As many can attest, the real estate career can be a series of trial and error at first with no clear road map of how to build your business. So we asked our Illinois Young Professional Network (YPN) alumni to take us back to the very beginning and share their tips and best practices in a “Success Tips” download, which is also available in podcast format.

This blog post is the second in a series we’ll share on the “YPN Success Tips” to help you start the new year out right.

Tip #2: Control the hours, the minutes, the seconds you have in your day with time blocking

REALTORS® can be pulled in a thousand directions and essentially there are no boundaries when it comes to freedom in your new career. Which can lead to a major mistake. Not treating your real estate career like a job.  

Illinois REALTOR® Tommy Choi, who serves as chair for the National Association of REALTORS® YPN, says time blocking is a key foundation for staying organized and efficient in your day-to-day business.

“We talk about all these technologies, tools and what not. And ultimately their tools. They are there to help with the knowledge we have,” says Tommy, co-founder of Weinberg Choi Residential, Keller Williams Chicago – Lincoln Park and president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®.  

“The biggest thing I think is a resource, is really taking a look and controlling the hours, the minutes, the seconds you have in your day. Time blocking. Doing things intentionally, not by accident.”

So, what is time blocking?  

Time blocking is scheduling specific time frames for specific activities. Putting task on your calendar will help manage your time better, so you can focus on a given task to complete or work on within that duration. Tommy begins his week by looking at his schedule.  

“Every Sunday evening, I call it windshield time, I take 15 minutes to just look at the rest of my week and look ahead of time at what I have,” says Tommy. “And if there is a hole in the schedule, I know Monday morning I have to pound the phones to make sure Wednesday is filled with appointments.”  

He adds: “Being intentional and getting a grasp of your time and knowing what minutes go to what resource and what that return looks like. I think that’s the biggest resource you can take advantage of.”

Leveraging your most profitable tool with time blocking 

Tommy says that his most profitable tool is his database. And he uses time blocking to leverage his database.   

“The best thing you can leverage is getting face to face and reaching out to my database,” says Tommy. “For me, my combination of my database and making phone calls, Tuesday through Friday from 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock every day, not just myself, but my entire team, we are on the phones, calling our database. Keeping in touch, setting up meetings, face-to-faces, coffees, break-breads to stay relevant.”

Time blocking brings organization to a hectic and busy career 

In our Illinois YPN “Success Tips” download you’ll find many free resources to take advantage of. But to get the most out them, schedule time in your week to research and learn. And if you miss a task, because an appointment ran late, simply readjust your schedule accordingly and fit it in at new time frame.  

Says Tommy: “We can’t control whether someone will write an offer on a property or not. However, we can control the activities that lead to those results. I choose to focus on the activity daily. When you focus on the activities that lead to the results, the results will always show up.”