How to Get More Done in Less Time

Today, I want to talk to you about one that’s huge and that is “How in the world can I get more stuff done in less time?” “It seems like I work my rear end off every day all day and I just at the end of the day, I’m like, I have so much left to do.” You’ve felt that way, right? That’s like, I don’t know how in the world we create this beautiful to do list or whatever it is that you use. We’re like, “Okay I’m gonna get all of this done today.” Then we’re working on the first one and then something comes up that knocks us off track. The end of the day comes, we look at our list, we’re like, “Oh my goodness. What am I going to do. I’m not getting anything done, and it feels like I’m actually getting further and further behind everyday.” Can you relate? If you can’t relate to that, you need to shoot this video and not me. This is something that I think all of us can relate too. “What can I do to get more done in less time?” It’s so … If you can do that, if you can get more done in less time, you get your day back. You get your life back and you get your sanity back. The question is, how do I do it?

There’s really four things that have got to happen if you want to get more done in less time. There’s four things you want to learn to make happen every single day. This will guarantee help you get more stuff done.

The very first things is, I’ve got to figure out what has to be done today that really matters. The first step is if you want to get more done in anything in your life, whether it’s in your business or anything else, you’ve got to start getting come clarity at the beginning of the day of what is it that matters today. Do you have a clear since of direction, a clear sense of priorities of knowing “where do I need to invest my time in things that are going to get me the best return.”

One of the things that I talk about and I want you to get clear about is, if you want to get more stuff done, you’ve got to start focusing on the things that will really move the needle in your business. Now when I talk about the things that will move the needle in your business, I call them the “cha-chingers”. What’s a cha-chinger? A cha-chinger is the thing that makes your pocket book in your business go, cha-ching. It’s the things that make you money. What are the things that you’ve got to do every single day that if you don’t do them, you’re not going to make money. Those are your cha-chingers. They’re your money making activities that you’ve really got to focus on every single day. Things like lead generating, prospecting. If you’re not talking to people, if you’re not out there doing it, you’re not going to get results.

I’m just going to give this as a real quick bonus, I wasn’t even planning on doing this one this video. I wanted to share this with you real fast, what are the cha-chingers in your real estate business.

Number one is prospecting, that’s huge. If you’re not talking to people, if you’re not generating new business, generating new leads, getting appointments, you’re not going to make money. No appointment, no money.

Number two is you’ve got to follow up on your leads. So, number two is lead follow-up.

Then number three is going on qualified appointments. Once you’ve done your prospecting, you’ve done your daily follow-up, you set appointments, then you attend the appointments. Going to get listings, working with buyers to help the actually find and buy a house. Those are qualified appointments, which is a … Qualified means it’s a motivated ready seller or buyer that you can actually inspire them to hire you today. If it’s a buyer that you can actually inspire them to buy a house. Those are qualified appointments.

Then the fourth thing that is a cha-chinger in your business, is negotiating. When I say negotiating, I’m talking about negotiating contracts. Negotiating a contract is how you deliver results to your seller. Once you get a contract in escrow, you get a contract pending, now you’re the one who’s got to work through the negotiations of any changes in terms and negotiating on the offer. Negotiating once it’s in escrow, you’re job is to help get to the result, which is a successful closing.

Here’s the reason these are the four cha-chingers in real estate. The biggest reason is because these are the four activities in real estate that all require the skill of leading people to a decision. That’s the real secret here. If you want to do the things that make you money in real estate, it’s the skill of leading people to a decision. When you are prospecting, here’s the decision to set an appointment with me. I’m leading them into a decision to set up an appointment with me. If you’re doing lead follow-up, same thing, I’m inspiring them or leading them to a decision to set up an appointment with me. When you go on the appointment, you’re job is to inspire them to make a decision to hire you or to make a decision to buy a house. That’s what you do as a real estate agent. The fourth thing is negotiating contracts. Why? Because you’re leading people to make decisions that make the transaction work. Whether is the other agent, the other party in the transaction. Negotiating whether it’s with your own client, is you’re leading them, whatever party you’re negotiating with, you’re leading them to a decision. This right here is where the money is in real estate, is understanding that if you have the skill of helping people come to good decisions that make transactions work, that’s why you get paid. Those are the cha-chingers in your business.

Is that planned into your day every day, especially prospecting and lead follow up which should happen everyday? Your goal is to have an appointment every single day. If you don’t have an appointment, you could do more of the other things that make you money. You’ve got offers, you’ve got contracts you’re negotiating, obviously that’s high on your priority list. It’s got to happen that day and it’s got to happen with diligence. However, the cool thing is, you can actually control the time of that when that happens. Which is called having a schedule, but that’s a different training.

Number one is you’ve got to have clarity about what is it that I need to be doing today. I hope this gives you some clarity about what are the things that you need to be focusing on every single day if you want to make more money and building a more profitable and powerful business so you can add value to even more people.

The second thing that will help you get more done in less time, once you’ve got clear about what you need to do, is now the intention to do it. “I know what I need to do today, I just didn’t do it.” Why not? “Well I just didn’t get around to it.” Well, why not? “Because I didn’t make a commitment to myself that I was going to do it.” The power of intention is incredible. If you have something and you’re like, “I know, I know, I know I need to do.” You may have some clarity about all of this but if you’re not clear about your intention, if you’re not clear about your commitment to doing it, then you’re going to let other things take you off track. It’s going to kill your business. I’ve got to be clear about what I need to be doing today to get the result I want and then I’ve got to set the intention, “This I’m going to do today. I’m going to prospect, I’m going to do my daily follow-up, I’m going to get an appointment. Nothing’s going to get in the way of that, period. It’s too important to me. My goals, my dreams, and my family, my life is too important to me to not accomplish the things that I know I need to accomplish today. I know what I need to do and I am going to get it done, period. I’m not going to let anything stop me.”

