Floyd says, "Time is the only true common denominator."

We all get the same 168 hours a week. No matter who you are or what field you work in . . . we are given 24 hours every day. "Do with it what you will." Time is not reversible. It's not replaceable. It can't be saved. (Go ahead, put 9-11AM in your briefcase and try to use it next week instead.) Time can, however, be invested. Thinking of time that way, you can measure your return on investment.

So, how do I get the highest return on my time invested?

Floyd says, “There's nothing special about special people. It's what they do (with their time) that makes them special."

And what exactly do those 'special people' do with their time? They work high priority activities. Consistently.

Just like everyone else, they compile a TO DO list, but they don't stop there. They look at the list and THINK. What are the most important tasks I could do today to get me closer to my goals? Then they write down their Top 5 highest priority activities and work on them, and only them, until they are done with them.

Until. That's the magic word. If you are thinking, well that's kind of selfish. What if somebody needs my help? Do I tell them they have to wait until I finish my Top 5?

Yes. There's no such thing as a real estate emergency. 

If you've been on an airplane and listened to the flight attendant's safety announcements, you've heard . . . "In the event of a loss in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop down from the ceiling in front of you. Put your own mask on first before assisting other passengers." Until you get you on track, you can't really help anyone else. Take care of you first and then you can actually help more people.

Yeah, but, what if I can't figure out my Top 5? What steps will lead me closer to my goals?  Begin by using a scale of 1 through 5 to rate the importance of one activity over another. Or A, B and C. Those are good methods to simplify the 'weeding out' process from TO DO list to Top 5 Things to Do Today list.

Floyd also gave us a formula for managing time one week at a time. This formula is a psychological recipe for how to have a productive week.

"Get up Monday and go to work. Don't stay mad at whatever happened on Sunday, and don't worry about whatever might happen on Tuesday. Just work on your goals all day Monday. Then go home and go to bed. When and if you wake up Tuesday, don't stay mad at Monday and don't worry about Wednesday, etc."

You may have seen agents fuming over what happened yesterday. Buyers didn't show up. Appraisal came in low. Deal fell apart. How productive and focused are they while steaming about something over and done with?

Or you may have seen agents paralyzed with fear over what might happen tomorrow. The conversation might go something like this.

Hey, man, what's the matter? 

I'm scared.

About what?

Tomorrow.

What's going to happen tomorrow?

I don't know. That's what I'm scared about.

You want to be successful? Do what special people do. Work high priority activities. Write out your Top 5 Things To Do each day. You will get more done, and you will be amazed at how easy it can be to be special.

Another area of your business that you’re probably spending way too much time dealing with, is email and transaction update calls. Every minute you spend on email / updating clients is time you could spend driving new business. Here’s how you can free up 5+ hours per week.

Everybody hates email. But, you’re an agent, so your clients are going to email you. A lot. And they’ll call you asking for updates about their transaction. A lot. It’s just the way things work, and there’s little you can do about it if you want your clients to have a great experience, right?

Wrong. In The Floyd Wickman Program, we teach you time-saving techniques to get you focusing more on high value business growth activities. So, we’ve been taking a look at tools that plug into your existing workflow (so you don’t have to learn a bunch of new tools) to save you time and streamline your work.

Enter Folio: the email assistant for busy agents that plugs into your Gmail or Outlook.com inbox. It instantly gets to work organizing emails, documents, files, and timelines by transaction. Below is a 30s video of how it works. 

https://youtu.be/S5M7wuTNUA0

It uses AI to detect when you have a transaction, which emails belong to it, and allows you to add and edit quick transaction timelines to keep everyone on track (read: fewer frantic client phone calls). All your attachments get organized and are at your fingertips, key dates sync with your calendar, and everybody is in the loop, so you don’t have to send the same update multiple times.

Over 70,000 agents use Folio already, and we’ve negotiated a special discount for you for their paid plans. There’s a free trial, so give it a shot and let us know what you think. We only endorse products and companies that align with our Core Values and ones that we believe will truly bring value to you and your business. If you want to subscribe to their annual or monthly Pro plan, use the coupon code FLOYD to get a 20% discount.