May 1, 2025 • 17 mins
Real estate agents are often taught that time blocking is essential for success, but this rigid approach to productivity doesn't work for many professionals and can lead to unnecessary guilt and frustration. I explore why traditional time blocking fails for certain brain types and offer alternative approaches that respect your natural rhythms while still maintaining productivity.
• Time blocking is promoted by most real estate training programs as a way to create structure in a chaotic business
• This industrial-era approach treats humans like machines expected to produce the same output consistently
• The failure to stick to rigid schedules often leads to feelings of inadequacy and guilt
• Understanding your natural rhythms is crucial—some people work better in mornings, others in afternoons
• Try planning just one week ahead instead of creating rigid recurring schedules
• Focus on tasks that need to be accomplished rather than specific times to do them
• Create buffers in your schedule to accommodate the unpredictable nature of real estate
• Incorporate fun and social elements to make less enjoyable tasks more appealing
• Pair administrative tasks with rewards or do them alongside colleagues for accountability
• Remember that flexibility isn't failure—it's adapting to the reality of our business
If you have a colleague in your office who would benefit from this podcast, please introduce them to it. And if you know someone who uses mindfulness in their real estate practice who would make a good guest, please send them my way—I'd love to interview them.
You can find me on instagram @rested.real.estate.agent, and you can sign up for my newsletter to keep up with upcoming workshops and other offerings on my website www.suminabhatti.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Rested and Rich Real Estate Agent, a
podcast that helps you navigatelife as a real estate
professional, while finding somerest and balance along the way.
I'm your host, samina, an agentwith 18 years of experience in
the Austin, texas area, and Ibelieve there's a better way to
do our business serve ourclients and not get burnt out.
(00:21):
I help agents get from chaos toclarity.
So today we are gonna talkabout this idea of time blocking
and why I think it sucks, butwe'll get there in a moment.
So if you aren't familiar withthe idea of time blocking, it's
this concept that you block offthe same days and times in your
(00:42):
calendar, week after week, andif you repeat those tasks at
that set time, you'll have moresuccess in your business than
you would if you didn't do that,because, as we know, in real
estate it's really easy to getscattered, to be at the whim of
client demands, deals that arefalling apart, requests for
showings, all the things thathappen to us in our business.
So in theory, it would makesense that time blocking can be
(01:05):
a real benefit to us.
What we're going to talk aboutin this episode is why time
blocking doesn't work for a lotof people's work styles and
brains like mine learning someways to manage that feeling.
And then, of course, I want toleave you with some tools that
you can use that hopefully willwork for you In real estate.
I have taken in 18 years manydifferent kinds of training
(01:25):
programs throughout the years,everything from bold back with
Keller Williams this is probablymid 2000s.
The ninja training program isprobably one of my favorites.
I'll probably do an episodejust about that.
Buffini training.
I mean there's just a bunch ofthings in there that I've done
over the years smaller trainingsjust offered at the board, et
cetera and almost all of thesehad this idea of time blocking.
(01:47):
Right, they give you thesereally pretty little calendars
that had these blocks in there.
That said, you know, if youblock off Tuesdays and Thursdays
between 11 and one and this isa time you call your clients and
then on Fridays you set upshowings and then on these times
you have time to be in thefield, et cetera.
Fridays you set up showings andthen on these times you have
time to be in the field, etc.
(02:08):
In theory that worked great.
So I would leave these trainingsand diligently put all the time
blocks in my calendar andinevitably Monday would roll
around and my brain did not wantto follow the plan that was
there or just couldn't right.
Things came up and I justdidn't quite understand how the
time blocking was supposed towork.
In reality Constantly left mefeeling like I was missing the
(02:29):
mark, like I was failing in someway, because I just couldn't
somehow grasp this idea or forcemyself to stick to this regimen
of make your calls on thesedays, do your seller reports on
these days.
And I feel like it also wasforcing me to act in a way that
wasn't quite natural.
Right, it's ignoring therhythms of not just our business
(02:51):
, the flow of my own brain andmind, the flow of the
seasonality we have in ourindustry.
