Time management
Schedule Your Way to Productivity

Time is frittered away by (unimportant) detail; simplify.

BY WALTER SANFORD

In real estate sales, every hour of every day, someone wants a piece of you. One seller is on line one, indignant that the brochure box is empty; another seller is on line two, begging you to renegotiate the closing date. The termite guy’s lost the key and will leave if you’re not there in 20 minutes. The new practitioner down the hall wants to ask your advice on how to correct his latest problem. Sound familiar?

If you’re nodding in sad agreement, don’t wait another minute to learn what I figured out 30 years ago. If you don’t prioritize your activities and don’t fill your workday with these priorities, other events quickly filled your time.

If you want to earn more and work less, you have to root out these time wasters and replace them with plan the perfect, client-pleasing, profit-producing work week strategy. But how?

First, Reduce Interruptions
You can’t really start adding more productive activities to your work schedule until you free yourself from productivity-sapping interruptions. Try these strategies.

1. Solve problems before they happen. Begin by analyzing interruptions. Are there frequent time wasters that could be avoided with a little more upfront planning? For example, I make sellers responsible for filling their own brochure boxes. That way, they only have to call me when they’ve run out of brochures. Likewise, my listing checklist requires that the termite guy—and the appraiser and the home inspector—take two keys to each property. They may still lose both of them, but it increases my odds by 50 percent.

2. Group like activities. If at all possible, ask co-op salespeople to reschedule their showings during the same period. In that way, you can have several productive hours in the office before going to the property. And with appointments scheduled back to back, you can stay at the home and cut down on your car time.

Similarly, try to block out certain times in your day to return phone calls. Unless it’s a real emergency—which are few, even in real estate—a client is not going to have a problem with my assistant saying, “Mr. Sanford will call you back between 11 and noon this morning.” And grouping all my call returns together allows me to concentrate on other things rather than constantly dropping everything to respond to a call.

3. Schedule interruptions. Set aside specific times during the day—around lunch, for example—when you’re available to answer colleagues questions, catch up with friends, or talk to your children. If a co-workers ignore the “do not disturb” sign on your door, politely ask them if they could set up an appointment when at a specific hour. Apply this even to your family, unless it’s an emergency.

Next, Get Organized.
Once you’ve used these strategies to free up more productive time, how are you going to use it productively?

To help myself stay on schedule, I use a time-blocker board (Figure 1 ). This time-blocker board is the secret to many top producers’ income--including mine. It spells out my priorities for me, keeps me on track, warns potential interrupters now is not their time, and reminds me what I must catch up on should some fire need to be put out during that time slot.

I’ve chosen some of my own priorities—such as multiple time slots for prospecting FSBOs and past clients, and A seller leads—into my time blocker. Depending on your business, your personal priorities may be different. But whatever they are, be sure that the majority of your day is devoted to moneymaking activities—prospecting, listing, and showing homes.

If you look at my time blocker, you’ll notice that I’ve included a slot each day to return calls and put our fires. I find that by scheduling this at a particular time I ensure that these “fires” don’t intrude into my important prospecting and listing activities.

Notice also that I’ve included a time every day (but tour day) to go over my plan for the day. This helps me stay on track and make adjustments to my schedule systematically, instead of on the fly. If you work with assistants as I do, this time is also critical for reviewing what the assistant’s assignments are for the day.

The complement to this planning time is my once-a-week review of my goals. This helps me see if my activities are working and what adjustments I need to make to improve my success.

Also notice that the schedule includes personal activities, such as time at the gym and days off. Putting personal activities on your schedule helps you add balance to your life and ensures that your family and life goals don’t get ignored.

I prefer to put my plans on a large erasable, white board on the wall over my desk so that I’m constantly reminded of my schedule. Another option is to make your schedule the screen saver on your computer. Not only does posting the schedule in your office help you keep on track, but also shows others you’re serious about what you do. And it helps remind you to get to work when you’re at work. Having your business systems staring you in the face will make you pay attention to what’s important--reaching your goals and the financial rewards they will provide.

I promise you that great things will happen if you regain control of your time. Your passion for real estate will be renewed when you can get rid of interruptions, and the barriers that keep you from spending sufficient time on moneymaking activities will disappear.

Related Articles:
For more advice on niche marketing, click here.
Bypass the Competition: Find a Niche , Walter Sanford, August 2002.
Finding Your Niche , Ralph Roberts, March 2000.

Previously by Walter Sanford:
Build Credibility with Recommendations " />
The Vacation Presentation
Are You Ready for 2003?
Put Selling Skills Before Technology


How To Reach Walter:
Walter can be reached at 815/929-9258; at 559 S. Washington Ave., Kankakee, Illinois 60901; at walter@waltersanford.com; or at waltersanford.com.

Send your questions for Walter Sanford to salesclinic@realtors.org

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