It’s crazy how quickly our days can get derailed. Distractions like social media, phone calls, emails, etc are around us all day, every day, and they’re efficiency killers.
It’s so easy to spend 5-10 minutes here and there on social media and before you know it, you’re wasting over an hour of your time that could have been spent on your business or with family.
We all do it these days. Information is at our fingertips and most of us don’t even realize how much time we’re spending on efficiency killers.
Before we go on, a good portion of your phone calls, emails, and even social media can in fact be business-related. These are “good” distractions that we’ll discuss a bit later. However, you finding out that your high school bestie is having dinner with her new husband might be a “bad” distraction that we’ll also be discussing.
Now, everyone needs their downtime. This might be watching TV, scrolling through social media, unwinding with friends and family, etc. It’s good to have a balance here because otherwise, we’re going to run ourselves into the ground. Designating when you’re going to have this downtime can be helpful if you find yourself distracted often.
This might be from Friday at 6 pm until Monday morning. This downtime could be each night after dinner. Whatever works for you.
It’s also a good time to delegate what hours you’re going to be focused on work. With real estate investing, we rarely work the traditional 8 am-5 pm so again, think about when you’re most focused on work and how much time you need to dedicate to your business.
Once you have this framework in your mind, go through a week and write down your day.
- How much time are you in your car?
- How much time are you on the phone?
- How much time are you working through emails?
- How much time are you spending in the day-to-day of the business?
- How much time are you focusing on growth for your business?
- How much time are you spending on social media, random websites, and “off-task”?
- How much time are you focused on other areas of the business that don’t help you achieve your goals?
Again, we all need breaks throughout the day and there is a time for everything. What’s important though is to look at if you have habits that are causing you to be derailed from your goals.
Many entrepreneurs try to do too many things at once. They have new ideas and have the drive and risk-tolerance to go for it, without realizing how it might impact other areas of their business.
Analyze your day a few times and be honest with yourself on how you can become more efficient with your time so you can achieve your goal quicker.
Once you realize what habits you should modify, start small with your adjustments so that they become true new habits that you do without thinking.
Stay focused when it comes to your goals and celebrate your milestones.