And what if I was just so busyone particular week with
back-to-back clients orout-of-state clients that I
didn't have the capacity formore outward focused client
outreach?
Where did these systems honorthe idea of trusting my own
(03:15):
capacity, rhythm and my own moodto determine what I should be
doing?
I want to pause here and saythat if time blocking has worked
for you and you've enjoyed itand you don't have a problem
with it, then this episode isprobably not for you.
If time blocking works for you.
Fantastic.
Please keep doing what works.
This is really for the peoplewho have struggled with time
(03:37):
blocking, who have wondered whytheir brains cannot fall into
this habit of doing things atthe same time every week, week
after week.
Let's start by thinking aboutwho and why did this idea of
time blocking even get started?
Who thought this was a goodidea?
And I did some research.
I didn't really quite findanything totally concrete, but
(04:00):
my guess is obviously it camefrom things like the industrial
revolution.
Right, there's conveyor belts,there's factories and ways that
things have to get done atparticular times.
There's a number of widgets perhour that have to be produced,
and so then that model was justsort of taken and sort of
stamped onto our work as wemoved into more office work.
(04:21):
So it's this very sort ofindustrialized idea that we are.
We can work like machines, wecan keep doing the same thing
week after week and be producingthese results.
So one that, as we've talkedabout, that doesn't work for a
lot of brains.
And two, there's also the guiltassociated with feeling like
you're a failure If you can'tget your brain to work in that
way.
(04:41):
I do want to say that there'salso the idea that some of us
are more motivated by task-basedwork versus time-based work.
So some people say, if you giveme a list of things to do, I'll
get them done.
I can't really tell you thetime I'll get them done, but I
know I will get them done.
Let's say sellers, for example,and you're telling sellers, I
will have a seller report to youevery Tuesday with feedback
(05:04):
from our weekend showings, withwebsite activity, with open
house feedback, et cetera.
There is a time tied to apromise that you made to
somebody.
But for a lot of tasks in ourwork it's not tied to a time,
right?
If I need to pull comps for abuyer or a seller, I just need
to get that to them soon, in thenext day or two.
(05:25):
Whether I do that at noon or1pm or 3am, even they really
don't care.
They just want the datarelatively soon, right?
It's up to me to determine howthat gets done.
So that's more task-based workand work styles versus
time-based work and work style.
So if, again, if the time-basedthing works for you, great.
(05:46):
If you've spent a lot of time inthe US or other places that
have a work structure like theUS, this is probably a pretty
common way that you're motivatedto get work done, block off
some time and then do your jobin that time.
Now what happened is that thisleft me feeling like I was
behind or something was wrongwith me, because I couldn't
figure out how to make the timeblock calendar work for me like
(06:07):
it did for a lot of my peers,and the trainers were telling me
that I should.
We've covered the problems oftime blocking and why our brain
just can't quite grasp the ideaof that, and I would see these
like just really prettywell-organized calendars from
all these training programs, andI so wanted to be like that.
My little brain that lovesplanners and highlighters and
pens was just like, oh great, Ican make a pretty calendar and
(06:31):
put color codes on it, and thenI just wouldn't do it.
And it left me just feelingwith this idea of just guilt and
that I'm behind and I can't dothings right.
So let's talk about what we cando to remedy the situation.
So step number one is tounderstand that different brains
process things differentlyDepending how old you are.
(06:53):
You have gotten to this age oflife.
Somehow.
You have managed to feedyourself and pay your bills and
take care of your pets anddependents and whoever else you
have Somehow whether you didthat by beating yourself up or
time blocking it, or doing it ina task based system, your brain
has figured out some way to bean adult, right?
(07:14):
So understand that.
Don't shame and blame yourselffor not liking time blocking if
that's not how your brain works.
You're human, right?
You are not a machine.
The expectation that you shouldbe producing the same output
every single week, week afterweek, month after month, quarter
after quarter, is ridiculous tome.
(07:36):
So this step is huge because,number one, if you don't can't
even catch yourself in a patternwhen you're beating yourself up
, there's nowhere that we can'twork with that, right.
So the first thing is notice.
