Time Blocking: The Perfect Day for a Real Estate Agent

As a real estate agent, how do we develop the perfect schedule? We use time blocking. When I say perfect schedule for a real estate agent, it's the ideal; every day will not happen like that. However, you want to plan out your day on paper of what it should look like every day. It really shouldn't vary that much. Of course, things will come up. You'll get off track a little bit here and there, but you want to have a blueprint of what a successful day looks like for you. 

Discipline Equals Freedom

Early on in my real estate career, I found out that discipline equals freedom. Discipline equals success. It's counterintuitive. Many real estate agents get into real estate to not have a boss anymore, have autonomy over their schedule, and be able to do what they want.

What happens a lot of the time is that because of those freedoms without discipline, they end up not making any money and going back to what they were doing before. That's not cool.

I'm all about freedom, and I want you to succeed in real estate.

To be a grown person and have to ask somebody when you're going to take time off, or if you can leave early to pick up a sick kid from work. Man, that's like, in my core, it goes against everything I believe.

So I am passionate about this topic, I'm passionate about your freedom, and your freedom starts with discipline. So please, I know this topic isn't the most exciting. You know, time blocking. Who wants to talk about that? But it is what your real estate career will rise and fall on. I promise you that. So let's get into it. 

Focusing on One Activity

So you've decided which lead generation activities you're going to focus on. I'm just going to use my example because my example is what I did to succeed at a high level in this business. So for me, I'll go through my perfect day, and then we'll talk about what yours could look like.

So for me, I decided I neededto have extreme focus on one lead generation activity.

 

It would be best if you had that same focus because the truth is that with one lead generation activity, you can easily sell 24 to 36 houses a year on that one activity before doing anything else. 

So, let's start with that. For me, it was going to be expireds. I said expireds because it was low cost, and it was the fastest way to get listings. I need to make money now. We know with expireds, they were ready to sell because their house just failed to sell. So that's what I picked. 

To develop a sound, ideal schedule for that, I discovered I needed to be working on my skill set. 

Practice Like an Athlete

In real estate, we have the opportunity to earn as much money as a lot of professional athletes. I think the average or the minimum wage for the NFL is, I believe, $250,000 a year, and now it's $400,000.

Either way, you can make that type of wage as a real estate agent. I've done it. But we don't want to practice our skills, and we don't want to practice for the game. What do athletes do? They practice all week long, eight hours a day, whatever it is, I was never a professional athlete, but they practice hard. They study, and they practice, and they study and practice. Then they perform on Sunday, if it's the NFL, for a couple of hours.

They practice all week for that moment, but in real estate, we get some leads, decide we're just going to call them and say whatever comes to mind. That is not the right way to do it. So we need to practice.

7:45 A.M., I was on the phone with a script practice partner, and we would role-play our scripts. We practiced for only 15 minutes. If you want to do 30 minutes, even better, but I did 15 minutes.

So from 7:45 to 8:00, I was role-playing. If you're going to start role-playing, there are a lot of great Facebook groups that you can do it in. You can join my Facebook group, Game Changers Nation. And you can find role-play partners there. 

Role-Playing Format

Consider this format for role-playing. Partner A goes first, and he or she recites their script. You're giving them objections, and they're handling them. You go back and forth, and then you always let them set the appointment because that's how you practice.

You always want to get an appointment, so you're going to practice that way.

However, be tricky, throw some objections, be tough. I real play, so be challenging, but always at the end, give them some positive feedback and some things they can work on. 

Positive feedback, things they did good, something they can work on will help and encourage them. 

 

Alright. So that's 15 minutes. I went, they went. I did that five days a week. Typically, I had two to four different role play partners, but I was doing it five days a week. 8:00 A.M. I was on the phone.

8:00 to 10:00, I was calling outbound expireds. That's it. A text came in, or an email came in; I didn't even know because I wasn't on my phone, I wasn't in my email. I wasn't on my phone because I was using Mojo Dialer. I was connected only to my computer, and my phone was put away or set on airplane mode so I wouldn't be distracted.

You must be so focused on your ideal daily schedule. Seriously, this is no joke.

If a client was calling me, let's say I was on break for a minute because I take 10-minute breaks after a 15-minute call session. If I saw a message pop up, I wouldn't answer it. I can handle that call after my time block because 8:00 to 11:00 is blocked off. 8:00 to 10:00 is strictly outbound calls, and 10:00 to 11:00 is lead follow-up. 

Lead Follow-Up

Typically lead follow-up would be 10:00 to 10:30, and then from 10:30 to 11:00, I would return any incoming calls that may have come in from a prospect during that time. So it was three hours of solid, focused lead generation. When you're focused like that, using the right tools, you should be able to talk to 8 to 10 people an hour. That's pretty good. Then that takes us to 11. 

The Afternoon

11:00 to 12:00, I would reply to emails, texts, etc. If I had clients I needed to call, that's what I would do during that time.

12:00 to 1:00, take lunch. From 12:30 to 1:00, I typically relax, maybe go for a walk, perhaps workout, listen to motivational videos, things like that. Just stuff to give me energy again, keep me motivated.

Then from 1:00 to 3:00, was administration. The administration could be setting out market reports, preparing for appointments in the afternoon, or whatever it might be.

From 3:00 to 6:00, that was time for listing appointments. I would prospect more if I didn't have any listing appointments and were behind on my goals. 

8 Hours a Week

So the year when I sold 36 houses, I went back to my Mojo stats at the end of the year, and I averaged eight hours a week of outbound prospecting. Eight hours a week, that's not bad. You hear a lot of people coaching four to six hours a day.

As a new agent, if you have nothing else to do, yeah, you should be doing that. Still, seriously on a focused two hours a day, eight hours a week, of just outbound calls, you can make some high income and have an excellent quality of life.

That's why working sellers is my preference and what I recommend because it offers so much more leverage. 

Family Time

After 6:00, I'd be at home with my family. My wife and my dogs. But it doesn't take a lot of time on nights and weekends when you're working listings, so that was my ideal schedule. Yeah, sometimes a listing appointment went over, maybe to 7:00 P.M., but that was rare, like Saturday morning, Sunday, I didn't work. It was my time off. 

Control Your Time

Offers waited 'til Monday. That's the type of lifestyle, the kind of business you can run when you control your time.

The person who puts the highest value on their time and ultimately makes it a priority is in control of their time. They own their schedule, and they're the one that gets their way in situations.

 

If a seller asks, "Hey, can you come out on Saturday?"

You answer, "You know, I can't make it this Saturday. How does Monday work? Does 4:00 or 6:00 P.M. work better?" 

Examples and Strategies

I'm going to go ahead and share a couple of examples of what that might look like real quick. So, for a buyer's agent, if that's what you're going to focus on, it should still occur in the morning.

I highly recommend you always do lead generation in the morning, when your energy's the highest. Your day will get away from you if you wait 'till the afternoon.

 

First thing in the morning, do your lead generation, whether you're focused on buyers or sellers. Then, if you're focused on buyers, the reality is you're probably going to be showing them on some weekends and some nights.

So maybe Mondays are blocked off for family, and you're working every Saturday. Or perhaps evenings are for showings, so the first two hours in the morning, you're hanging out with your kids, and your lead generation starts at 10:00.

There's some flexibility in there, but the homework for you is to go ahead and write your ideal schedule. 

 

Again, I'll mention, if you need role-play partners, add that to your schedule. Go to my Facebook group, Game Changers Nation. You're going to keep growing and getting better. Let's get it.