Working Smarter Not Harder ~ Yeah, Yeah, Yeah... My 3 Things that are GONE.
We've all heard that saying.. work smarter not harder. Well, I'm here to tell you that sometimes it's smarter to work harder. It depends upon your cirumstances and also on the definitions of smarter and harder. Who says that working harder is not smarter when you're making the most of what you have and working to the best of your abilities..? !
This month's Active Rain Challenge, sponsored by Jaycie at Boomtown is to write in a comment, 3 things that you can eliminate or remove from your day-to-day to keep an eye on the bigger strategy. AND yes, it ends today so if you've been busy with your day-to-day and have not writtten your comment, you've got about 18 hours until midnight (EST) when the pumpkin appears! I decided to write a post about those things and then leave them in the comments on Jaycie's Challenge post. To meet this month's challenge (if you're one that's always examining and re-defining what you NEED to be doing AND have already eliminated those things that are needless today (after all, it is a constantly changing world, even in the real estate business), you can comment about 3 things that you have eliminated. Since I am one of those people that are always "trying to figure it out".. I'm writing about 3 things I have changed or removed from my schedule.. Trying to be-all and do-all on both ends of the candle has gotten a lot better for me.. Letting people do what they do best so I can do what I do best has been a business changer for me. I actually get some evenings now where I'm not working until 10 pm and don't have to start at 6 am, just to get it all done!
- The first and foremost change that I've made is to stop doing EVERYTHING in the office myself. Hiring office help for Integrity Real Estate Services, to take on clerical and busy work, has greatly improved my production because now I can concentrate on what I do BEST. Chassy, our office manager has taken on the day-today checking on websites to make sure they are current, preparing our weekly ad for the newspaper, brochures and flyers, printing aerials and maps for folders, preparing showing folders, etc etc.. When I first started out with a license about 16 years ago, I didn't feel that I could afford to hire help so at that time working harder was working smarter. Now it's a matter of doing what I'm best at and what helps us to afford help.
- The second change has been to step down as Managing Broker into a Broker Associate position. Don has stepped up to take on the Managing Broker position. Again this has opened up a wealth of time for me. He is handling the accounts, E & O insurance, and all that "stuff" that the "boss" has to handle.
- You may laugh at this one, but I've stopped blogging as much. After 3,522 blog posts since December of 2006, I've written about most things that I want to write about. I didn't say all things. I still write, but not with the enthusiasm that I once did. I refuse to do a daily bombardment of listings over and over. The quantity of stuff that's being posted from "bloggers" that is copied from somewhere else without acknowledgeing it has also been a turn-off to me spending as much time here as I used to.
- Let's throw in a fourth one that has been a great change. E-signing. I am amazed at the number of agents that we do business with that do not use any type of E-signing service at this point in time. Eliminating all of that snail mail, faxing, re-scanning, fed-exing docs is a real "smarter" way to work! Oklahoma made the necessary law requirement change in 2011 to allow real estate contracts to be digitally signed. Even after 5 years though we find that many have not incorporated it into their way of doing business. They are still snail mailing and fed-exing those docs to out of state clients.
- We might as well throw in a fifth one since I'm on a roll here this morning! In fact, it can be a combo... I no longer make cold calls, show to people that won't get a pre-qualification letter, start marketing before a seller cleans the house, take on listings too far away, or pay for leads. I could add a few more but it's time to go to work! Edited ** A great big deal changer... eliminating so much time on Facebook, especially all of those groups that others stick you in without asking you if you want to be in them.
I encourage you to write for this month's challenge. We all can probably eliminate things to make our daily more productive or we are always in the process of changing things up. I'd love to read yours!
Image is courtesy of Morguefile. AND Yes, Morguefile is a great place to get images for your blog if you haven't discovered them. Attribution is not required BUT it is the right thing to do! This image is courtesy of user Quicksandala and seemed to be the PERFECT image for writing about things and stuff that are NOT in use. Have a great week!
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