Ah, I'm catching myself feelinglike I'm not using my time well
, or I should have blocked itoff, or I'm not following my
calendar, or other thingshappened that took priority over
(07:59):
the other thing I said I wasgoing to do.
That is totally normal, right?
That's the nature of our workand that's totally fine.
Step one is notice the timesyou feel that you quote should
be doing something.
That's it, just notice.
Don't change anything, don'ttry to make yourself be
different or force somethingelse to happen.
Just say, ah, I'm noticing that, I'm in the should stage of my
(08:24):
brain right now.
Cool, that's all you're goingto do for step one.
Step two you probably have donethis in other kinds of programs
before is to notice what yournatural rhythms are.
Are you someone who gets up inthe morning and likes your quiet
time?
If so, then maybe the morninghours are better spent for you
doing what we call deep work, orfocused work or admin work
(08:46):
right, tasks that will take yousome time, like finding comps
for a complicated listing.
You know deeper work thatrequires your focus and
attention.
And maybe it's more in theafternoon that you feel more
social and feel more likeengaging with the world, and
that's where you do your clientoutreach calls.
It may not be on Wednesday,from one to three or whatever.
(09:10):
It may end up being Fridayafternoons or Tuesday mornings.
I mean, you know yourselfbetter.
This is why the time blockingalso doesn't work, because we're
all different, right, we allhave different rhythms,
different patterns, differentlifestyles.
If you have kids or you'retaking care of elder parents or
you have other responsibilities,the times that you may have
available to do these thingswill probably be dictated
(09:31):
differently than someone whodoesn't have those things.
So if you're not a morningperson, don't call your people
in the morning.
If you are more active in theevening, use that time to do
things like client outreach andengaging.
So my third tip is to write downa list of the tasks you'd like
to do every week.
For example and this is in nospecific order things like yes,
(09:55):
I want to be sending my sellersa seller report every week.
Yes, I would like to check inwith my warm buyers and hot
buyers every week just to checkwhere they're at, or every other
week and see what's going on.
Yes, I want to take a look atthe upcoming trainings that are
offered at my board of realtorsor the title companies and maybe
schedule one or two of those amonth, right?
(10:15):
So what are the tasks that youwant to be doing on a fairly
regular basis?
And do not time block them atthis stage.
What I want you to do is tolook at your upcoming week,
right, just look at one week ata time not a month, not a
quarter, just a week and say,okay, this upcoming week, if I
were going to call 10 clients,where in the week do I think
(10:41):
this particular week that wouldfall for me oh you know what.
This gap I have on Wednesdaymornings might be a great time
because I'll be going on a nicewalk and I can tie in the walk
with calling these people.
Next week it may lookcompletely different, right?
Next week it may end up being aFriday afternoon.
Doing these loose time blocks isone way to explore for yourself
(11:02):
whether how your brain respondsto this.
Is it more likely to be moreflexible with these ideas than
the rigid way of time blockingthat most of us are taught?
Now also, you know, some weeksare super heavy, right, there's
a lot of time in the field.
You're not going to have a lotof time for computer time.
That's fine.
(11:22):
Notice what that is.
Not every task is going to getdone every week, right,
sometimes you don't have activebuyers to follow up with, like,
they're just not there at thetime.
Or listing reports are prettyeasy to pull together because
nothing's happening as it is inmy market right now.
Now, if you've promised yoursellers that they're going to
get a report every Tuesday withshowing feedback, and you have
(11:44):
promised something to somebodywith a time, a timestamp on it,
then that is stuff that you dohave to figure out when you're
going to do it right.
If you're sending your reportsout on Tuesday, which is what I
do, it's because I want to useMonday to follow up with the
showing over the weekend, tolook at website activity online
(12:05):
to see what's been going on withtheir listing any open house
feedback and compile thattogether so that I can send it
out on Tuesday.
So if I'm doing and gatheringsome of the information on
Monday let's say I'm a night owl, I'm fine working, you know,
until I hit my stride at, let'ssay, nine, 10, 11 o'clock, which
some people do, and maybe youwant to send that email to them
at midnight.
