8 Ways to Stay Ahead of the Curve

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Learn to gain control over your time while getting the job done.

As a broker and property manager, there doesn’t seem to be a quiet moment around the office for you. You are always hearing,” You have a minute?”, or solving inner office conflicts with the employees. Most managers find that their schedules control them instead of the other way around. For them, it results in late hours at the office, discord at home, stress and other problems.

Those who have the most difficulty handling their time are those who try to take everything on themselves. The main key here, that any successful manager will tell you, is it’s all in how you manage yourself. If you can manager yourself, you will start seeing results in control, time, tasks, and employees. Here are 8 Ways to Stay Ahead of the Curve.

  1. Create office systems: Create a system that can help your team work better and more efficiently. By having a checklist, for example, is a small way to start setting up a system so everyone knows what needs to get done and who does it.
  2. Use time blocking: Make appointments for things you need to get done. No matter how small or insignificant it may be. Having time set aside to do it will enable you to get it done. This also works with family time – just set aside 2 hours a day, every other day, and you will become more efficient with managing your time appropriately.
  3. Create resources that answer questions: having a binder of frequently asked questions will help your sales team with their questions. It helps people know that there are other resources, other than you, to help answer their questions. Sometimes they can find answers to their questions faster then if they were waiting on you.
  4. Texting: Have your employees text you a question instead of waiting for you to get to the office. This saves office time for you and gets them the answer they need while out on the job. You can also utilize email and voicemail to rely messages and to let employees know you are out of commission for a certain amount of time. Most of the time, your employees will figure the answer out by themselves if they are left to their own devises.
  5. Allow your associates to solve their own problems: Every manager wants to be a good manager and sometimes they feel the need to solve every problem their associate puts in front of them. But what most managers fail to realize is that you need to train your associates to trust their instinct and to utilize other resources to answer questions.
  6. Have backup: When you are out of the office, make sure to have a trusted employee to oversee operations while you are recouping. You want to make sure you put in charge someone who likes to be involved and are respected by others.
  7. Schedule time to think: No, seriously. Some of the greatest thinkers know that having a time set to think is the best thing you can do for yourself. It doesn’t have to be for 5 hours or even 2 hours. As long as you set aside at least an hour to go over new ideas, and to analyze old ideas, you will thank yourself.
  8. Commit to your personal time: Don’t become so busy taking care of business that you don’t have time to take care of yourself. You may have to force yourself to leave your cell phone behind, or to be home by 5:30. You can do a lot of damage if you do not take care of yourself.