Raise your hand if you’re an entrepreneur who gets excited when they get a new idea for their business. Most entrepreneurs are like this. They’re constantly thinking of big ideas, and most real estate investors have the risk tolerance to be go-getters and try out their ideas.
Except sometimes, those brilliant ideas can just be major distractions.
Distractions are all around us, every day. Social media, emails, phone calls and impromptu meetings are just a few things that may easily distract us. They divert our focus, and many times, it’s a distraction that isn’t making you money or improving your business.
With information at our fingertips, it’s incredibly easy to switch over and check your feed on social media. While a lot of real estate investors build relationships, post deals and talk with other investors on social media, it’s easy to get sucked in for longer than needed. Add in the time it takes for you to return your focus to your original task, and a good chunk of time can be wasted.
Phone calls and emails are typically work-related, so some may not consider them distractions. But while they are work-related, they still take your focus away and can derail your day quite easily.
Know what you want your focus to be on in the business and what goals you have, and set up tasks in order to achieve those goals. Dedicate a certain amount of time to these goals, but also allow yourself time for business growth. This is a time when you can think through new project ideas and build your relationships with other investors and service providers.
By doing this, you can block your time so that you’re focusing on actions that will help you achieve your goals in business, and you can also work on limiting distractions during these time periods. Constant connection can be a hard habit to break, but only checking emails or social media at certain times of the day will open up your day to become more efficient and focused.
With real estate investing, we sometimes work in multiple areas of the business while the business is young. Defining who “owns” which tasks will help avoid unnecessary distractions. Task-managing tools like Asana and Trello are great for creating templates for your investment deals and other business-related tasks, allowing you to choose who’s responsible for completing the tasks.
If there are just two of you in the business, stay in your own lane and focus on what you need to do for the business to thrive. If you’re busy micromanaging the other person on your team, your energy and focus aren’t where they need to be, and your business can suffer.
With small businesses, you can’t afford distractions. Distractions could mean you lose out on a deal that was going to net you thousands of dollars.
Build out your day and week so that everything in the business is handled during certain times, you have time to work on other miscellaneous tasks and you can keep family time in mind as well. So many of us are on-call 24/7 that time at home is mixed with work. While sometimes this is necessary, try to have downtime that’s purely for spending with friends and family.
It’s all about balance.
Minimize your distractions and optimize your time, and your business and home life can both flourish.
As published on Forbes.com
