It’s not easy to manage a portfolio of investment properties, a full-time job, and a family – all at the same time.
In fact, between vetting new deals, selling off properties, and heading off to your daughter’s Little League practice, it may seem like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
It’s easy to assume that a few hacks will help you manage your day better, but the truth is, true productivity has nothing to do with writing another to-do list. Instead, it’s more about creating the right habits.
Being responsible for all the tasks, duties, and due dates can be quite challenging for any investor as it requires a lot of time. By increasing the productivity, you will be able to get everything done in a much shorter time and have a free time to enjoy with your family.
Creating habits is a process. Check out the following 5 hacks that will help you increase your productivity:
1. Clear Your Mind
A free mind is everything. Recharge your batteries so that you can focus on more important things. Take some time for yourself. Do nothing. You can take a walk to the nearest park or rest if you are feeling tired. You will feel much happier and more focused when you set aside all of your worries. But the key here is to make this a habit. And the best way to do that is to set time to clear your mind and recharge as you will be more productive afterward. When your mind is at peace, you are more likely to focus on the tasks. Setting aside work for a while may be very beneficial and productive.
2. Forget About Goals
Setting goals might seem like the next logical step to creating productive habits, but in fact, that is exactly what you should avoid.
Goals are great in certain circumstances, but when trying to change a behavior that only you care about, they can end up making you feel more like a failure. That’s because to achieve them, there is usually only one specific action you can take – and if you forget to do it, you lose.
Simply put, they’re not fun, and they don’t make you feel better about yourself. Which means you are a lot less likely to succeed.
What you really want to do is start cultivating the qualities that help you make the most of who you are and what you have. Just imagine how different things would be if instead of promising yourself you’ll learn the language online for ten minutes a day, you promised yourself a trip to Costa Rica. The former sounds like a work – the latter sounds like a vacation.
3. Start Small
Instead of attempting to change your whole life at once, you’ll start by breaking things down to the smallest action you can take and still be successful.
Start by identifying three things that are preventing you from being productive. It might be constant interruptions from employees or co-workers, or a to-do list that never gets finished, or a messy workspace.
Whichever three you choose, don’t worry about finding a solution that eliminates the problem but rather, focus on one small behavior you can do that will help you create the change you want over the long-term.
So, if a messy desk is a problem, don’t set aside twenty minutes at the end of the day to clean your desk. You won’t do it more than once or twice, and it won’t help you keep your desk clean in the future.
Instead, buy baskets and promise yourself to put one paper in each basket every day. It may sound ridiculous but it means it will be easier to achieve what you think you can’t.
As a real estate investor, you need to make a plan and manage your activities in the long term. That way you will get a clearer picture and focus more on the business.
4. Track Your Success
To determine whether or not a property is panning out the way it should, you need to keep track of the numbers. Being productive requires the same commitment.
Once you’ve implemented a few small goals, you need to implement a system for checking whether or not they’re working. That might mean marking your calendar or using an online system, a spreadsheet, or simply writing everything down on a piece of paper.
If you review your progress and find you’ve been successful, you are on the right path. You might choose to add a few new tiny behaviors or cross off some old ones.
If you find yourself forgetting a behavior, or consistently avoiding it, then you need to consider whether you’ve chosen the smallest bit of action you can take. Success is more likely when you take a thousand small steps then if you take three giant leaps. There’s no need to try and bite off more than you can chew.
The same applies to real estate. Success does not happen magically but it takes a lot of work and action. The first thing you need to do is to adjust your mindset and think like an entrepreneur. Moreover, surround yourself with positive, like-minded people who want to be successful in real estate.
5. Celebrate Your Success
Celebrating your success is as important for adults as it is for kids. Do not hesitate to celebrate it.
Research shows that acknowledging your success changes you physiologically by releasing endorphins in your body. Not only you will feel better, but you will reinforce the behaviors that help you overcome new challenges.
Success also makes it easier to build on your momentum. You start to see yourself as a successful, more productive investor, which in turn triggers others to see you as a successful investor as well.
Don’t let the negativity of other people affect your mindset. When you throw away all the negativity, you will reach the highest potential as a real estate investor. Whenever you notice a progress, celebrate it. Whether it’s a small accomplishment or a big one, don’t hesitate to celebrate. From getting the first deal under contract to securing lending with a private lender, all accomplishments are worth celebrating. Thus, you will keep yourself more motivated and eager to hit the new challenges.
Become More Productive
When mentioning the term habit, most people think of tooth brushing or of shutting off a light when leaving the room.
Habits, however, are really just behaviors that you engage in without having to think about them. You don’t think much about brushing your teeth – you just do it.
Habits are perfect for becoming more productive – but like most things in life, they don’t happen without some planning and a little effort beforehand.
Real estate investors need to be able to think as business owners. Experienced real estate investors are very effective when it comes to time management. And, to become more productive, they focus on more important things that push the business forward.
By putting processes and systems in place, you will be able to control more daily work and problems which might occur. With proper time management, you will acquire more sales, more volume, and more revenue in little or no time.
To Wrap It Up
As a real estate investor, your business depends on the quality of your work. Without having the right habits and hacks, your business is likely to fail. Productivity hacks are really important as they push the business forward. By relying on a set of behaviors, you will eventually become more productive and will ease of the work. Some behaviors are completely unnecessary, so be wise when choosing which set of behaviors you are going to employ. Some behaviors are even unconscious and we don’t even think about when we do them. Because if we did, we would get very little done.
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