This is a continuation of last month’s post on procrastination. In that article, I went over the habits and attitudes that can result to procrastination so one can be aware if they are falling into that trap. Those habits are Confusion, Intellectualizing, Never Finishing a Task, Forgetfulness, and Putting Things Off to Protect Yourself From Risk.
The attitudes that often result to procrastination are Anxiety, Desire for perfection, Dependability on others, Manipulation of others, Boredom, and Depression. You can read more about the descriptions in my last article.
This article will focus on what we need to do in order to stop procrastination from even happening. It all starts with your attitude. We need to analyze why we are putting off a project. We need to conquer our fears by facing them.
Many times, I tell my students to ask themselves this question, “If I do this, will it kill me?”. If the answer is no, then do it!
Most of the time, it’s the idea of fear that holds you back from doing something. You can write down some reasons why you are doing what you are supposed to do so you can gain some objectivity. Then, make the decision and commitment to finish it.
Now you start changing your habits. It is a good idea to see whatever we want our goals as a project that needs to be done.
The first thing you need to do is to study the task at hand. Second, subdivide it into categories. Third, organize and prioritize it. Fourth, plan the steps. And fifth, start immediately!
If we use this approach in our real estate careers and start implementing systems, we will not fail. Let’s take marketing for properties as an example and make this our project. Obviously, the goal of marketing is so we can get qualified leads, go on appointments, talk to motivated sellers and help solve their problem.
Create a win-win scenario where we get a deal and make a profit while helping the seller out. What should we do first?
The first step is to study the real estate market in our area so we pick the counties, zip codes, towns, or even neighborhoods that we want to focus on. Then, decide what kind of campaign we want to do.
Remember, the marketing wheel has many spindles and you don’t need to do them all. It’s impossible and it will drive you crazy. So, pick a few marketing campaigns and subdivide the components.
Let us pick FSBOs as a campaign or a “project” and then conduct a research on the different websites where we can find potential FSBO leads in our targeted market areas.
We want to make sure we have our criteria lined up so we are not wasting time looking at properties we are not interested in. We need to have a price range, a minimum number of bedrooms or even bathrooms (usually I only do bedrooms) and maybe a specific range of the property’s year built.
Now we are ready to start planning the steps. Let’s schedule it on our calendar. You want to take this project seriously so make sure to carve out time to do this. Once that’s done, let’s get rolling!
We can start by doing research online for an hour or two a few days a week. Then schedule other times or specific days to focus on calling those leads and following up.
Remember, have the mindset that you are doing the sellers a favor by calling them. They are the ones that are advertising their house for sale so if you don’t call, someone else will.
Some other factors you can also consider when you are working on a project are:
1. Delegating responsibility (for our example, you can have a virtual assistant who can make the calls for you); 2. Change your priorities if there is a need to; and 3. Use some tools to help you complete your task.
Some of the tools I use are:
Visualization – I have a dream or a vision board with pictures and quotes in my office.
Affirmations – I usually start my day by giving myself positive affirmations and also rewards myself when a task or a project is completed.
What are some other tools that you can use to help you complete your task? As you can see, it’s up to us whether or not we allow procrastination to take over our lives.
I hope that these articles will serve as a realization of common habits and attitudes that often lead to procrastination. Most importantly, I hope this will give you a few ideas on how to stop the habit of procrastination before it even starts.
To your success,