(12:26):
Well, you use go ahead andcreate your email and put all
this stuff in there, and you canuse the scheduling function in
Gmail to schedule that email togo out Tuesday at 10am or
whatever time your client thinks.
You sent it then, but you gotthe pieces together over the
weekend and on Monday, whenyou're waiting for the last
pieces of information to fill in, use the tools that technology
(12:47):
provides us to make this easierfor yourself as you can and hold
your obligations that you havetold your clients as well.
Now, initially, when you startdoing this, don't try to plan
out more than a week at a time.
You may have big projects andgoals that you're also trying to
work on farming campaigns andthings like that which take a
lot more time than just 15, 20minutes here or there any given
(13:09):
week.
So, as you're looking at a weekat a time, figure out when it
works for your routine, yourschedule, your flow and your
life and see if that issomething that you can tackle
this coming week or not.
Number four just know thatthings are going to move and
shift around as the week goes on.
That is absolutely the natureof our business.
This is going to help you.
You know, not beating ourselvesup also frees up a lot of
(13:32):
mental space, right?
So beating ourselves up takesup a lot of energy.
So if we can stop doing that,we may also find that we just
have a little bit more energyand capacity to do the things
that we enjoy doing.
If there are tasks that you haveto do that you don't enjoy
doing, like administrative work,taxes, accounting, organization
, stuff like that figure out howyou can tie that into a reward.
(13:53):
If, twice a month, you want tosit down and review your
expenditures, and that's yourleast favorite task.
Can you pair that with, then, areward of going for a walk
somewhere you enjoy, or maybeeven partnering up with an agent
to say, hey, can we do someco-working together and block
off some time to spend an hoursorting through our expenses?
They don't have to see whatyou're spending or any of that
(14:15):
information, but just havingsomeone there, a colleague, to
work with you on this can reallyhelp your brain.
Just have some accountabilityand have some fun right
Socializing with a coworker aswell.
And that feeds into my lastpoint, which is can you
incorporate some fun into thetasks in the week that you're
doing?
Can you pair up with acolleague to make your calls
together?
(14:35):
Can you make your client callswhile you're going on a walk,
etc.
And really the focus here iswhat are your natural rhythms?
What is your life like?
Nobody knows that, but you.
What time of the day and weekare you more in the mode to be
outward facing, and when are thetimes that you're more likely
to want to do computer work?
(14:56):
I can't answer those questionsfor you because my rhythms are
probably very different thanyours and I challenge you to
give yourself spaciousness inyour schedule, as you can.
Try not to put appointmentsback to back, right, because
there's no room for a break,there's no room for meetings
running over, there's no roomfor traffic things like that in
there.
So, if you can, you know, tryto schedule some buffers into
(15:20):
your schedule.
We live in a culture that isobsessed with efficiency at all
costs, right?
We have all these podcasts andbooks and social media posts
about the best morning routines,the best evening routines and
how to optimize your morningsand all these things.
This is part of a largerconversation around the systems
and ideas of efficiency all thetime, no matter what.
(15:41):
But notice for yourself whereyou can make your life lighter,
like lighter meaning you don't.
You're not making life moreheavy and burdensome than it
needs to be, right, yourroutines are flexible.
Your habits are movable.
To recap today we talked aboutwhat time blocking is.
You know how we're taught it inreal estate and what problems I
(16:05):
have with it and why it doesn'twork for many types of brains,
right, and it doesn't honor ournatural rhythms.
It just doesn't work for a lotof us.
We talked about some tools, ofwhat you can do about that.
Number one was obviously stopbeating yourself up right.
Number two is finding your ownnatural rhythms.
Number three was just writingdown a list of tasks you'd like
(16:26):
to do every week no specificorder and then sort of figure
out where those may fit in aweek at a time.
Number four is do not try toplan out more than a week at a
time, knowing that things aregoing to shift as a week goes on
.
And then, lastly, incorporatefun into your week.
You know your rhythms.
You know what works and doesn'twork for you.
(16:47):
Work with that, not againstthat.
It took me years to sort oflearn that and get out of this
mindset of you know what timeblocking isn't for me and I'm
just not going to bother with itanymore.
