What are your business goals for the year ahead? You probably want to focus on, well, focusing. You’re kind of just expected to know how to focus, manage your time, and get your tasks done, but it doesn’t come easy for most of us – not without set guidelines, at least. If you’re looking for a way to create a better time management plan, time blocking could be the answer.
What is time blocking?
Time blocking is a scientifically-proven time management technique where you segment your daily tasks into blocks.
Time blocking brings more focus to your day by helping you prioritize what’s important and by ensuring you check everything off of your to-do list.
Why time blocking works for real estate
This time management technique works for all kinds of professions from freelancers to marketers to real estate agents. Time blocking allows Realtors to allot specific hours to focus on lead generation, client retention, listing presentation prep, and more.
How to organize your week with time blocking
To start using time blocking, begin by creating checklists for your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. You can also create a checklist for tasks that you wish you had time for.
After creating your checklists, grab your weekly planner or open your online calendar. It’s time to start time blocking! Beginning with your daily tasks, block off your Monday for each task with a start and end time. Move through the week with your daily tasks.
Once your daily tasks are plugged in, move on to your weekly tasks. Remember to leave unblocked spaces this first week so you can adjust the following week.
Structure your day based on your own intuition
As a real estate agent, you know that your job is not a regular desk job. Every day is different and the hours hardly fit the 9-5 mold. Moreover, every person is different in regards to hourly levels of focus and energy.
You may be a morning person who finds that right after your 7am coffee, you’re ready to focus on lead generation marketing. Someone else at your brokerage prefers focusing on lead generation after her late lunch.
Time blocking is 100% for you. The purpose is to help your individual time management on a weekly basis.
Most of us use our calendars all wrong: we don’t schedule work; we schedule interruptions. Meetings get scheduled. Phone calls get scheduled. Doctor appointments get scheduled. You know what often doesn’t get scheduled? Real work. All those other things are distractions. Often, they’re other people’s work. But they get dedicated blocks of time, and your real work becomes an orphan.
Eric Barker, author of Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Always be up for revising your blocks
The first couple of weeks using time blocking will be messy. You’ll find that you spend less time doing a certain task than you thought. You may also find that some tasks take more of your time or focus than planned. There also might be tasks that you normally do in the afternoons that you can do more efficiently in the mornings.
With that said, you should always be OK with revising your tasks along the way. You can try shortening or lengthening the time of a task, moving the task to a different part of the day, or removing the task all together if it isn’t benefiting your business.
