Realtor Time Blocking Tips

Use these Realtor time blocking tips for real estate agents to effectively manage and protect their time allocated for lead generation activities.

Today, I am going to give you Realtor time blocking tips based on what we’ve seen work for successful real estate agents and Top Producers.

This flies in the face of the reason a lot of people get into real estate. And, it may make you a little mad. Nevertheless, it is the truth.

Successful real estate agents must embrace routines and rituals.

A lot of agents have a corporate background, and they are looking for more freedom. They’re tired of the 9-5 grind and want flexibility. Then, they hear me say, “Oh, by the way, if you want to succeed at this career, you had better put some rigid guidelines and structure back in your life.”

That is hard for a lot of people.

Real estate does offer a lot of flexibility, but there are limits.

VIDEO: Realtor Time Blocking Tips

Realtor time blocking tips: Your Magic Morning

One of the biggest Realtor time blocking tips? You must have a morning routine. If you want to have high energy, be positive, and experience growth in both business and your personal life (with all spokes of your Life Balance Wheel), your morning routine will help you get there.

Get rid of the excuse, “I don’t have enough time.” If you have a morning routine, you can get all of your important activities done first thing in the morning.
Get your income-producing activities done (your 20%, your “big rocks”) and the rest of the day is “all downhill from here.”
Recommended reading: The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.
You actually get a “magical” feeling when you have a morning routine and stick to it.

You must eat the frog

No one wants to eat a frog. That sounds disgusting. The idea of eating a frog is awful – you don’t want to do it. This might be the way you feel about some of your uncomfortable activities, too, like lead generation.

If you worry about eating the frog and put it off until the end of the day, you will feel uncomfortable, worried, stressed out, even sick to your stomach all day.

Consequently, this waiting game creates fear. By the end of the day, you start coming up with excuses about why you don’t have time to eat the frog. Then, you feel shame and embarrassment. Your whole day has negative energy because of this frog. You do a bunch of busy work all day just so you can tell yourself that you don’t have time to eat the frog.

Of course your subconscious mind knows what you are doing. As a result, the excuses continue the next day, and they get worse. Soon, you are questioning why you need to eat the frog at all. You start falling down The Solution Triangle into “WHY.” Now, you’re making life changes – maybe even considering a career change because you hate lead generation so much.

Realtor time blocking tips: Eat the frog first

Sound familiar? You begin to spiral down through The Gandhi Circle. Your negative thoughts have come full circle and are now affecting your very character.

If you instead eat the frog (do your lead gen activities, for example) first thing in the morning – you have already accomplished the hardest activity for your whole day. You know it’s all downhill from there.

Your Magic Morning Activities

Lead generation
Gym
SOI contacts
Going for a run
Breakfast
Prayer/meditation

Eat the frog first. Now, you have already accomplished the hardest activity for your whole day. You know it’s all downhill from there.
Brian Icenhower

Realtor time blocking tips to protect your routine

This is why time blocking is so important. You time block to protect your most important activities, especially in the morning. Time block every essential facet of your Magic Morning Routine.

Enjoy more flexibility in your afternoon

You can leave your afternoon routine as a more flexible schedule. This is a good time to leave openings to meet with clients or meet with past clients. You will also have time to pick up your kids, or drop them off at soccer, or attend an important school function. Likewise, you can go to happy hour with your friends, or take a yoga class after some showings or a listing appointment with a client.

Top Producers are self-aware enough to block their time.

Realtor time blocking tips: adopt a daily schedule

Today, you can download our Daily Schedule for Realtors PDF for free (scroll down). This is just an example – the times don’t have to be exact.

I would actually add more to this example schedule. I’d also account for all the personal things you do in the morning, such as the gym, breakfast, prayer or meditation, etc.

Try to get all of your essential daily activities for your Magic Morning Routine time blocked before 11am or noon. At around 10am, you will start to receive incoming calls, texts, and messages. This is when the real estate world “wakes up.”

You should be lead generating for one hour, minimum, per day – three hours at most.

Realtor time blocking tips: lead generation prep

Notice that Lead Generation Prep has its own block. You should not be spending your designated Lead Gen time doing any of the setup or prep. This should be time spent actually lead generating.

Realtor time blocking tips: business servicing

Business Servicing is blocked off to respond to your incoming messages from your current clients.

No more responding immediately

Remember, nobody is going to have a hard time waiting a few hours for your reply. This is hard for a lot of real estate agents to accept. Many people feel like they need to be “Johnny on the Spot” and respond seconds later to provide good customer service. Instead, try to resist this. You are busy and successful, and you are protecting your important activities by waiting to respond.

Think about it this way. If you were at a Listing Appointment and you received a phone call from a current client, would you answer? Or would you let it go to voicemail and call them back after your appointment?

Treat your lead generation time the same way you would an appointment with a client. Respect yourself enough to protect your business generating activities.

Realtor time blocking tips: lead conversion

Make sure you block time to follow up with leads in the afternoon.

No more answering phones after 6pm

Maybe it’s 5pm for you, or 7pm. Regardless, it’s important to stop replying to messages and answering your phone at a certain time every day. Hence why it’s a good idea to make time for yourself. Make time for your family. Furthermore, treat your business like a real business. This is essential for your life balance.

Treat your lead generation time the same way you would an appointment with a client. Respect yourself enough to protect your business generating activities.
Brian Icenhower

Embrace routines & rituals

I have never seen an agent follow a schedule, like the example I just shared with you, and not succeed.

In fact, I’ll say that if you copied this schedule and followed it every day, you will succeed at a high level. This routine ensures that you are doing the activities that will lead to success.

Realtor time blocking tips: rituals are a crucial part of your day

Athletes have a ritual before they have a game. They go through a pre-game checklist. They stretch their muscles and put on their pump-up music.

Likewise, you do this, too, with a lot of business servicing activities. I guarantee you have a Listing Appointment Ritual. You have things you bring along, you have a certain outfit you wear, you might prepare by running through your presentation beforehand, etc.

The point of the matter – you cannot be ritualistic enough. You cannot have too many things written down. If you write it down, your rituals become systematized. But once they become systematized, you can improve on them.

Routines & Rituals Systematized

Example: Listing & Closing Checklists

These checklists are among our most popular systems that we provide to our coaching clients. It details each essential task that must be completed from pre-listing to closing.

Duplicate it. Add to it. Create “fail safes” for your process. Train someone else to manage it.

With routines and systems, you can run your real estate business like a business.

No more running your business by default. Run it by design! Accordingly, design it based around proven systems, which come from implementing these essential routines and rituals.

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Real estate transactions involve a myriad of details, and missing one can have serious consequences for you and your clients. Use these checklists to efficiently manage all the tasks and details involved in Listings and Closings.

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