Good or bad? I never feel productive enough no matter how hard I work.

Any thoughts anyone?

Make lists the night before.

Have them categorized in columns according to priority (I think Dean did this is one of his weekly wisdoms-pre the new name).

Naturally, start with the column that is top priority and work your way across the next column and the next.

At the end of the day, new list. If there are things still on the old list, transfer to new and add any new things.

You will get things done more quickly and not feel so pressured that you are not getting things done or forgetting something.

Also try keeping a pen and pad by your bed. That is when your mind tends to run on high speed. Even though you don't want to move and write it down, I have found that often if I don't, my mind keeps rolling. Write it down and sleep will come easier.

Karen

I use a day planner.

1. I will have things scheduled from days and weeks in advance that I must do on a certain day.

2. On the day before, I schedule the next day. I spend about 30 minutes a day organizing the next days schedule. Business AND personal events or tasks.

3. I prioritize each event in order of importance. Things that actually make money come first. Things like submitting offers, seeing properties, unlisted seller marketing. ETC. Those I mark with an A.
Then I mark the not so important things with a B. The things I can delegate or really don't matter if they get done today I mark with a C.

4. As I complete each task I mark it off my list. This provides motivation and a feeling of accomplishment. I am constantly scheduling events in the upcoming days and weeks as I go through each day. If I don't get something done today that needs to be done I prioritize it for the next day.

5. When I get everything done for the day or have some spare time in between events I don't feel bad. It is all about proper time management.

Remember, at the end of each day if you can honestly tell yourself you did the best you could do to build and do your business that is all that matters!

Michael Mangham
Mentoring/Team Building Nationwide
MD Home Acquisitions LLC

Thanks Karen and Michael, I can always count on you guys for some golden nuggets! I really need to start making this a habit, I used to do it, but sort of lost track of it somehow. And now I'm remembering how much it used to help me!

So thanks for reminding me!!

I "feel ya" and am right there with you!

Getting involved with "busy work" is an easy trap to fall into and EXTREMELY counter productive! Knowing so; I have let myself get in the same routine lately. Even with so much at stake, due to my current situation...unemployment UGH! It is VERY frustrating, and we just have to "break the chain"!!

I know Michael and Karen have pretty much answered your question, but I find it helpful lately to write/type my thoughts...in an effort to help me stay motivated and on track.

A couple of months ago, I started using the technique Karen mentioned (can't remember what Dean calls it?). Consists of 3 columns on a legal pad labeled Current, Soon and Eventually. Also, near the bottom of the page; 3 "sub-columns" labeled Buyers, Sellers and Power Team. Creating a new list daily and seeing what you have accomplished is truly motivating, as Michael says. At the same time, rewriting things not accomplished really hits home! This tends to help me by "burning" these tasks into my brain; leaving me no doubt about what has to be done.

All that being said; prioritizing is the key and this is where I have struggled. Michael and I have discussed this in the past and he's right; "money" items should come first. I seem to remember back in the day, when I was REALLY organized the most; it was when using a day planner. It may be "old school", but you can't argue with the results Michael gets, for sure!

Guess for now my day planner will be a legal pad. I just have to do it!!!

I feel the same way most everyday. As the sole employee of my own company, I am responsible for everything and it can get a bit overwhelming. I don't get a weekly check and only have the money to pay my bills once an order is delivered and paid for, which is once a month. I have no choice but to look at the stack of bills as they accumulate all month which dictates what products I need to make in order to pay those bills. It leads sometimes to long days and nights and a 28 day sense of feeling like a failure. BUT, once the money comes in and the stack of bills is paid for and filed away, there is such a sense of accomplishment.

The reality of my "job" is that it is the accumulation of everything I do, every day, that enables me to have this accomplishment at the end of the month. It means that on the days I needed to make 100 pieces and only made 50 pieces, it wasn't the end of the world but that I needed to makeup those 50 pieces sometime within the month. If that means busting hump one very long day then so be it. I brought it on myself. It's a good reminder to push a little harder on the days I don't feel like working so hard.

This is how I have changed my thinking about being productive: As mentioned before, making a list of the things that need to be done each day is a major plus. The way to get that feeling of actually being productive is to cross things off your list once the task is completed. Dean spoke about this before about his yellow pad and making lists so that whatever wasn't done today goes at the top of tomorrow's list. The key is to be realistic about what you can get done in a day. Putting down 40 things to do when you really only have the time or ability to do 15 is just silly and unproductive. However, if you have, say 17 things on that list, at the end of the day there should be a number of lines crossed off as DONE which will give you a visual confirmation that you were productive that day. Remember, whether you break up everything that needs to be done into days, weeks, months, whatever, if the end result meets your goal, you were being productive the whole time. If it didn't, you need to try harder and do more.

I know I mostly repeated what has already been said before but I hope this helps...

Andy Sager
DG's AndyS
CFIC member

Like mentioned above. I've been using it again the last month or so, and it's a HUGE help. Make 3 columns: Today, This Week, Soon.

I write out a new one whenever the old one fills up and move everything to the right, while adding info, dates, times,etc. Crossing things out and adding arrows to the right gets to look like some kind of crazy tic-tac-toe game, but when I write the new list and then look back on the old one I realize that I HAVE ACTUALLY DONE SOMETHING! This is just a simple-sounding little trick ( I almost blew it off when I saw Deans video about it) but I gave it a shot and it really does work for some reason. Gonna get me one of those big dry-erase calendar whiteboards soon to cut out even more
"busy-fluff".

Also: Wikipedia search "The Pareto Principle" It's not a Law Of The Universe, it's just a Rule...and Rules can be bent.

LOL!

Lighten up, Dom.

Dom,

I recently attended a seminar based on S. Covey's book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" (if you haven't read the book I recommend it),and they showed us to categorize items in a way of importance, not so much of priority...because many times a task can be a priority for one person, but it doesn't mean it has to be a priority for you.

So, what was said is to take care of the important things first (they call them your rocks), the rest of your things will somehow accommodate themselves in your schedule...
We tend to take care of a lot of small things (they call it gravel) because our mindset is that we can get them done quick, but at the end of the day, we just took care of a bunch a small, unimportant things' so basically we get buried in gravel every day if we don't take care of our rocks first.

Another great tip was to attach a date by which we want to accomplish a task, or write down the task on a calendar on the day that we want to take care of it; instead of just writing a 'to do list'; when we have a 'to do list', we fall into the bad habit of trying to check off as many items accomplished to make us feel good, and again, we take care of all the 'gravel'.

Learning and progressing every day,

That was awesome! Never heard it explained that way before. Might have to change the 3 columns to Rock, Gravel and Gold, 'cuz the fortune is in the follow up?

I absolutely agree with everyone here. When I know that I have a ton to do, it's overwhelming and it seems that I try to do something or everything at once and I get side tracked, but at the end of the day, I got nothing done. I noticed that If I make a list of things that I NEED to do, and then, I categorize it, what's really important and what I can do later. And I noticed that I tend to stick to the list. It definitely makes me feel better about myself and I know that I did something, maybe not a whole lot, but It's gonna help build my business.

Everyone has their own system - using a planner, a notebook, their smartphone, computer programs etc. I'm a list maker. I have get it out of my head and onto a list where I can see it. It helps me focus and then when I'm frustrated feeling like I'm not making progress, I can look back at what I've checked off on those lists and know that I'm actually getting things done. Alot of times we measure progress with our bank accounts when there are a thousand of things that lead to the deposit in the bank. Track what you are doing. Find and use a system that works for you and USE IT!

Good luck!

Karen