We’ve all been there: the workday starts with the best of intentions but quickly gets derailed by organised chaos.
And it’s those little things that can send you off course — the lengthier-than-expected meeting in the office, the “quick check” of social media that sees you descend down a rabbit hole of idle scrolling.
By 6pm, you’re looking back and thinking, “What exactly did I achieve?” and “Am I any closer to where I want to be?”
There’s no denying that in real estate or any industry, there are some days that will be less productive than others.
After all, things pop up, circumstances change, and there will be times when you need to direct your attention to what’s happening in this moment rather than the task you had planned.
But to ensure long-term productivity and sustained focus, you need to maintain conscious “attention to the intention”. It’s about knowing the “why” behind the tasks that you need to do regularly and how they help shape a successful real estate career.
The trouble with organised chaos
It’s easy to allow the day to control our daily activities. We can simply go with the flow of whatever comes our way, and work within a framework of “organised chaos.”
For some, that may work, but for most, it does not. It sees us focusing on what’s in front of us, rather than what really needs to be done. Our efforts, activities and their impact are diluted.
To have a productive day, we need to have “attention to the intention”. We need to be present and aware of why and what we are trying to achieve.
Once you know the intention, you can create the outcome. So, let’s look at some examples and how they apply to your day.
Intentional habits
Ask any successful agent, and one element that underpins their success is their database. They build it, maintain it, and work it.
The why or intention behind your database is simple, although the tasks involved can feel mundane.
A database is the community of people you connect with. They are the sellers of the future, and the buyers you match with a sale.
Every name you add to that list is a potential lead that feeds into the two fundamental tasks of real estate:
- Making calls so that you can get face-to-face with people.
- Getting face-to-face with people to secure a listing or sale.
Any other activity in real estate flows from these two ingredients. But having a database is not just a case of “build it and they will come”. It involves staying connected with people on that list and this activity occurs on a daily basis.
Connecting with intention
Staying connected with qualified contacts in your database revolves around the intention of building awareness.
It’s designed to ensure that should someone need an agent now or in the future, you are among the first to come to mind, if not the only agent on their list.
Of course, there are multiple ways to maintain this contact, including regularly written communication such as market updates and phone calls, texts or emails to inform someone that a property in their street recently sold.
But let’s take just one simple example: “anniversary call sessions”, which you schedule into your diary with the intention of building that awareness.
At the beginning of each month, print out your contact list and work through it. If you have 1,000 clean contacts in your database, that’s approximately 85 contacts that may have an anniversary this month.
To get through 85 calls or personalised text messages, it would take approximately three to four hours in one month. It’s a simple yet extremely effective strategy that needn’t be overcomplicated.
It doesn’t matter what day the anniversary falls on. The whole month offers the opportunity to mark that anniversary and connect. Then don’t forget to send the “just a note to say” follow-up card.
Your time is extremely valuable. Avoid the “organised chaos” most days manifest into. Apply the “attention to the intention” and know why you need to do certain tasks at certain times.
Manos Findikakis is the CEO of Agents’Agency