I don't care how pretty theplanners look, I'm not.
That's just not not for me.
So I hope you enjoy thisepisode.
Um, it's been some.
It's been a topic that's beenon my mind for a while about
(17:09):
time blocking and how it doesn'twork.
Um, I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for joiningme on this episode of the rested
and rich Real Estate Agent.
As I've mentioned before, mypodcast is still relatively new.
If you have a colleague in youroffice that you think would
benefit from my podcast, pleaseintroduce them to it, and if you
think of someone you know whowould be a good guest on my
(17:31):
podcast that uses mindfulness intheir real estate practice,
please send them my way.
I would love to interview themfor my podcast.
Thank you again.
So much, and be well.
Welcome to the Rested and Rich Real Estate Agent, a
podcast that helps you navigatelife as a real estate
professional, while finding somerest and balance along the way.
I'm your host, samina, an agentwith 18 years of experience in
the Austin, texas area, and Ibelieve there's a better way to
do our business serve ourclients and not get burnt out.
(00:21):
I help agents get from chaos toclarity.
So today we are gonna talkabout this idea of time blocking
and why I think it sucks, butwe'll get there in a moment.
So if you aren't familiar withthe idea of time blocking, it's
this concept that you block offthe same days and times in your
(00:42):
calendar, week after week, andif you repeat those tasks at
that set time, you'll have moresuccess in your business than
you would if you didn't do that,because, as we know, in real
estate it's really easy to getscattered, to be at the whim of
client demands, deals that arefalling apart, requests for
showings, all the things thathappen to us in our business.
So in theory, it would makesense that time blocking can be
(01:05):
a real benefit to us.
What we're going to talk aboutin this episode is why time
blocking doesn't work for a lotof people's work styles and
brains like mine learning someways to manage that feeling.
And then, of course, I want toleave you with some tools that
you can use that hopefully willwork for you In real estate.
I have taken in 18 years manydifferent kinds of training
(01:25):
programs throughout the years,everything from bold back with
Keller Williams this is probablymid 2000s.
The ninja training program isprobably one of my favorites.
I'll probably do an episodejust about that.
Buffini training.
I mean there's just a bunch ofthings in there that I've done
over the years smaller trainingsjust offered at the board, et
cetera and almost all of thesehad this idea of time blocking.
(01:47):
Right, they give you thesereally pretty little calendars
that had these blocks in there.
That said, you know, if youblock off Tuesdays and Thursdays
between 11 and one and this isa time you call your clients and
then on Fridays you set upshowings and then on these times
you have time to be in thefield, et cetera.
Fridays you set up showings andthen on these times you have
time to be in the field, etc.
(02:08):
In theory that worked great.
So I would leave these trainingsand diligently put all the time
blocks in my calendar andinevitably Monday would roll
around and my brain did not wantto follow the plan that was
there or just couldn't right.
Things came up and I justdidn't quite understand how the
time blocking was supposed towork.
In reality Constantly left mefeeling like I was missing the
(02:29):
mark, like I was failing in someway, because I just couldn't
somehow grasp this idea or forcemyself to stick to this regimen
of make your calls on thesedays, do your seller reports on
these days.
And I feel like it also wasforcing me to act in a way that
wasn't quite natural.
Right, it's ignoring therhythms of not just our business
(02:51):
, the flow of my own brain andmind, the flow of the
seasonality we have in ourindustry.
And what if I was just so busyone particular week with
back-to-back clients orout-of-state clients that I
didn't have the capacity formore outward focused client
outreach?
Where did these systems honorthe idea of trusting my own
(03:15):
capacity, rhythm and my own moodto determine what I should be
doing?
I want to pause here and saythat if time blocking has worked
for you and you've enjoyed itand you don't have a problem
with it, then this episode isprobably not for you.
If time blocking works for you.
Fantastic.
Please keep doing what works.
This is really for the peoplewho have struggled with time
(03:37):
blocking, who have wondered whytheir brains cannot fall into
this habit of doing things atthe same time every week, week
after week.
Let's start by thinking aboutwho and why did this idea of
time blocking even get started?
