistant to take on some of the time consumaing tasks such as scheduling, marketing, etc..  Hire a virtual assistant until you are ready to hire full time.  The time you save in doing these delegatable tasks, you can increase your business through networking and prospecting instead!

Build relationships with colleagues- This is a big one.  Many realtors I know try to do it all and get burned out quick.  Build a relationship with another agent in your office so you have an agreement to share a referral with them when you are unable to show a house and have them share leads with you (it’s a win-win).  Find someone willing to do some of the more technical or time consuming tasks for you (you will have to pay them of course).  For example, if you are not a “technical” person find someone in your office who has the knowledge to help you with your website, or hire a virtual assistant who has that knowledge.

Most people get into real estate because of the ability to have a “flexible” schedule and that no day will be exactly the same.  What usually happens is that a new agent needs to learn that “flexible” doesn’t mean “unstructured”.  I’ll explore that in a future blog…..

What is Leverage?

The Webster dictionary defines the verb “leverage” as follows:

1: to provide (as a corporation) or supplement (as money) with leverage; also : to enhance as if by supplying with financial leverage
2: to use for gain : exploit <shamelessly leverage the system to their advantage — Alexander Wolff>

In today’s business environment, everyone is asked to do more with less (resources/time/people).  This leads to 50-60 hour work weeks, high burn out rate, job dis-satisfaction, etc.  The above definition gives the example of leveraging with money, but you can also leverage with people and systems. 

In future posts, I will explore in-depth how using leverage (people/systems/tools) will help grow your business.  I will offer real life solutions such as how to hire the right people, systems you can use to manage your time, tools you can use in the business to maximize your potential, etc!

So, stay tuned and get ready to watch your business grow!

Tracey Wallace
www.LeverageResource.com
twallace10@sc.rr.com