Time Management for Real Estate Investors

Time and again I see people all around me NOT using every minute of every day to be productive...but have fun, too.

One of my mentors has this militant thing going with his time management. He's "right-on" when it comes to about 88% of what he talks about. The other 12% is pure crap.

Part of the reason I disagree on that 12% (then I will let it go) is that he has no life outside of his work, job, profession, career, whatever label you want to give it. His life consists of a wife, dog and, now, grown step-child.

His day is NOT interrupted with text msgs, or txt pics from his wife with the cute little baby doing cute little things (like mine is and I wouldn't have it any other way), nor is it interrupted, likely, with emergency trips to the hospital because junior stuffed a peanut up into his nose. And, then, there's sports, after-school activities, karate (for YOU and the kids), in-laws, out-laws and trying to keep up with all the crap some regulatory body is throwing at you (here's one: Jerry, you've got to install an amalgam separator in the lab - the state requires it! What? huh? How am I supposed to keep up on THAT crap, too?).

But, I guess, like anything, I CHOSE my life and frankly, the constant "life-management" challenges that go with it.

So, maybe, then, the idea of Time Management is just crap. Life Management is more like it.

Crisis happens every day, or so it seems. Can't choose to not deal with those. (Here's how my mentor handles those: he isolates himself - and yeah, it can work, for a while.)

Enough crap - this is about life management so let me save you some time and get to some key concepts I use and you might find useful as well:

1) block out time (got this one from my mentor). For example, tomorrow morning, from 8:30 until 10:30, I will be at my office, but the door to my office suite will be locked and I won't respond to knocking, etc. I will be working on a draft for the Raw Land Hands-on Workshop coming up in May. It'll be a substantial amount of work preparing that info and from it will be created the promotion info. Then, from 10:30 until 10:45, draft email replies to various folks on various projects, including the new 65 acre project - will be making contact with a county land planner and get some feedback on ideas we have via phone. The rest of my day, INCLUDING lunch is blocked in similar manners. I leave at 3PM to go get my oldest from school to haul her to b-ball practice. From there, home, let the kids beat on me (I even make time for this - it's a routine of course, but, it's BLOCKED in my head and no interruptions permitted, not even phone calls from my parents!), eat dinner, maybe go to karate, depending on the evening of the week, get kids ready for bed, then head to my office to write and catch up what didn't get done during the day.

2) LIMIT and frankly PROHIBIT drop-bys at my office. I keep an office for my convenience, no one else's. I rarely get an appt to my office and when I do, it's based on my convenience.

3) The only incoming phone line in my office suite is my cell phone. Not many folks that call get an answer. Just my wife, and sometimes, not even her. Again, phone is for my convenience, not others'. Oh, my wife will text or call twice if it's an emergency or just leave a msg. Hey, what did we do before cell phones anyway? If you're operating on a pt, you don't get up to answer the phone. Why is THAT more impt than what I am working on? It AIN'T (granted, I'm not surgeon, but, I am saving my OWN life by not going crazy always answering the phone when it rings!)

4) If I am BUYING something, I expect to get waited on. Let me put that in context so I don't get hate mail. (BTW, some jerk sent me an email today calling me a "fraud." Guess that means students from my 3 boot camps that are pulling down tens of thousands a month from real estate investing are frauds, too. Poor sap doesn't get it. He thinks money just automatically deposits itself into his bank account. People like that drive me craaaazy. Blaming ME for their inability to get it done. The nerve. His parents must've fed him with a silver spoon and he's probably allergic to real work.) When I am using my money to get something in exchange - a car, a house, an investment property, whatever, then I expect the seller to help me get it done. He who has the Gold makes the rules. Period. If I don't get the cooperation I need to get things done based on my schedule, I, as Ron LeGrand(R) would say, WHACK 'EM. I don't have time for people that want me to work too hard to buy something from them.

5) "Out of all the crap that I need to get to today, what will PUT MONEY in the bank the quickest and with the least amount of time and money investment." That, everyday, is the question I ask myself and that, right there, determines the order in which tasks get done. Actually, two things: a) i ask myself this the night before, and b) i am also careful to ask, following that initial question, "What do I need to do today to AVOID costing myself unnecessary stress, irritability, and/or MONEY?" Those tasks follow closely thereafter.

OK, enough for today. I'll post more on Time Management (LIFE MANAGEMENT) tips for us investors later. The NEXT tips will be related SPECIFICALLY to real estate, commercial mostly!

Adios.

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