Who thought this was a goodidea?
And I did some research.
I didn't really quite findanything totally concrete, but
(04:00):
my guess is obviously it camefrom things like the industrial
revolution.
Right, there's conveyor belts,there's factories and ways that
things have to get done atparticular times.
There's a number of widgets perhour that have to be produced,
and so then that model was justsort of taken and sort of
stamped onto our work as wemoved into more office work.
(04:21):
So it's this very sort ofindustrialized idea that we are.
We can work like machines, wecan keep doing the same thing
week after week and be producingthese results.
So one that, as we've talkedabout, that doesn't work for a
lot of brains.
And two, there's also the guiltassociated with feeling like
you're a failure If you can'tget your brain to work in that
way.
(04:41):
I do want to say that there'salso the idea that some of us
are more motivated by task-basedwork versus time-based work.
So some people say, if you giveme a list of things to do, I'll
get them done.
I can't really tell you thetime I'll get them done, but I
know I will get them done.
Let's say sellers, for example,and you're telling sellers, I
will have a seller report to youevery Tuesday with feedback
(05:04):
from our weekend showings, withwebsite activity, with open
house feedback, et cetera.
There is a time tied to apromise that you made to
somebody.
But for a lot of tasks in ourwork it's not tied to a time,
right?
If I need to pull comps for abuyer or a seller, I just need
to get that to them soon, in thenext day or two.
(05:25):
Whether I do that at noon or1pm or 3am, even they really
don't care.
They just want the datarelatively soon, right?
It's up to me to determine howthat gets done.
So that's more task-based workand work styles versus
time-based work and work style.
So if, again, if the time-basedthing works for you, great.
(05:46):
If you've spent a lot of time inthe US or other places that
have a work structure like theUS, this is probably a pretty
common way that you're motivatedto get work done, block off
some time and then do your jobin that time.
Now what happened is that thisleft me feeling like I was
behind or something was wrongwith me, because I couldn't
figure out how to make the timeblock calendar work for me like
(06:07):
it did for a lot of my peers,and the trainers were telling me
that I should.
We've covered the problems oftime blocking and why our brain
just can't quite grasp the ideaof that, and I would see these
like just really prettywell-organized calendars from
all these training programs, andI so wanted to be like that.
My little brain that lovesplanners and highlighters and
pens was just like, oh great, Ican make a pretty calendar and
(06:31):
put color codes on it, and thenI just wouldn't do it.
And it left me just feelingwith this idea of just guilt and
that I'm behind and I can't dothings right.
So let's talk about what we cando to remedy the situation.
So step number one is tounderstand that different brains
process things differentlyDepending how old you are.
(06:53):
You have gotten to this age oflife.
Somehow.
You have managed to feedyourself and pay your bills and
take care of your pets anddependents and whoever else you
have Somehow whether you didthat by beating yourself up or
time blocking it, or doing it ina task based system, your brain
has figured out some way to bean adult, right?
(07:14):
So understand that.
Don't shame and blame yourselffor not liking time blocking if
that's not how your brain works.
You're human, right?
You are not a machine.
The expectation that you shouldbe producing the same output
every single week, week afterweek, month after month, quarter
after quarter, is ridiculous tome.
(07:36):
So this step is huge because,number one, if you don't can't
even catch yourself in a patternwhen you're beating yourself up
, there's nowhere that we can'twork with that, right.
So the first thing is notice.
Ah, I'm catching myself feelinglike I'm not using my time well
, or I should have blocked itoff, or I'm not following my
calendar, or other thingshappened that took priority over
(07:59):
the other thing I said I wasgoing to do.
That is totally normal, right?
That's the nature of our workand that's totally fine.
Step one is notice the timesyou feel that you quote should
be doing something.
That's it, just notice.
Don't change anything, don'ttry to make yourself be
different or force somethingelse to happen.
Just say, ah, I'm noticing that, I'm in the should stage of my
(08:24):
brain right now.
Cool, that's all you're goingto do for step one.
Step two you probably have donethis in other kinds of programs
before is to notice what yournatural rhythms are.
Are you someone who gets up inthe morning and likes your quiet
time?
