There was one characteristic or skill that was most important in helping me achieve high production in sales while working a four-day workweek. This one skill allowed me the opportunity to develop the others that were necessary for success in sales. You are probably thinking, what is that one characteristic above all others? It's time mastery. If we learn to master out time and understand the value of time we can change the outcome of our lives.

Time is truly our most precious resource. The famous writer Jean-Louis Serran-Selseiben wrote "Unlike other resources, time cannot be bought or sold, borrowed or stolen, stocked up or saved, manufactured, reproduced or modified, all we can do is make use of it. And whether we use it or not, it nevertheless slips away." It truly is how we use it to our advantage that makes the difference. How effectively are you using the time you are given? Are you doing the high payoff activities in your day?

Many people may be asking what are the high payoff activities in real estate? These are the activities that pay you exceedingly well per hour. They also happen to be the activities that only you can do. Your assistants will never be as good as you in all these activities. Because of your skill and ability, you’re the one who has to do them. If your staff were as skilled as you…they would not be working for you. They would be an agent on their own.

In real estate there are about a half dozen things that are high payoff activities. They are lead follow-up, prospecting, listing appointments, showing property, writing and negotiating contracts. How much of your day is spent in these activities? The truth is no one will do these activities better than you. If you have staff, once they get markedly better than you in these activities they will often leave you and go on their own. The highest pay per hour is contained in those half dozen things. The low payoff items have a tendency to push out the high. They try to fake us out that they are important. Have you ever had a day where you left the office and felt like nothing got done? You just spent the day in low payoff activities. The low payoff day is like being in the twilight zone all day. You were present in body, but nothing got done.

To insure you do high payoff activities, daily block them into your schedule. Create a specific time slot for prospecting daily. Make a time for lead follow up daily. Schedule them both in and be militant with keeping other low payoff activities out of those slots. Turn your cell phone and pager off during those time slots, then you can focus with intensity on prospecting and lead follow-up. If you just spend one hour a day prospecting and a half an hour to one hour doing lead follow-up daily, that will solve any production problems you have in your business, and you will gain quality time with your family. Find those times and block them in today.

The next step to time mastering is learning to do first things first. Too often we spend time on the wrong tasks. Make a list of tasks that you need to do before you leave for the day. To be highly effective we must set up tomorrow before it comes. You will save 10 minutes of execution for every one minute of planning you do. Then take the list and prioritize from most important to least important. I will give you a hint that the hardest thing that needs to be done is most important. Then when you walk in the office in the morning start with number 1. Do number 1 until you have it completely done. Then you can move onto number 2. We often lack the vision to prioritize. Then we work on ten things at once never completing anything. This causes frustration and low work output. Focus on the most important task. Focus always comes before success.

It is very easy to get distracted by clients, prospects or other agents. You must win the game of distraction. We all have distractions daily. It’s what we do with the distractions that come our way that matters. The difference between a time waster and a time master is the length of time it takes for that person to get back on track. For a time waster it could be hours or even days to get back on track. For a time master it will be minutes before he is back on track. People who control time earn more money. Time was designed to serve us…not for us to serve time. Many people feel that time is money.

Israel Davidson said it well when he was quoted, "Time is infinitely more precious than money, and there is nothing in common between them. You cannot accumulate time; you cannot borrow time; you can never tell how much time you have left in the Book of Life. Time is life…" Use it well.

Published: May 17, 2000

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Dirk Zeller is an Agent, an Investor, and the President & CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. He's the widely published author of Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. You can get more information by visiting RealEstateChampions.com.