Get Out Of A Rut In 2019 By Changing Your Routine

One of the truly great aspects of investing in real estate is that you are in control of your destiny. You can drive your business wherever you think is best without any strings attached or outside interference. When things are running well, real estate is the greatest business you can be in. However, even the best investors go through lulls and gaps between deals. It is what you do in those periods that often define your business.

Instead of making wholesale changes in how you run your business you should start by examining your daily routine. As creatures of habit your routines often influence your actions. Good habits will make you more productive and help you get out ruts much quicker. On the flip side poor habits can leave you in a bad cycle that is difficult to get out of. Here are five tips to help change your daily routine.

1. Examine your morning routine. What you do in your first three hours of awake time can often set the tone for the rest of the day. As an investor there is nobody telling you what time you need to be in the office. As great as scheduling flexibility is, it can also be to your detriment. When you don’t have much going on, it is easy to coast through your morning. 7AM quickly becomes 8 and the next thing you know it’s mid-morning. Without a definite plan of attack, it is easy to get distracted, and ultimately unproductive. Before going to bed you should map out what you are going to do as soon as you wake up. By hitting the ground running you will knock off items on your list that normally wouldn’t have. If you do this for a week you will see a dramatic increase in production that will eventually lead to more business.
2. Allocate your time to what is important. A simple question to ask when things are slow is “how am I spending my time.” You control what you do with every waking hour. What makes real estate so great, is that you can often work your way out of any ruts. Instead of wasting time on outdated or unproductive tasks you can change how your time is spent. An eye-opening exercise is writing down what you do with your time. At the end of the day you will look back and realize that you probably wasted at least half you day. If you simply picked up the phone and reached out to more people or looked through previous contacts, you will find there is business to be had. You don’t need to work without a break for ten hours to have success. By allocating your time properly you can get more done working less hours, with the right focus. You can extend your morning routine to the rest of your day. Map out a plan of attack from 7AM to 7 PM. Hold yourself accountable to your plan and put the work in regardless of what distractions you have going on.
3. Educate yourself daily. It is essential that you do something everyday to improve your education. The real estate investing business is constantly evolving. Something you were certain about a few months ago may no longer be the case. You need to carve out 45 minutes every day to improve your education. This could be anything from reading a blog post to talking to a local real estate agent, mortgage broker or attorney. It could be going to town hall or attending a local seminar. Spending just a little time on education may open your eyes to a part of the business you may not have previously thought about. It can help you secure a deal in a niche or an area that you normally wouldn’t have. At a minimum, you will learn about something that you can store and hopefully use at some point down the road.
4. Avoid negative people. Negative people have a way of bringing other people down with them. If you are around negative people long enough eventually you will start to think like them. You won’t be as motivated to act because you keep hearing that you probably won’t get the deal anyway. You won’t look for deals in certain areas and you will avoid working with certain people. If you do anything else in your business, you need to make it a point to stay away from negative people. Negative people will sink your business faster than anything individually you can do. Surround yourself with positive people who have an optimistic view of things. They will push you to do better and work harder. Instead of complaining they will work to help you find solutions. Negative people lead to negative results.
5. Make 1 new contact/lead every week. Getting out of a rut will not happen overnight. Much like dieting, slow progress is usually best. Instead of expecting wholesale changes virtually overnight you need to make steady, incremental progress. A realistic goal should be to add one new contact or get one new lead every week. This means spending time every day to make sure this happens. Talk to local wholesalers, attorneys, mortgage brokers and fellow investors and set up an appointment. This may put you out of your comfort zone, but without it nothing positive will happen to your business.

Don’t wait for a holiday or a Monday to change your daily routine. If you don’t like where your business is at, or where it may be headed, start a new routine tomorrow.