If so, then maybe the morninghours are better spent for you
doing what we call deep work, orfocused work or admin work
(08:46):
right, tasks that will take yousome time, like finding comps
for a complicated listing.
You know deeper work thatrequires your focus and
attention.
And maybe it's more in theafternoon that you feel more
social and feel more likeengaging with the world, and
that's where you do your clientoutreach calls.
It may not be on Wednesday,from one to three or whatever.
(09:10):
It may end up being Fridayafternoons or Tuesday mornings.
I mean, you know yourselfbetter.
This is why the time blockingalso doesn't work, because we're
all different, right, we allhave different rhythms,
different patterns, differentlifestyles.
If you have kids or you'retaking care of elder parents or
you have other responsibilities,the times that you may have
available to do these thingswill probably be dictated
(09:31):
differently than someone whodoesn't have those things.
So if you're not a morningperson, don't call your people
in the morning.
If you are more active in theevening, use that time to do
things like client outreach andengaging.
So my third tip is to write downa list of the tasks you'd like
to do every week.
For example and this is in nospecific order things like yes,
(09:55):
I want to be sending my sellersa seller report every week.
Yes, I would like to check inwith my warm buyers and hot
buyers every week just to checkwhere they're at, or every other
week and see what's going on.
Yes, I want to take a look atthe upcoming trainings that are
offered at my board of realtorsor the title companies and maybe
schedule one or two of those amonth, right?
(10:15):
So what are the tasks that youwant to be doing on a fairly
regular basis?
And do not time block them atthis stage.
What I want you to do is tolook at your upcoming week,
right, just look at one week ata time not a month, not a
quarter, just a week and say,okay, this upcoming week, if I
were going to call 10 clients,where in the week do I think
(10:41):
this particular week that wouldfall for me oh you know what.
This gap I have on Wednesdaymornings might be a great time
because I'll be going on a nicewalk and I can tie in the walk
with calling these people.
Next week it may lookcompletely different, right?
Next week it may end up being aFriday afternoon.
Doing these loose time blocks isone way to explore for yourself
(11:02):
whether how your brain respondsto this.
Is it more likely to be moreflexible with these ideas than
the rigid way of time blockingthat most of us are taught?
Now also, you know, some weeksare super heavy, right, there's
a lot of time in the field.
You're not going to have a lotof time for computer time.
That's fine.
(11:22):
Notice what that is.
Not every task is going to getdone every week, right,
sometimes you don't have activebuyers to follow up with, like,
they're just not there at thetime.
Or listing reports are prettyeasy to pull together because
nothing's happening as it is inmy market right now.
Now, if you've promised yoursellers that they're going to
get a report every Tuesday withshowing feedback, and you have
(11:44):
promised something to somebodywith a time, a timestamp on it,
then that is stuff that you dohave to figure out when you're
going to do it right.
If you're sending your reportsout on Tuesday, which is what I
do, it's because I want to useMonday to follow up with the
showing over the weekend, tolook at website activity online
(12:05):
to see what's been going on withtheir listing any open house
feedback and compile thattogether so that I can send it
out on Tuesday.
So if I'm doing and gatheringsome of the information on
Monday let's say I'm a night owl, I'm fine working, you know,
until I hit my stride at, let'ssay, nine, 10, 11 o'clock, which
some people do, and maybe youwant to send that email to them
at midnight.
(12:26):
Well, you use go ahead andcreate your email and put all
this stuff in there, and you canuse the scheduling function in
Gmail to schedule that email togo out Tuesday at 10am or
whatever time your client thinks.
You sent it then, but you gotthe pieces together over the
weekend and on Monday, whenyou're waiting for the last
pieces of information to fill in, use the tools that technology
(12:47):
provides us to make this easierfor yourself as you can and hold
your obligations that you havetold your clients as well.
Now, initially, when you startdoing this, don't try to plan
out more than a week at a time.
You may have big projects andgoals that you're also trying to
work on farming campaigns andthings like that which take a
lot more time than just 15, 20minutes here or there any given
(13:09):
week.
