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Feeling slightly overwhelmed by the list of real estate tasks mounting up?
Yep, we’ve all been there. With an email inbox that’s overflowing, a lengthy catalogue of jobs all competing for top priority and that sinking feeling that no matter where you start, you’ll never quite tick off all the tasks on a never-ending to-do list.
It’s the nature of this game that we all get busy. We all get seriously distracted, and we all find ourselves struggling with the challenge of effective time management.
After all, it’s an industry with competing priorities. There are people to call, inquiries to answer, listings to market and open homes to attend. Each is important. Each deserves our attention. Each feels immediate and urgent.
As a result, it’s easy to find ourselves adding to our ‘to-do-lists’ only to discover the list becomes longer and longer, with many tasks unattended to.
So much to do, so little time
For all the time management and choice management tips that many of us seek out and embrace, we still get bogged down in the ‘stuff,’ and because of it, feel unproductive and overwhelmed.
I’ll be the first to put my hand up and admit I’ve felt both sensations far more than once. It is a serious challenge.
And it begs the question, is there a better way? Is there a knack for managing that to-do list in an effective and productive way to reduce that creeping feeling of overwhelm?
Touch it once
One simple solution which I have found and applied recently is the ‘touch it once’ principle.
The general idea is that as soon as you touch something – whether it’s a piece of mail, or a project that needs to be submitted – you immediately act on it.
This might involve fully completing the task at once or determining the next actionable steps required to move it along.
A lot of people (like myself) waste time and energy by rereading and reconsidering tasks they have to do.
Instead of taking care of the task at hand, they might think “I’ll take care of this later” and move on to something else.
Whether it’s answering emails, accepting calendar invites, returning voicemail calls or attending to posted mail, menial activities when not actioned swiftly end up taking much more valuable time to complete.
Perhaps more importantly, they occupy ‘head space’ which brings on the feeling of overwhelm.
Compounding the effect is the fact that when you revisit the task, it requires re-evaluation.
Further head space is taken up recalling what the job is, what to do and how to accomplish the task at hand. This eats up extra time and more energy, and also has the potential to compound.
Over the course of a week, month or year all this time spent evaluating and re-evaluating tasks adds up, as does the stress and pressure we place on ourselves.
Now, not later
The ‘touch it once’ principle, when applied, is an effective solution to the ‘I’ll do it later’ habit.
Try it for a day, at every opportunity, and you will see that a simple principle can help you win back time and reduce task overwhelm.
But like anything, the power of an idea is only as good as its implementation.
Manos Findikakis is the CEO of Agents’Agency.
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