How to Prioritize Tasks
What you prioritize is what you get – and what you become. Consider this sentence:
“There aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do.”
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What is the most important word in that sentence? Is it…
- Enough?
- Aren’t?
- Everything?
No, the keyword there is “Need.” So… what do you need to do? Actually consider that. Do you need to do a specific task? Or do you need to accomplish a higher objective? And if so, are there other tasks you could cut or replace to aid you in accomplishing this objective?
The fact is, there are enough hours in the day to be successful at whatever you want to be successful at. If there weren’t, no one would ever become successful. The ones who do become successful are the ones who practice time management and prioritize, and not just on a basic level…
They prioritize until it’s painful. (Yes, until it feels like burning away pieces of yourself.)
It takes bravery to prioritize like that. But it’s what today’s market demands. In this blog, I’ll help you do it. We’re talking about your most important priorities and how to prioritize tasks. Let’s jump to it.
Priority No. 1: Put It in Your Schedule
If it’s not in your schedule, it doesn’t exist. Repeat that 50 times until it sticks.
You’re reading this blog right now, which is a good thing (I would never argue against that). But is it in your schedule to be doing this? It should be, because it expands your mind and opens up new possibilities – that’s a priority. So, put it in your schedule.
Start by reading this blog I wrote on time blocking. Then do it. Once you’re doing it, write down every single thing you did that day and cross-reference it with what was in your schedule. See any time-killers?
Priority No. 2: Focus on Appointments
Appointments are the currency of today. Your money begins with appointments. So that’s what you need to be prioritizing. Everything else can be delegated.
Now note that priorities are about your objectives and the actions needed to achieve them. Appointments are the objective. So, what’s the action that gets you there?…
Priority No. 3: Make Your Calls
You knew this was coming. Of course making your calls is the answer to getting more appointments.
I could talk forever about why it’s so important, but you already know all that. Either you’re going to do it or not.
If you need help, that’s what we do.
Priority No. 4: Run Plays that Work
As a part of this year’s 20th anniversary Success Summit, we interviewed over 70 of our most successful coaching clients about the plays they’re running that work for various different lead gen pillars, sales techniques, and business systems.
We took all of their strategies, broke them down into step-by-step case studies, and we’re giving away 12 of these Ultimate Real Estate Playbooks at Summit.
These are plays that WORK, and they’re repeatable and easy to rip-off and duplicate. And the reason they’re all those things is because they’ve been tested and refined over and over. Anything that doesn’t work has been cut out.
So, what are you doing that needs to be cut out?
Priority No. 5: Work Accountability into Your Schedule
Going back to those Playbooks, when we were doing the interviews, do you know what the hands-down, No. 1 most common answer was when we asked the agents what had made the greatest difference in their businesses?
Accountability.
Far and away, this was the answer. Maybe there’s something to it…
If you want to learn more, it starts here.
Priority No. 6: Get Eight Hours of Sleep
Remember when I said that you do have enough hours in the day in the day?
Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said this about it:
“I get eight hours of sleep a night. I prioritize it. For me, I need eight hours of sleep. I think better. I have more energy… As a Senior Executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions. If I make like three good decisions a day, that’s enough.”
He prioritizes sleep because it makes the hours that he does have much more useful. This means that sleep isn’t something that you do outside of your schedule – it should be a PART of your schedule.
Too Many Priorities? Try THIS…
If you find yourself saying, “But Tom, I have too many ideas and initiatives I need to start now,” then I’ve got the perfect solution for you.
It’s called a Do/Doing/Done board to help keep your priorities straight.
Get to work on your most urgent priorities and put them in the “Doing” column. There should be no more than two or three projects in this column at a time, or else you’ll just be spinning your wheels.
Next, fill the “Do” column with future ideas and initiatives that would overwhelm you if you tried to launch them now. So they’re basically waiting in line in that “Do” column until there’s room.
And how does that room get created? When an item in the “Doing” column is fully implemented and/or automated to the point you can finally move it to the “Done” column. And that “Done” column is a great way to track all the projects and initiatives you’ve launched over the course of time.
Where to Refine Your Priorities
The majority of your priorities will be the work that you do in your business. Until you scale large enough and are running a big team, that’s just a fact.
But if you want to actually implement any of what I said above, find the plays that work, create that perfect schedule, trim the fat in your business, and actually begin to scale to where you want, then you NEED to take the time to work ON your business.
We’ve helped scale the businesses of tens of thousands of real estate agents.
When you start with a free real estate coaching consultation, chances are we can help scale yours as well. Schedule yours today!