So, as you're looking at a weekat a time, figure out when it
works for your routine, yourschedule, your flow and your
life and see if that issomething that you can tackle
this coming week or not.
Number four just know thatthings are going to move and
shift around as the week goes on.
That is absolutely the natureof our business.
This is going to help you.
You know, not beating ourselvesup also frees up a lot of
(13:32):
mental space, right?
So beating ourselves up takesup a lot of energy.
So if we can stop doing that,we may also find that we just
have a little bit more energyand capacity to do the things
that we enjoy doing.
If there are tasks that you haveto do that you don't enjoy
doing, like administrative work,taxes, accounting, organization
, stuff like that figure out howyou can tie that into a reward.
(13:53):
If, twice a month, you want tosit down and review your
expenditures, and that's yourleast favorite task.
Can you pair that with, then, areward of going for a walk
somewhere you enjoy, or maybeeven partnering up with an agent
to say, hey, can we do someco-working together and block
off some time to spend an hoursorting through our expenses?
They don't have to see whatyou're spending or any of that
(14:15):
information, but just havingsomeone there, a colleague, to
work with you on this can reallyhelp your brain.
Just have some accountabilityand have some fun right
Socializing with a coworker aswell.
And that feeds into my lastpoint, which is can you
incorporate some fun into thetasks in the week that you're
doing?
Can you pair up with acolleague to make your calls
together?
(14:35):
Can you make your client callswhile you're going on a walk,
etc.
And really the focus here iswhat are your natural rhythms?
What is your life like?
Nobody knows that, but you.
What time of the day and weekare you more in the mode to be
outward facing, and when are thetimes that you're more likely
to want to do computer work?
(14:56):
I can't answer those questionsfor you because my rhythms are
probably very different thanyours and I challenge you to
give yourself spaciousness inyour schedule, as you can.
Try not to put appointmentsback to back, right, because
there's no room for a break,there's no room for meetings
running over, there's no roomfor traffic things like that in
there.
So, if you can, you know, tryto schedule some buffers into
(15:20):
your schedule.
We live in a culture that isobsessed with efficiency at all
costs, right?
We have all these podcasts andbooks and social media posts
about the best morning routines,the best evening routines and
how to optimize your morningsand all these things.
This is part of a largerconversation around the systems
and ideas of efficiency all thetime, no matter what.
(15:41):
But notice for yourself whereyou can make your life lighter,
like lighter meaning you don't.
You're not making life moreheavy and burdensome than it
needs to be, right, yourroutines are flexible.
Your habits are movable.
To recap today we talked aboutwhat time blocking is.
You know how we're taught it inreal estate and what problems I
(16:05):
have with it and why it doesn'twork for many types of brains,
right, and it doesn't honor ournatural rhythms.
It just doesn't work for a lotof us.
We talked about some tools, ofwhat you can do about that.
Number one was obviously stopbeating yourself up right.
Number two is finding your ownnatural rhythms.
Number three was just writingdown a list of tasks you'd like
(16:26):
to do every week no specificorder and then sort of figure
out where those may fit in aweek at a time.
Number four is do not try toplan out more than a week at a
time, knowing that things aregoing to shift as a week goes on
.
And then, lastly, incorporatefun into your week.
You know your rhythms.
You know what works and doesn'twork for you.
(16:47):
Work with that, not againstthat.
It took me years to sort oflearn that and get out of this
mindset of you know what timeblocking isn't for me and I'm
just not going to bother with itanymore.
I don't care how pretty theplanners look, I'm not.
That's just not not for me.
So I hope you enjoy thisepisode.
Um, it's been some.
It's been a topic that's beenon my mind for a while about
(17:09):
time blocking and how it doesn'twork.
Um, I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for joiningme on this episode of the rested
and rich Real Estate Agent.
As I've mentioned before, mypodcast is still relatively new.
If you have a colleague in youroffice that you think would
benefit from my podcast, pleaseintroduce them to it, and if you
think of someone you know whowould be a good guest on my
(17:31):
podcast that uses mindfulness intheir real estate practice,
please send them my way.
I would love to interview themfor my podcast.
Thank you again.
So much, and be well.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.