Why Doing Less Can Help Loan Officers Achieve More

Loan officers want to push themselves—they want to expand their business, grow in their careers, and reach new levels of success. It’s a certainty that an investment of time, energy, and hard work will help you get there. But occasionally, loan officers fall out of balance and put too much into their work. For highly driven professionals with ambitious goals and strong determination, sometimes doing a little less can be more beneficial than taking on more. Here are few reasons why:

Get Rid of Busy

When we constantly push ourselves to the max, adding more to our plates, and packing our schedules every day, we often find themselves operating at a frantic pace. When you’ve reached that point, it’s almost always a red flag. Constantly working in a rushed mode isn’t efficient. Granted, you want to be speedy and move through your days productively, but when you’re always in overdrive, your productivity tends to take a hit. Loan officers need to find their edge here — the point before feeling frantic and busy where you can work efficiently at your peak. If you’re already functioning in a hectic state on a regular basis, it might be time to evaluate if there’s something you can take off your list. Automation and delegation can often help immensely.

Find Time to Recharge

Another reason why doing less can increase loan officers’ success is because it frees up time to recharge. When your day is completely full, you don’t have space for your body and mind to recharge. We all know how it feels to be working on something when we’re exhausted. Usually, both energy and focus are low. It can take double the time or more to finish a project when we’re like this, as opposed to when we’re working at our best. You’re setting yourself up to accomplish more when you take time to decompress.

Maintain Top Performance

Our performance is something else that suffers when we do too much. Packing more onto your to-do list isn’t worth it if it’s causing a reduction in quality. When we ask ourselves to do too much, it’s understandable that we often find ourselves rushing or working through exhaustion. Neither of these modes supports high-quality work. Find the equilibrium where your plate is full and you’re still able to give every task your best.

Do a Better Job of Prioritizing

We might think that we’re edging closer to success by saying yes to everything and always taking on more work. But often, it’s a sign that we don’t know how to prioritize. Learning to prioritize is a valuable skill that takes practice to master. When we’re taking on more and more, we usually aren’t seeing the bigger picture. Instead, take a step back and look at the top 3 or 5 things you want to accomplish today. If you start there and block out the time you’ll need to complete them in your schedule, you can start filling in the gaps with other work. Some items might not make the cut, but if you’ve done a good job of prioritizing, that won’t interfere with your success.

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There will never be a substitute for hard work and dedication. We all need to remind ourselves that doing too much can backfire. The key here is to find the balance— and that balance looks different for each of us.

If you’d like to discuss any of these ideas, or you need help developing a strategy to implement them, please get in touch. I’m always happy to set aside time to connect.