1 – Plan, Write, Review
It is common for most people to “just do” whatever feels easy and whenever they have time to do it. Very often, this way of working and operating our daily lives will result in lots of procrastination and excuses.
By having a “plan” – it can be a calendar schedule, it can be a to-do list. Just having it written down and seeing it will already create a PUSH MOTIVATION for yourself to step forward and accomplish the task.
At the end of the day, you can also look back and review the tasks you have completed, noting down the work that were 100% done, 50% done or those which had to be postponed (and the reasons why).
2- Track Results
Having a system to self-check and track results is very useful for reminding ourselves about what we “want to do” and what we “have managed to complete”.
After tasks have been completed, it is necessary to write it down – and enjoy the moment that you have managed to put focus and energy into a desired action and create an positive output.
If it’s possible, consider giving yourself a small reward for these small tasks completed, and this may form a habit loop which you can then repeat naturally.
3 – Put Systems in Place
Repeat work can be done more easily (faster, and with less resistance) by having assistants or automation put in place.
Systems (a series of logical steps, carefully planned out, from past experience) help to reduce waste of time and resources.
For example: marketing plan states the (A) timeline and (B) channels and (C) resources needed for marketing each new property. This helps customers better understand the scope of works that will be done, and can be used to explain the steps to assistants, or which parts they are involved in.
Designing online advertisements, flyers, emails, etc can also be done with assistants or automation, allowing yourself to focus more time and energy on your most important tasks only.
4 – Teach / Show Others Your System
Learning takes effect best when we teach other people our skills.
When we have a chance to interact and engage other people, i.e. to showcase the system and knowledge, it gets more ingrained. This is also an opportunity for the team to “debate” on changes and improvements, preferably with concrete data accumulated from past works to back up the arguments.
If more teams can be built (replicated) in this manner, following identical systems, the company gets stronger and larger over time.
5 – The Year / Month / Week / Day Plan
Set a Goal for the Year – perhaps a financial achievement, or number of transactions or personal health (weight loss), etc. This forms the target to aim towards.
Monthly goals are like milestones to help reach the yearly goal. For e.g. if your target is $120,000 per annum gross revenue, then the monthly target is $10,000. Checking and tracking every month will help you to re-focus your mind and energy towards the Goal for the Year.
Weekly goals are more specific. Similar to “Action Plan” whereby it can be set up to draw attention to main target for each day ;
- Monday for rest, review and plan,
- Tuesday for team meetings and paperwork,
- Wednesday for marketing and social media content preparation,
- Thursday for tele-conference (keeping clients updated),
- Friday for viewings and social media posts,
- Saturday for viewing,
- Sunday for family outing and rest.
Of course there will be emergencies and matters of greater priority that needs to take precedence over other matters, from time to time. However, having this basic structure of an Weekly Action Plan ensures we are more conscious towards our Key Task for each day, and understand how much time we need in order to get these met, which can then result in monthly goals being met and us hitting our Goal for the Year.