The Guide To Less Stress & Less Overwhelm For Solo Real Estate Agents
According to the Institute of Stress, stress costs U.S. $300 Billion every year. Each of us handles stress differently. But inconsistent, unpredictable situations are the common culprits.
And even though the right amount of stress is good for us and for growth. We are designed to only handle stress in small doses. But…
“We are not equipped to handle long-term, chronic stress without ill consequences.” - WebMD
In this Guide To Less Stress & Less Overwhelm for Solo Real Estate Agents, let’s look at why we have more stress than others as, what that stress does to our professional and personal life and how we can prevent that stress moving forward.
WHY SO MUCH STRESS?
According to a ComPsych survey here the 4 Main Causes of Stress…
4 Main Causes of Stress
46% Workload
28% People Issues
20% Juggling Work/Personal Lives
6% Lack of Job Security
By looking through the lens of these four areas let’s lay this over what the life of of typical Solo Agent/Lender/Advisor looks like.
Starting at the bottom and working our way up…
Lack of Job Security
Duh! For a solo-entrepreneur, independent contractor, there is very little job security for us. Every day we don’t find a new client, we’re unemployed.
We live with a lack of Job Security every day. We’re thinking our next closing could be our last closing…
Always questioning… Where is our next closing coming from?
If this survey was to us, I’d bet this number would be even higher.
Do you feel a lack of security where your next lead, appointment, client or closing is coming from?
Juggling Work/Personal Lives
Again, the burden on us operating Solo in the real estate industry makes this even more difficult.
We have to get the kids to school (or on Zoom), take phone calls and respond to emails while keeping the kids fed, safe and entertained, doing laundry, cleaning the houses, grocery shopping, making dinner - but not being home for dinner because we have an appointment.
A nice little three day getaway with the family (or maybe even some friends) - If we’re gutsy enough to leave town, we don’t dare not check our phone - like a nervous tick - every 90 seconds to make sure we’re not missing an email, text or call.
Do you struggle to balance work and personal life?
People Issues
Between leads who don’t respond, or ghost us, clients who are difficult and vendors who over promise and under deliver…
Dealing with rude or inconsiderate people certainly adds stress.
It’s a relief when we get to deal with enjoyable people and clients.
But life and business shouldn’t be that way…
Waiting and hoping people aren’t horrible.
Workload
As a solo agent/lender/advisor our workload is non-stop.
We’re the marketer, appointment setter, head of sales, in charge of client service, transaction coordinator, janitor, barista and…
If we stop lead generating and converting because we have clients to take care of, what’s waiting for us once we close our clients?
Nothing.
How to prevent Stress and Overwhelm
Jocko Willink, ex Navy Seal has a best selling book called Discipline Equals Freedom.
One of Big Takeaways from the book for me was:
“Because you can’t control other people. You can’t make them what you want them to be. You can’t make them who you want them to be. The only person you can control is you.“
That’s incredible advice… but I want to offer the same, but different angle of advice.
Let’s dive even deeper into this concept of control…
Control equals freedom.
Freedom equals less stress.
I believe to lessen stress and overwhelm in our life and business we need:
committed goals,
a protected schedule
and focused action.
1. Committed Goals
Without Committed Goals it’s easy to fall into the trap of borrowing goals from others, that don’t mean anything to us.
They don’t motivate us.
They don’t inspire us.
So we don’t take action on them.
Or we constantly change directions when we discover some other goals or hear some other ideas.
HAVE COMMITTED GOALS
The biggest challenge with Committed Goals is feeling like our goals aren’t enough. They aren’t big enough. They’re too selfish. They’re too small. They’re too specific. They’re too generic.
Having Committed Goals is about taking aim on something and then moving forward in that direction.
The path always becomes more clear the more progress we make. We just need to start where we can start.
Want help with setting Committed Goals? I have a free training called E.P.I.C. Goal Setting. E.P.I.C. Goal Setting gives you clarity about Goals you’re EXCITED about without feeling overwhelmed or anxious.
2. Protected Schedule
Even with the best goals, if we don’t have the time to implement, we ain’t going nowhere.
We’ve all heard, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Those goals are our intentions.
PROTECT YOUR SCHEDULE
Let’s not end up in a hell of our own creation though, okay?
The first thing we need to make sure that this doesn’t happen is to protect our schedule like a Knights Templar secret.
Here are 3 key secrets I’ve discovered over the years to Creating and Protecting your Productivity Schedule.
TO-DOS BECOME WHEN TO-DOS
I put what I want to get done into my schedule. Not just appointments with my clients, or meetings at the office or with other people. But scheduling my marketing time, production time, project time. I make appointments with myself.
Look at that To-Do List with 15 things on there… move that into your calendar.
TOO STRUCTURED.
When we plan every minute to a specific activity, we leave no wiggle room for unknown problems - like tech issues, not being able to connect to wifi, forgetting a password, etc. Or allowing for new opportunities: If you’ve ever felt like a client is bothering you by calling, texting, emailing - you’ve probably built a Too Structured Day.
Your job is to have conversations with clients.
Don’t forget that.
GO WITH FLOW
Many productivity coaches are going to tell you to Get In A Flow. I get it. But, sometimes the Universe has different ideas for us. (Ex. Just this morning, flat tire on the SUV. Still have to get the kid to school, take care of clients, have a productive day… and NOW I have to take care of this tire.)
So, yes, we need structure. And… we need to go with the flow. Sometimes things are going to pop up. Good surprises. Bad surprises. It happens. If this surprises us, this leads to stress. The unexpected.
If we can’t account for, plan and expect the unexpected - it will take us out of our game and cause undue stress.
