Jul

3

Michael Masterson’s Personal Productivity Secrets

Filed Under Strategy, Time Management | Leave a Comment

Raise your hand if you know who Michael Masterson is.

Okay, for those of you with non-raised arms, Micheal Masterson is founder of health, wealth and success e-newsletter Early to Rise. In less than 7 years, Masterson built a loyal following of over 250,000 people–whom he mentors to help them acheive their financial goals–through his success at productivity, selling and marketing.

Masterson is also the author of several Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Amazon.com best sellers, including Ready, Fire, Aim, and Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence.

So here’s the deal. In a short book called Personal Productivity Secrets, Masterson shared his personal blueprint for productivity success.

It’s called the Master Plan.

Jack Welch used a Master Plan to turn GE into a lean, market-dominating company. NFL Coach John Fox used a Master Plan to go from a 2-14 season to a run at the Super Bowl the following.

The same process can help you achieve your goals. Here’s how it works.

Simplify Your Goals

A master plan works by simplifying your interests and acting upon them in a simple way. Start by figuring out your life goals.

  1. List all the things you want to accomplish on a sheet of paper.
  2. Choose the top interest.
  3. Decide if that is what you want to spend your life doing.
  4. Create a five year plan to reach your number one goal.
  5. Create a one year plan to reach your number one goal.
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for every major goal you want to accomplish.

How Does Rising Early Make You Rich?

The morning time is the best time to collect your thoughts. Better yet, if you get up at 4:30 A. M., and work 2 hours, you’re that much ahead of your competition.

During these hours of solitude, make your to do list, then prioritize it and finally start on one of the most important tasks immediately.

This Little Tool Will Be Enormously Valuable to You

Masterson carries 3-by-5 index cards everywhere he goes and writes down every idea that comes to him. This way, nothing escapes him.

Each morning, he reviews his cards and consults them whenever you have a spare moment. I sometimes use the voice memo feature on my phone. This is especially helpful when you are driving.

Whether electronic or paper, once you start doing this, you’ll be surprised at how much more “on top of things” you’ll be in a few days.

Don’t Let Your Email Ruin Your Schedule

If you are on email more than twice a day–stop it. Checking email is not the most important thing you should be doing.

Also, Masterson recommends you train people who email you to keep it short. And when they pose a problem, teach them to map out multiple choices.

Group Like Tasks Together

Tackle similar tasks at the same time: That means, create time blocks when you check voice mail, send emails and write memos.

Or, group similar tasks by time duration. Lump all tasks under fifteen minutes for the end of the day. And group your more time intensive tasks in the morning when you are fresh.

Choose a Daily Planner That Works for You

Electronic planners tend to be the least effective. Daily paper planners the most. I use a makeshift notebook. Whatever you choose, stick with it.

Pencil in Appointments First–Ink Later

When you make an appointment, pencil it in first. When it is confirmed, then ink it in. This lets you know at a glance appointments that are concrete and those that are not.

Measure and Improve Your Personal Productivity

It’s always a good idea to review every two weeks your planner to see how many tasks you aren’t getting done. If you find yourself with more incomplete tasks than you like, do one of three things:

  1. Work more hours and be happy with it.
  2. Learn how to be more efficient.
  3. Schedule fewer tasks.

Two is probably your best option. But, highly-motivated people often try to bite off more than they can choose, so the third option might work for you instead. You decide.

Conclusion

In How to Become CEO, Jeffrey J. Fox recommends spending an hour a day “planning, dreaming, scheming, thinking, calculating. Review your goals. Consider options. Ponder problems. Write down ideas.
Mentally practice your sales call or big presentation. Figure out how to get things done.”

Good advice.

Follow Masterson’s simple steps to get a jumpstart on your day, your career and your income. And to change your life you’ve got to stick to this basic program.

The bottom line is: stop focusing on anything that is keeping you from your most important goals.

Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.

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Kick the Procrastination Habit Once and For All

Monday Link Mashup: Productivity, Listings and Eeyore

One of an Agent’s Nastiest Jobs

Oct

19

Kick the Procrastination Habit Once and For All

Filed Under Time Management | 2 Comments

Why We Procrastinate

Whether it has to do with prospecting, spending money or simply introducing your self to someone at a party, the reasons why you procrastinate boil down to the few:

  1. Fear of failing
  2. Feeling overwhelmed with a situation.
  3. Given up hope that a situation can be changed or affected.
  4. Too “Busy” to get the really important things done.
  5. Can’t make a decision.
  6. Overworked, tired.
  7. Want to avoid work you don’t like.

Each of these can be reduced down to the pleasure + pain principle: we do things to gain pleasure and to avoid pain.

Method to Overcome Procrastination

1. Get clear about what you want in life. Take a half-day to write down all your goals in some or all of these categories: career, education, relationships, financial, physical, mindset, creative, spiritual, public service, travel, leisure, and other. Once you have your list, then whittle it down to your top 10, then down to your top 5, and then your top 3. Do this by asking yourself, “Can I live without this?” Let your less important goals lie dormant on a “maybe” list that you can check on again in a few month.

