Are there actually studies on stuff like this? Yup.
There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence that some of the things real estate agents are guilty of doing, or not doing, during the course of the day is not only a waste of precious time, but keeps them from being truly productive.
For instance, do you take a nap every day? They’re not just for toddlers, you know. Would you say that John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison and Leonardo da Vinci were productive?
They were all nappers.
In fact, da Vinci slept fewer hours at night and took several naps every day.
We took a look at some of the studies on productivity and the habits successful people developed to help them use their time more effectively. Some of them are surprising.
The key to success is not working hard. It’s working smart
Nobody seems to know who coined that phrase and, to be perfectly honest, it’s a bit trite. That doesn’t make it any less true, however.
Think about other real estate agents. There are the workaholics, who pound the pavement, pick up the phone and knock on doors relentlessly. Their families don’t recognize them when they finally lay eyes on them but, gosh darn it, they’re in pursuit of success.
Then consider other agents you may know. These are the ones who understand the value of delegation, who hire help and build a team of other agents and admin help.
Both types of agents have the same goal—to drum up real estate business. Yet, the latter spends vastly fewer hours of the day doing so.
“There’s a notable distinction between being busy and being productive,” according to CamMi Pham, partner at ThinkRenegade.com, an ecommerce marketing agency (medium.com).
“Being busy doesn’t always necessarily mean you’re being productive,” she concludes.
Her suggested cure for the busyness malady?
1. Stop working overtime
“Spending too much time on the job is a drag on productivity,” according to Noah Smith at Bloomberg.com.
He gives several examples to back up this claim but we like this one the best:
In 2008, Microsoft in Japan gave its employees “five consecutive three-day weekends.” The “… sales per employee,” according to Smith, “soared by 40% from the previous year.”
As an added bonus, the corporation was able to save on power bills and “paper-copying costs.”
We reached back to a 1980 study for further proof that working overtime actually makes one less productive.
The Business Roundtable analyzed “… the impact of scheduled overtime operation on construction projects…” and found that when employees worked 60 or more hours per week during a period that lasted more than “about two months,” there was a notable decline in productivity.
The analysts cautioned that “… the cumulative effect of decreased productivity will cause a delay in the completion date beyond that which could have been realized with the same crew size on a 40-hour week.”
Why is this, we wondered.
In the case of the construction project analysis, the answers were easy to ascertain:
- The rate of absenteeism increased the longer the hours worked.
- The rate of injuries increased as well.
- When employees worked more than 8 hours per day and 48 a week, it took 3 hours to produce what should take only 2 hours.
“Long hours cause fatigue, both physical and mental,” Smith said. “Eventually the worker starts making little errors, slowing down and failing to take initiative to fix problems and exploit new opportunities.”
The cure?
A study published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that “Moderate sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication.”
Work fewer hours and get more sleep if you hope to raise your productivity level. Here are some tips to help you focus on you.
2. Quit focusing on the wrong stuff
Which tasks that you perform in your work day produce the best results? Make a list. Those should be your focus and the rest should either be trashed or handed off to someone else.
They simply aren’t worth your time and doing them makes you less productive.
If you need help figuring out what to keep and what goes, “Consider tracking everything you do, and the time it takes to complete each task, and the results,” Pham suggests.
“Then go back, assess your list to see what did (or didn’t) prove fruitful, and take your findings into consideration to optimize for future tasks.”
3. Stop chaining yourself to the desk
If you were an employee, your boss would be legally required to allow you a certain number of breaks during the day.
So, why don’t you allow yourself the same?
Research proves that those who take a break, especially if they get outside in nature, are more productive when they return to work than those who don’t take breaks or remain indoors when they do take a break.
Schedule a break or two each day, eat your lunch at the park or take a brisk walk in your favorite part of town.
Becoming more productive in your real estate business begins by breaking bad habits and replacing them with better ones. If you start now, 2021 will be one kick hiney year!