3. Focused Action
Once we have your goals, you have a schedule, it’s now time to take action.
TAKE FOCUSED ACTION
Focused action.
That means no distractions.
No checking social media alerts.
No watching YouTube videos.
No phone swiping.
Focused.
Inside my DeLorean Time Machine Method, I use a Key Principle called the Flux Capacitor Focus.
It involves three parts:
1. Specific Task
A study from the King’s Psychiatry College in London actually found that multitasking with electronic media reduced a person’s IQ by 10 points. That was more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana.
You wouldn’t start a productive workday by saying, “Let’s smoke a bowl!”
Would you?
But are you focused on a specific task?
If we do find some time for projects, we perform things impromptu based on what's most top of mind or what we feel the most like doing.
Maybe we have time blocked to work on a project - but we haven’t identified what specific tasks we will work on.
Our To-Do is generic and broad, instead of specific and precise.
When we sit down to work, we don’t have a clear project, clear tasks or clear outcomes. So we dilly dally. We’re like kids not wanting to eat our vegetables. We just push them around on the plate and try to cover them up with leftover scraps of food.
2. Eliminate Distractions
It’s hard to get things done when we’re constantly being distracted.
According to a University of California Irvine study, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.” (That’s basically one episode of Parks and Rec.)
I try to go to a specific place, during a specific time to get my most focused work done. I close browsers, limit alerts and notifications. Maybe it takes setting the phone to Do Not Disturb or Airplane mode.
Where is the place you don’t get distracted?
Is there a time of day or night you can hide from distractions?
How can you eliminate alerts and notifications?
3. Time Chunk
“the maximum time for sustained attention is 45 minutes…”
“The specific commonly held idea that the maximum time for sustained attention is 45 minutes appears to originate with a 1967 study on sonar detection and the point at which decision making started to be compromised. A much-cited 1979 study "Memory load and event rate control sensitivity decrements in sustained attention" reinforced te 45 minute measure by setting measured tasks between 30 and 45 minutes. Since then, other studies have validated the concept of taking breaks, but the interval of the breaks has altered - some suggesting as often as every 20 minutes.” via an article on sustained attention
I like to use a chunk of time called Focus 96.
I block 96 minutes. I work for 45 minutes.
Take a break for 6.
Check socials.
Check email.
Go to the bathroom.
Refill coffee.
Whatever strikes my fancy for that 6 minutes.
Go back to another 45 minutes of focus on a project.
THE FLUX CAPACITOR FOCUS RECAP
Once I’ve identified what specifically I want to work on and accomplish, have gone to a place and time to be distraction-free and blocked out my Focus 96 there’s the only thing left to do...
Take Focused Action.
There are no more excuses.
Creating A Simple Plan For Less Stress
So, we know we want to eliminate stress.
We’re committed to our goals.
We’re going to protect our schedule, and go with the flow when we need to.
When it’s time to take action, we will focus.
The next major thing is create a simple plan to do all this.
3 Specific Strategies for A Simple Stress-free Schedule
1. Two Week Planning
There are many things we do because that’s how it was done. Maybe from the past, or maybe from when we had a “job.”
As a Solo Agent/Lender/Advisor you get a chance to create your world and design your life your way.
When it came to planning and scheduling, I started with the question, “Why do I do a weekly plan?”
Look, planning is important… but meetings drive me crazy. Most group meetings are a waste of time and resources… and planning is just another way to say meeting… in my world.
Actually, if more meetings involved more planning ahead of time and during, meetings would be better…
But my point is most planning is a way to avoid taking action. Don’t get me wrong here… You need a plan. I just believe a lot of valuable time and energy is wasted in overplanning, planning too often and too detailed of planning.
So, why not plan two weeks at a time?
You already took the time to plan. Save yourself some time now and plan out the next week. Most people are reacting day to day, moment by moment.
Be more proactive, and you’ll get more important stuff done without stress and have more free time.
2. Top-Down Priorities
Next, we identify our priorities. To me, that means people. I identify who and block out in my calendar how I want to connect with them over the next two weeks.
Then, identify the important personal things. That might mean hobbies or sports for you. To me, it’s health and fitness. So I block out my workouts in my calendar.
Finally the important projects. That means blocking out some Focus 96 Sessions.
3. Middle Out Scheduling
Then, the last piece of creating our Simple Stress-free Schedule Strategy is when do we start to do all the things that need to be done?
Middle Out Scheduling is an idea I picked up from the coach of coaches, Taki Moore. The concept was why do we start filling in our schedule on Monday and move across the week.
This leaves us “top-heavy” at the start of the week with activities and then a few random things at the tail end with unproductive big gaps everywhere.
So I start Wednesday and try to fill up my day and then move to Tuesday or Thursday.
I do my best to leave Monday and Friday open. These are days I drop off and pick up my daughter from school.
RECAP: Stress-free Scheduling
Plan further ahead… but not too far. A month in advance has too many unknowns. Weekly planning takes up too much valuable time.
Identify what’s important to you. I start with people, then personal, next projects.
Finally, utilize Middle Out Scheduling by starting at Wednesday noon, and working out from there.
TAKING CONTROL OF OUR TIME AND PRODUCTIVITY
When it comes to having less stress and less overwhelm in our lives, we might think productivity and stress are connected.
If we want to increase our sales and our production level, we just have to just deal with more stress, headaches and constant overwhelm
Or we could choose another option:
Slow down to speed up.
Take control over our schedule instead of giving it away.
And being clear and committed to what’s important and impactful to us.
For more on operating from a Strict Daily Schedule and have Extreme Flexibility… listen to this short audio training
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