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20
At Your Limit? Here's How You Can Expand Your Capacity
It seems like there's always more to do, but never any more hours in a day.
Real estate agents are no strangers to this phenomenon. Managing hundreds of relationships and what could add up to dozens of fast-moving transactions at any given time, there's always something more to get done, even at the end of the most productive day.
Although you'll never have the power to slow down time, you can still get more done in a day. And it starts with this realization: We don't all have the same 24 hours. In fact, we don't even have 18 hours, when you consider that we all have to sleep sometime.
An established leader with a team to delegate to has a very different 16Â hours in the day than an agent embarking on building a solo practice. Unfortunately, independent real estate professionals often attempt to make up the difference by getting up earlier and working later.
That may do for a while, but it can lead to burnout in the end.
Luckily, you don't need a huge team on your side to help pack your waking hours with greater efficiency and more productivity. By approaching your challenges strategically and using the right tools, you'll get more done every day — just the same as if there were more of you out there.
Here's how:
Use President Eisenhower's Favorite Technique
While planning out the invasion of Normandy, future president General Dwight D. Eisenhower became known for an effective method of choosing between the many priorities competing for his limited time.
Now used by productivity coaches the world over, the Eisenhower Matrix consists of four categories:
- Urgent and Important: These tasks should be handled first
- Not Urgent, But Important: These tasks should be scheduled
- Not Important, But Urgent: These tasks can be delegated
- Not Urgent or Important: These tasks aren't necessary
In particular, "Not Urgent, But Important" items tend to be the bridge to improving your performance in the future. Things like studying for a new certification or learning a new technology tool fall into this area because the benefit will be realized in the future, but something needs to trigger that action.
Find Out Where Your Greatest Time Sinks Are
Where solo agents need to be particularly careful is "Not Important, But Urgent." Since there is no one to delegate these tasks to, the agent often ends up doing them alone. Remember, however, that some of these items don't require a high level of real estate knowledge to achieve.
For example, although it might not be possible to bring another real estate professional onto your team, you may be able to afford a virtual assistant who can handle some customer experience and relationship management matters for you. This allows you to focus your sights on strategic concerns.
When you find yourself caught up in urgent activities, be sure you are measuring how much time you put into them. You might discover ways to re-engineer your workflow such that urgent things get done sooner or with fewer steps, so they are easier to strike off your schedule.
Emphasize Blocks of Focused, Deep Work
Multitasking forces your brain to shift its focus from one thing to another repeatedly, making it harder to concentrate and get things done. It's often faster to do just one thing at a time, but an external cue also helps: Using a timer, for instance, to set aside ten minutes to laser-focus on one issue.
With a 10-minute timer, you never feel that you are putting other things off for too long, but you are giving the main matter at hand its due. After ten minutes, you might find you are much closer to the finish line than you could have suspected while viewing that task from the outside.
Implement a Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) for Real Estate
Much of what occupies a real estate agent's day is getting up to date on what prospects, leads, and customers are doing. That web of relationships is always growing, which is a good thing. But it can also spiral out of control — and that's where a CRM for real estate comes in.
With a CRM, you have complete visibility into all the key relationships that drive your business forward. Artificial intelligence and machine learning, as you'll find in the DeltaNET, help you know precisely when to follow up and to select the approach most likely to yield results.
DeltaNET users can leverage a wide range of marketing automation tools. It's easier than ever to benefit from the best in social media marketing, email marketing, and more to amplify your listings. Campaigns can be planned and launched in minutes, with all the data you need at your fingertips.
Contact us to find out more about real estate marketing automation.
