Time Management Tip #2 - The Power of the Ritual

So you want to be your own boss? Work from home. Pick your hours. Decide what to do and what not to do. What to wear -- what not to wear. You get to choose from SO many options -- things you never really gave much thought to before. If you worked at a J.O.B., you probably had some kind of set routine. You'd get up, get showered, get some breakfast, maybe pack a lunch. What your wore was pretty much dictated by what kind of work you did. You were expected to be at your duty station at a certain time, do certain things, accomplish stuff. Then, when your day was done, you'd leave your place of employment -- and all that went with it-- come home and do whatever you do at home.

Well, that's about to all change. Being a property scout is a very cool assignment no doubt. The best part about it is the flexibility you have to do what you want, when you want to do it. However, you still need to get real work done sometime during the day. You still need to find the properties, gather the information, sort, sift, compare, analyze, talk to brokers, hunt, hunt, hunt. Gather, gather, gather. Its a great living -- but it doesn't do it itself!

When I first started in this business, I had been working for myself for quite awhile, and I had gotten in to a routine that assured I got my work done. I made headway each day -- well, most days. But when I started doing the Property Scouting work, I found that I wasn't as disciplined as I needed to be. I'd play more than I worked, and even though I was submitting properties, I wasn't submitting as many as I needed and they weren't as high a quality as needed to attract the eye of the investors.

I almost lost sight of the fact, that by not doing this work, and by not focusing on the highest quality, I hurt one person. ME! So, I decided I would commit a set amount of time each week to hunt, to gather, to analyze. At first I said OK -- 10 hours per week. I can do this. And I did -- all on Saturday afternoon -- rushing to get it done -- by the end of the day, I'd lost focus. I had to work hard to find the right routine -- the right ritual, if you will to be successful.

The ritual that worked best for me was to get out of bed before anyone else, get some coffee and spend an hour planning my day. I checked the internet for new properties, or properties I'd seen before that I wanted to follow up on. By the time the rest of the household got started, I knew exactly how I was going to spend two other hours during the day. For me those two fit in right after lunch. I had another business at the time, and needed to focus on that during the normal business hours in the morning. By the end of the day, I'd made great headway -- at Property Scouting and at my "real" work.

Now my real work is all about Property Scouting and my ritual still consists of getting out of bed, getting my coffee and getting to work. I work for an hour before anyone else gets up. I've got my plan, I still work it. I get much done! I rarely spend 10 hours a week doing this -- don't really need to. Now I just want to.

Get a ritual. Follow it. Make money! Cool!

If you're waiting to get started, go to www.propertyscoutcash.com

To your AWESOME success!

Maggie
www.nacreps.org