The vast majority of Agents have heard of time blocking as a form of improving their efficiency in their business. I believe the goal for time blocking is to increase the amount of time you are investing in DIPA (Direct Income Producing Activities). The problem is few Agents have really mastered the use of time blocking.

The reason most Agents have never mastered time blocking is because of the common mistakes they repeat when creating and executing their time block. Beyond prioritization, we need to think about our time with the right mindset. We need to attack the issue of time management from the right perspective.

Mistake #1 – Not creating a time block schedule with the right mindset

We tend to create a schedule from the "squeeze it in" mindset. We are trying to fit everything in to our schedule. We must approach the problem of time management in the proper order. We have used the following story "Big Rocks" for years in our coaching. I do not know the origin of the story, other than Steven Covey used it in his book First Things First. He talks about how an associate of his hears it at a seminar, so he did not site the origin either.

"Big Rocks"

One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget.

As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers, he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." He pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top, and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." He said, "Really?"

He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied.

He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more, he asked the question, "Is the jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again, he said, "Good!"

Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. He looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!" "No," the speaker replied, "That's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

What are the 'big rocks' in your life?

• Time with your loved ones

• Your faith, your education, your dreams

• A worthy cause

• Teaching or mentoring others

We need to put the big rocks of our life in first to make a time block schedule run correctly. That means, we need to establish a time block for each day of the week that goes into the evening. You will need to insert your personal life schedule in first, since that's clearly a big rock.

1. Block your personal life in first - Do this before you put your business activities in. Put in your workout time, prayer time, quiet time, family time, kids' athletic events and practices, personal learning time – anything that happens either daily or weekly. I have a client who blocks specific time for dinner every night to ensure he is home for every meal with his family.

It allows you to tell prospects that you already have a previous appointment. They don't have to know the appointment is dinnertime with your family. They merely need to know you are booked. You build value for your services through scarcity. Scarcity can be increased by adhering to a solid time blocked schedule that includes your personal life at the forefront.

I still time block today with my family first. Every Friday morning is breakfast out with the whole family. Joan and I have a standing date night every Friday night. Wesley, my son, and I have floor time every day before dinner when we play on the floor and wrestle. It's some of the best time in my whole day. I wouldn't miss it for the world. It won't be too long, and he will be gone, and I will long for the days when I wrestled on the floor with my son.

2. Take a designated day off - I personally believe two is better, but most Agents go through withdrawal just having one. Too many Agents are too available. We want to "be there" for our clients. What the heck does that mean? Even God took the seventh day off. He had a lot tougher task in creating the world than we do serving our clients.

A day off means no real estate calls, faxes, ad calls, sign calls, or cell phones. Focus 100% on family, relaxing, and recharging. If you take one call, it's really a business day now. NAR did a study a few years ago and well over 60% of the families that responded said, "The Realtor® in the family works too much, and we can't count on them to be there when they say they will be or to take a day off when they say they will" . . . Ouch!!

3. Take most evenings off - Set the boundaries, so you don't have to work every evening. For a Champion Agent to work more than two is unnecessary. I personally worked only on Tuesday evenings. I was willing to take my last appointment at 8:15, which put me home by 9:30 pm, but I was not gone any other evening. Move your prospects into your work evening and into those specific time slots.

4. Block in your other personal time - If you need to workout each morning to ensure it gets done, like I do, schedule it. Block in your personal development time to read, study, and grow. If you need prayer, meditation, or Bible reading time, block that in as well. Whatever your daily routine; it needs to be planned for.

Many Agents feel that, if they put all their personal time and time off in their schedule, there is little or not time for business production. If you really count the hours left, after sleeping is removed, it is still more than seventy hours of possible work time per week. That's more than we should be working anyway. Once we have our personal life blocked, we need to move to our work life.

5. Begin blocking in your Direct Income Producing Activities - For most people, mornings are the best time for the DIPA of prospecting and lead follow-up. I would suggest ninety minutes of prospecting and sixty minutes of lead follow-up daily. I am sure some of you reading this are saying, "But Dirk, there are more people home in the evening." I won't argue that point; that is probably correct. I will argue that most Agents won't prospect in the evening because they are too tired. It doesn't matter if the contacts to dials ratio would be better if you won't or don't do it. There are few Agents who have the personal discipline to make the calls with regularity after a long, tough day. I was not one of them. I could make calls on Tuesday, when I didn't have appointments. I doubt you have the ability to call consistently in the evening, night in and night out.

6. Schedule time for appointments - My typical listing presentation was no more than forty-five minutes. I could schedule my appointments on one-hour increments because I needed fifteen minutes of drive time between appointments. My schedule was set to conduct appointments at 3:15, 4:15, and 5:15 Monday through Thursday. On Tuesday evenings, I also had 6:15, 7:15, and 8:15 appointment slots. If I didn't have Tuesday evening appointments, I would use that time to prospect or lead follow-up to secure more appointments.

Because I operated with specific appointment times, I wasn't asking what time would be best for them. I was closing on them for a specific time to meet. There is a big difference between these two approaches and their effectiveness. Using an alternate of choice to ask, "Sue would Monday or Tuesday at 4:15 be better for you?" is really effective. When they said to me, "I don't get home until 4:30 usually, can we do it then?" I would move them to a 5:15 pm appointment. You want to keep your slotting and not deviate. A doctor has predetermined slots for patients. Your business is really no different.

7. Schedule return phone call times - We need to have designated times to return calls. There should be one in the late morning, after your prospecting and lead follow-up is completed. If you return calls before getting those two done, you run the risk of not getting to them that day. Nothing in real estate is so urgent it can't wait an hour or two to be handled.

8. Schedule your ongoing Production Supporting Activities - All the administrative tasks need a time for them to be completed. I often get initial time block schedules from new clients with zero administration time in them. That's not realistic, even if you have a large team of Assistants. You will always have administrative time.

You might also block a regular time to meet over the phone with your primary Lender, Title Company, or closing Attorney to receive status updates. It saves the half dozen phone calls that usually go back and forth each week. You can update all your transactions in process in one fifteen-minute call. This call should be the same time and day each week. They, just like you, are not allowed to schedule anything during that slot.

9. Schedule time for staff - If you have staff, you must monitor and train them. These should be done through daily meetings that are short and informative and question focused. These meetings keep the team going in the right direction. The weekly meetings are strategy, tactics, and training meetings. Most Agents fail to have any type of ongoing dialogue and training for their staff.

10. Schedule for emergencies each day - The use of flextime is essential if you really want to stay on your time block schedule. Create thirty minutes of flextime for every two to three hours of productive time per day. If you can use the flextime to handle the emergencies and get back on task, you will be highly effective with your time.

Published: October 15, 2010

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Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and 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. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. To learn more regarding this article, please visit www.realestatechampions.com.