We are all busy, right? Have you caught yourself saying “there are not enough hours in my day” or “my to do list is never ending”. Let me assure you that you are not alone because I have been there. And to be honest both my professional and personal lives operated with the same “busy” mentality. I thought everyone survived like this.
Personally, I found myself staying up all hours of the night to finish projects and then waking up late the next morning, rushing my kids out the door and rushing to the office, playing catch up the rest of the day.
Professionally, the race continued with the clock. Handling inquiry calls, making follow up calls, residents walking in my office with questions, trying to prepare for scheduled visits (wow factors and one extras), completing connection sheets and entering information into the database, staff meetings, lunch breaks, outreach visits. It felt like before I blinked, it was 5:00pm!
Busy people:
o Can’t define what they did in a day or where the time went
o Gravitate towards non income producing activity
o Say: “I don’t have time to complete 20 calls/day”
Productive people:
o Plan their time
o Can account for time and measure results
o Focus on IPA (income producing activity)
Thankfully I had an opportunity to learn there was a difference between busy and productive. I had amazing mentors who taught me the importance of being intentional with my time. Honestly, I wish they would teach time management like this to our kids in high school and college! If you are like me and did not have that course in school, I’d like to share a few tips:
Tips to be more productive:
1. Block time on your calendar for the following
o Scheduled visits
o Prime calling time, to complete 20 follow up calls daily
o Email/Administrative, to respond to emails and complete scheduled reports
o Planning, to prepare for visits including one extra and wow factors
2. Create the “Six Most Important List”
o At the end of every day make a list of the six most important tasks you want to complete the following day. This helps you to focus each day to complete these tasks, such as:
– Strategic closing worksheet for a hot prospect
– Creating a list of new one extras you want to purchase
– Occupancy reports, trending reports, etc.
As I became more intentional with my time at work, I valued knowing what tasks I completed and the results of my efforts. I am now more intentional in my personal life as well and my husband and sons would tell you all about our “communication calendar”, but that is a conversation for another day! Be proactive and start implementing these tips to become a more productive you!
Written by Dana Asche, Census and Sales Strategist at Bild & Company.
