33 Ways to Stick to Your Schedule

Distractions are the potholes of our time. They thrust you off your original path and onto a winding bunny train.  Deflecting these diversions starts when you master the art of protecting our schedule – here are 33 ideas to stay laser focused.

1. Make certain your staff and your family knows your schedule. Lead generation and lead follow-up is done every morning.

2. Create a daily voice mail message stating when you will be returning calls.

3. Control your interruptions: Leave your cell phone in the car or where someone else can answer it and take messages until you can return the calls.

4. Do not check email prior to prospecting.

5. Anything other than lead generation in real estate can wait until noon.

6. Write a check for $1,000 in the beginning of the month and if you have kept on schedule for lead generation all month, cash it, spend it or put it in savings. If you haven’t completed your lead generation schedule, then give it to charity or give it your competitor and tell him/her to use it to advertise against you.

7. Do your prospecting first thing in the morning.

8. Buy a chess clock and use it during your lead generation time. The right side is for making calls, the left side for any other time. See how much time you are actually on the phone.

9. Treat your career as though you were hired to do the job and convince yourself that you are losing money or could be fired if you do not follow your schedule.

10. Go to bed early and get up early. You can’t hang out with the turkeys at night and fly with the eagles in the morning.

11. Do not listen to any voicemail messages or return any calls until you are finished with your lead generation.

12. Do your lead generation at the same time every day. Zig Zigler states that it is easier to get focused when you have the habit of the same time every day.

13. Have a separate desk at the office or home office where you can concentrate on nothing except prospecting.

14. If needed, revise your schedule every six months for variety.

15. Make certain your schedule is realistic for you and something that is accomplishable.

16. Reward yourself often when you find that you stayed on schedule.

17. Punish yourself if you fall off track. Fine yourself, prospect on Saturday or do an open house on Sunday.

18. Review your business plan often (daily). Keep it to one page.

19. Have pictures of your goals all over the place. Make a dream book or dream board (i.e. vacation spots, pieces of jewelry, cars, etc …)

20. Shut the ringer off on your phone if you find it interrupts you.

21. Play loud, upbeat music and use headphones (when you’re not prospecting, of course).

22. Have an accountability partner and make sure they hold you accountable and vice versa.

23. Take a ten minute break every hour and walk around to regroup and reenergize.

24. Put your schedule into your “listing” package and give it to your clients to be held accountable. Invite them to come by the office and watch you proactively look for buyers for their home.

25. Only role play with dependable role playing partners.

26. Reward the receptionist or assistant once every so often if they help keep the distractions away from you while prospecting.

27. Make certain you have a start and end time for lead generation and keep to it! Treat it like a listing appointment.

28. Do you least desirable things first thing in the morning.

29. Call people from your training classes to talk about keeping a schedule. Ask for advice or share solutions.

30. Keep a journal or a victory log. It’s always good to fall back on when you don’t feel like prospecting is working for you.

31. Go to Mega Camp, Family Reunion and Masterminds.

32. Expect results from your schedule.

33. Be coachable at all times. That means you will allow a coach to tell you what you need to hear to improve and what you need to do to make sales.