If I asked you to describe your ideal client, what would you say? Would that client be a male or a female? Single or married? Younger or older?

These are the types of questions you need to ask before you jump in your car trying to meet new prospects. Where you’d go to find a young, single male looking to buy his first home is going to be very different than where you would go to find an older married couple.

And if you don’t know who you’d like to meet, then you’ll have absolutely no idea as to the best place to meet them. So what happens then?

You’re running around from one networking event to the next, hoping you’ll run into someone who’s interested in purchasing a home. And by the way, how do you think that affects your life outside of work?

You probably won’t be spending too much time with your family, since you’ll always be someplace else. But imagine yourself meeting more of the “right” people, because you have a rock solid networking strategy that helps you to be at the right events.

Start answering some of the questions I asked of you earlier. Because the more you know about the type of prospect you’d like to meet, the less time you’ll spend trying to find them.

Now if it were up to me, each person reading this article would have their own personal assistant that would help out with paperwork and other “nonsales-related” stuff.

Unfortunately though, that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon. So in the meantime, I’m going to recommend you schedule at least three hours each week, to do nothing else but complete paper work and other office related activities.

Personally, I like to schedule Tuesday mornings for this (8:00-11:00 a.m.), since that time works best for me. This step is absolutely crucial to maintaining a proper work/life balance since the universal mantra of almost all business professionals (Realtors included), is that everything will get better once they get “caught up” on everything else.

Whether it’s answering emails, completing forms, or returning voicemails, the belief is that once all of this stuff is done, they’ll be able to spend more time selling homes, and be less stressed while they’re doing it.

The problem is most people mistakenly wait for a huge block of time to open up so they can finish everything up.

But by scheduling three hours a week for that paperwork, you won’t need that elusive “block of time” to get caught up. And the best part is you’ll still be out there selling homes, but you won’t be stressing about everything else that needs to get done.

This one is usually the hardest for Realtors since a majority of your income is predicated on coming to work each day. But here’s the thing: Our body can only work so long (and hard) before it needs a break.

According to a report in Business-to-Business Magazine, stress induced absenteeism cost this country $300 billion, by the time you add up the retraining and replacement costs, along with other stress related illnesses. $300 billion!

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to become another statistic.

Recommendation: “Unplug” at least one day each week, and take one long weekend every three months.

“But I can’t take a vacation!” you might be saying. Don’t worry, you don’t have to. A vacation is a weeklong trip to Maui. “Unplugging” is just turning off the cell phone and the laptop, and taking a little break. Remember, you are your biggest asset, and you just can’t expect to keep pushing yourself without giving yourself a break.

And not only will your family thank you, but you’ll be more productive while you’re out there selling more homes!