2. Delete or delegate from your To-Do List those things that don’t relate to your top 3-5 goals.

3. Tie tasks you don’t like to your goals. It helps to mentally (and in writing) tie these tasks to one of your main goals or values. For example, “Picking up the phone and calling prospects allow me to have have business constantly churning in the pipeline, which is something I highly value. By having prospects constantly in the pipeline I will be better able to work on my goals and have less anxiety.” By linking the task to the pleasure of being able to think clearly, you now have a reason that will motivate me to take action.

4. Plan your day every morning. This is not a big task. It should only take about 10-15 minutes of quiet time. Refer back to your master list. Do the most difficult and most important things first and work your way down to the easier stuff in the afternoon. You’ll feel really good if you do this. Focus on that to motivate you to wait to check email and such until after you’ve finished your first big task.

5. Plan by weeks, not days. Start every Sunday and fill in your calendar with all the big things that you’d like to accomplish for the week. Sometimes procrastination happens simply because a task is not scheduled.

6. Cheat and nap. Don’t be so hard on yourself about the timing of a task. And take short breaks, always. If you do, then you won’t try to escape through procrastination so hard in the future. Just reschedule and get back on track later or tomorrow.

7. Just do it.

8. Break down big tasks into smaller assignments. The novelist Anne Lamont said as a little girl she remembered her brother becoming frantic over a huge project he had due in three days. The project was to document and briefly describe dozens of birds in his local neighborhood. To keep his son calm and on track, her father often said, “Son, just do it bird by bird.” Take a few moments to think about how to break down a larger task and schedule it into your calendar in pieces. This is good for when you are feeling overwhelmed.

9. Get help making decisions. I like to use the pro/con method. I also recommend getting help from a friend that you know is good with making decisions. Once you’ve made your decision then break it down into tasks and schedule into your calendar.

10. Believe in yourself. If you’ve lost hope, know that you can turn things around. Release the fear of failure. Failure is just a learning experience. Slow and steady wins the race. A little bit done every day adds up to a lot over a year. If you have to, just fake your belief until it becomes real. Remember, you can do it!

In a nutshell:

  • Know your most important goals and values.
  • Only do tasks that contribute to those goals and values.
  • Mentally link tasks to the pleasurable outcomes you seek.
  • Plan your day & week.
  • Do, but don’t overdo. Rest when needed.
  • Break down big tasks.
  • Get help making decisions.
  • Believe in yourself!

What do you do to overcome procrastination?

Jul

30

Monday Mashup: Productivity, Listings and Eeyore

Filed Under Real Estate Listing Tips, Time Management | Leave a Comment

Michael Wright, Executive Editor of Agent Inner Circle, shares an ingenious listing agreement submitted by reader David Rake to close more listings. See the agreement that gets the whole family involved in selling the property.

One reader claimed that giving up prospects is an insane idea in the current falling market. I disagree. But you be the judge.

Time management professional Dr. Donald E. Wetmore shares five techniques to recapture a wasted hour or two every week.

In the March 1, 2006 article “Automating Showing Feedback” Michael Russer (aka Mr. Internet) demonstrated “a far better way to get valuable comments from showing agents without wasting time on the phone or cranking out reports.”

In May of this year we showed you how to automate showing feedback for free.

The Future of Real Estateblogger Joel Burelsom explains “anyone who gets into blogging quickly finds out - Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are an indispensable way to keep on top of a tidal wave of information that exists out there.” But far from just simply keeping tabs on the industry, he shares five ways you can expand your blog habit, take it to the next level, better your day and improve your productivity .

All you can really expect when using Microsoft’s new Vista operating platform is an incremental improvement in productivity. Or so says David Berlind. In the meantime, stick with XP until 2009. Or 2014. Or buy that Mac.

And finally, Lifehacker Dustin Mix shares six ideas on how to kill that vile and despicable enemy of productivity: Eeyore.

Jul

9

One of an Agent’s Nastiest Jobs

Filed Under Time Management | Leave a Comment

Now wouldn’t it be great if your sellers were a fly on the wall and heard with their own ears what was going on during a showing?

Better yet, why not have the sellers involved in the showing, just like in that television program Designed to Sell?

Have you seen how they do this in Designed to Sell?

It’s an ideal way—albeit sometimes painful—to show the seller via a hidden camera (their “fly on the wall”) what buyers think of their home. Usually on Designed to Sell the motivated sellers are very receptive to what they hear and go with the recommendations.

This is because the buyer paints for the seller the exact picture that the market sees of their home. The trick, as you may know, is to offer this picture in such a way that sellers don’t bite the messenger. (Designed to Sell does it with a hidden camera.) Sharing negative feedback can be an unpleasant, if not painful, job. Now there’s an easy and automatic way to share feedback without getting bit. (And free.)

When the seller sees comments like “…the garage door is smashed up. Fix it, and I might put in an offer…” or “…worn carpet throughout. Looks terrible. Replace it and I’ll consider…” and when these comments aren’t coming from you but from the mouth of buyer’s who have shown their home, it’s likely sellers will rethink their price. The condition of the home. Or perhaps their terms.

And so they lower the price. The home is in better alignment with market demand. And it sells. Fast.

The cumulative effect is often a brisk and steady up tic in homes sold.

And isn’t it true the faster you can sell homes, the faster you can collect a commission check?