Third thing, third element that will really help you get more done in less time is having a sense of urgency. Having a sense of urgency. Realizing how important speed is. Now, I’m not talking about panic. I’m not talking about freaking out. See, urgency is not, “Okay, I’ve got a listing appointment in two hours and I haven’t done the CMA yet.”, or, “I know I’m not ready for the appointment and I’m trying to get out the door so I’m not late to the appointment.” That’s panic, that’s stressful, that’s unproductive. What I’m talking about, when you show up every single day, showing up in your business, say, “I’m going to be productive today and I’m gonna get stuff done fast.” In fact this is something that I learned from one of my coaches, James [Malecek 08:23] and he taught this, he said, “G-S-D-F this is what achievers do. They Get Stuff Done Fast.” I had always heard G-S-D, get stuff done, right, or you could use another word for the “s” there. I would use, get stuff done and James said, “No don’t just get stuff done. Get stuff done fast. Have that sense of urgency.” If you have that sense of urgency of “I’m gonna hit it hard and I’m gonna start fast and I’m gonna finish strong” it’s very powerful in helping you get more done in less time.

Here’s one of the things about us as real estate agents, we don’t have a lot of deadlines except when we have an appointment or we have a closing. We spend much of our business in an area of flexibility where it’s like, “Nobody gets on me.” If I don’t prospect three hours today and I don’t start at nine and finish at noon or start at eight and finish at eleven. If I don’t start at a certain time and finish then nobody gets mad at you. They don’t beat you up, they don’t threaten to fire you, right? So there’s no pressure for us to be urgent. The pressure’s got to come from our own internal drive to achieve our goals and have a life. Have you ever seen an agent that they seemed to stay at the office till 9:00 every single night? Maybe you know somebody like that, very well. It’s not that they’re … Maybe they have a lot of business going, maybe they don’t, but the biggest reason is because they’re not productive in the first part of the day. The best agents, when I say the best, the most productive agents, they really know how to get stuff done, are the ones that get there and they get to work and they start producing right away. They start doing the things that matter to get results and they do it with that sense of urgency.

Number four and number four is so critical. It’s more critical today than it’s ever been before and it’s what I call insulation. I just want you to write down insulation.

I hope you’re writing this stuff down. I hope you’re taking notes of this as you do it. That you understand the importance of internalizing this. I want to have clarity about what I need to do. I want to have the intention which means a commitment to making sure it happens. A sense of urgency that I want to get stuff done fast. I want to start fast, finish strong. This is not panic, it’s focus. It’s intensity. It’s get in there, get it done, get out, get home, have a life. That’s the power of the urgency and number four is insulation.

Here’s what I’m talking about, insulating yourself from distraction. Insulating yourself from all of the things that can knock you off track during the day. Never before has there been a time where distraction is more prevalent and more powerful than ever before. We’re constantly being bombarded by distractions. There’s always been the distractions of, your office or being in the office of other agents. If you work from home, the refrigerator, or your family, your kids, your dog, whatever it is. There’s always those distractions, but since the new days of smartphones, tablets, push notifications, alerts, and all that, where our phones are constantly dinging, donging, buzzing, and vibrating, and our emails are constantly popping in. We are nonstop distracted. Social media, text messages, they are in our brain. Every time you’re sitting there and your trying to concentrate and then your phone buzzes and it’s a Facebook message notification, showing up on your phone. What do you do, boom, you immediately look at it. I don’t care what else you’re doing, that takes you off track. It completely distracts your intensity, your single-mindedness, your focus is completely distracted by that happening. Or when you keep your email browser open all day so every time a new email pops up, all of a sudden that just set your new agenda. Whatever that email is, I’m going to check it. Just in case it’s really important and then I check the email, and it’s from Nordstrom’s or where ever.

Have you ever noticed that when you go shopping at retail now, they get your email, they say, “Can we email you your receipt?” Well when they email you your receipt, I think there’s a plot going on here. They’re going to be sending you marketing emails, right? Now those pop up in your email and all of a sudden now I’m shopping at Nordstrom when I’m supposed to be prospecting. How did that happen, I don’t even know, but it happens. I bet you know what I’m talking about.

We live in distraction and if you want to get more stuff done in less time, today more than ever it has got to become a set part of your plan and intention of how can I insulate myself from distractions? I heard somebody say one time, “If you want to double your productivity in the morning, do one simple thing, turn off your cell phone.” Just turn it off, close your email browser, just completely close it, shut it down. Turn off all push notification and alerts on your phone and focus on what you need to do right now to get more done in less time.

The last thing I’m going to tell you today is, it’s not just about getting more stuff done. The real key is, not just more it’s learning how to get more of the right stuff done. That’s the reason I talked to you about having clarity. About the cha-chingers. It is learning to focus on the right things, because you can be very productive and you can create this huge to-do list and if you get clear and you get intentional and you work on it fast. You can just knock off a ton of things but the one thing that mattered most got pushed off to the very end and then you ran out of time. It’s like, “Ugh, well I’ll do it tomorrow.” That’s the killer. Make sure that when we’re talking about getting stuff done fast, that you’re clear about the right stuff. The things that will really move the needle in your business to get you more results in less time so that you can have the life you deserve. What I really want for you is in everything you do, I want you to be able to embrace life, to engage every opportunity, and to always expect yes.