Did I Schedule That?

Making a schedule for yourself is one of the most important skills you need to be successful at real estate investing (or any business for that matter!)  Knowing where your time goes and what you're doing during that time is one of the best ways to examine your productivity and effectiveness. 

I have attempted many different ways to find structure for myself.  I started by just making a to do list for myself every evening for the next day.  I would get some stuff done, but I definitely found myself playing favorites and putting the tedious or hard things off every single day until it was panic time and they HAD to get done.  Not the best method - it lacks guidance and structure.

Next, I didn't wander to far from my first method - I started writing down the time frame (i.e. 3:15-4:09) for every task I did - still, no structure or accountability, many things were "put off til tomorrow" one too many times.

After that I started getting a little more rigid with myself.  I started planning out my days in time blocks.  7:00-7:30 shower and get ready, 7:30-9:00 read real estate books, 9:00-10:00 respond to emails and make calls, etc.  This started to get me on the right path. And I also found it helped if I wrote it down in that format the night before and then during the day the next day I would log the time it took me to do each task.  This formula held me more accountable and made me really look at what I was doing with my time, but I still wasn't getting everything done that needed to get done - I'd focus on the business too long and not have dinner ready in time, I'd be doing catch up work when I should have been cleaning the bathroom, or I'd shove all my domestic chores into the middle of the night and be exhausted the next day - it just wasn't enough structure and I was pulling my hair out trying to find more hours in the day!!

But now, I have come to a scheduling system that really makes sense and makes it so much easier to get all my tasks done.  Inspired by a conversation we had with our pastor, I have come up with what I call the goals and roles schedule.  Your goals always, always, always need to be written down to help keep them fresh and at the forefront of your thinking - remind yourself of what you are working for.  Your roles are the different hats you wear throughout the day - mine are: investor, realtor, wife, housekeeper, family member, friend, etc.  After figuring out your goals and roles you need to determine when you need to "wear" each of your role hats and what goal you are working toward when you're wearing it (i.e. when I'm wearing my housekeeper role I need to get dinner done at a certain time for my goal of having my fiance eat at a certain time per his schedule).

It may seem complex but once you start breaking it down by each role and looking at what you need to accomplish as that person you being to see how it can all fit together to help you get all your projects and tasks done AND keep your sanity at the same time!!