My life is a series of Post It notes. They are stuck to my computer screen, they clutter my desk, and they litter my backyard when a light wind kicks up in the vicinity of my patio table. They can be found in the floor of my car, at the bottom of my purse and, more than occasionally, on the foreheads of my children.
My organizational skills are not so hideous that they would be the subject of the next Lifetime family movie, but my life (we will call it my “back office”) is certainly, at this point in time, in a state of disarray.
I could read a book about organization and time management, but I simply don’t have the time. I think I will make a note to do that tomorrow. In the meantime, I will come to my own defense – It’s not my fault!
Lani’s Internet which has become such an essential part of our lives, Greg’s Internet which is well on its way to replacing the paper book, and our collective Internet which births eighty-seven more ways each day to make our lives easier has simply made me numb.
My frying pan runneth over with fish. Jeff Brown turned me on to Jott awhile ago, thinking it would be useful to a girl on the go. Call the toll free number, speak your message, and the next morning you will be emailed a transcript. A virtual To Do list. Now, I have to remember to Jott.
And I have to remember to blog and comment and trackback and linkback, to be a Trulia Voice and a Zillow neighborhood specialist, to log onto Meebo when I am “in” and off when I am “away”, and to download and study my Altos charts. The list goes on. With each of these exciting opportunities comes an email reminder, and each of these “to dos” involves a brave new world of email inbox populating never before seen. So much so, that I find myself “saving” these messages for another time, a time that often never comes. So large is my inbox, that it has lost its impact.
I have at this moment a Post It stuck to my computer screen. This morning I am laughing at this note-to-self – It has been stuck in the middle of my screen for so long that I have grown comfortable and accustomed to looking right and left around it, comfortable and accustomed as in for four days. I don’t know what it says anymore, I haven’t had time to do it (whatever “it” is), so I have learned to ignore “it”.
Familiarity causes blindness, familiarity becomes the Spring bloom we no longer appreciate, or the cobweb in the corner that we have lived with for so long that we no longer see. And, abundance can make us overwhelmed and ineffective.
Like so many of my ramblings, this one I suppose falls under the Group Therapy category. (Note to Greg – Add a Group Therapy category to the side bar). The problem, of course, really isn’t the Internet. The problem is one of prioritization, and herein lies the message to agents, particularly those new to the business. You can not possibly do it all, you can’t let yourself fall into the trap of embracing every single great idea for fear that you will be left behind. You may have plenty of time today to dabble in every business building opportunity available to you, but there will come a time when you have to pick and choose.
Russell Shaw, I would imagine, has a healthy support staff on the payroll which gives him a better chance of living up to the do-all, be-all opportunities and expectations of our cyber-world. Not constrained (as much) by the chains of time, he is positioned to showball his way up the mountain to greater heights. Newer agents have the time to accomplish this without support. It is the middleman, the high-achieving agent teetering between starvation and greatness that has the biggest challenge. His may find his snowball heading downhill. As a middleman, I am learning that, if not a back-to-basics, then a back-to-focus, short-list approach to business is the best interim business plan. I may or may not ever reach Russell Shaw status, but I know I certainly won’t get there by diluting the impact of my strengths by added more To Dos.
This means that I have to be “okay” with posting just once a week, that I have to be “okay” with not having read every sentence written on every real estate blog or journal or news service, and that I have to be “okay” with not utilizing every single widget, resource or web opportunity available at any given moment. This week, at least, Trulia may just need to find their own voice.
I received an email yesterday from a fellow blogger asking, “Where have you been? Are you okay?” Yes, I’m fine. Just busy, busy dusting the cobwebs, clearing the Post Its from my life, and getting back to my core business.
Jeff Brown says:
I’m paddlin’ with ya Kris.
I long to have just one year where my professional life is like a movie I saw as a teenager. George Hamilton would arrive at is office in the morning wearing a zillion dollar suite, with three assistants trailing him with notepads either giving him his schedule or taking down his responses and orders.
Just one year. 🙂
July 23, 2007 — 8:40 am
Russell Shaw says:
I do have a large admin staff. Usually every single one of them is busy doing something when I walk in, so they not only don’t follow me around, they sometimes don’t even look up when I walk in the office (wearing very stylish cotton pants and a dreamy cotton pullover shirt).
It seems no matter how many people we hire we have so much for them to do that there is never that “extra time” I always dream about them having to work on “stuff”. On my desk I literally have piles of various projects I want to get to, sitting undone.
I believe that the correct purpose for every single person we hire is that – in one way or another – they allow or cause us to make more money.
If I have anything that needs doing and it possibly CAN be done by someone other than me, I’m not doing it. I usually need to interrupt someone in the office to even get their attention. I seem to have a very high willingness to interrupt them. If you don’t believe me, just ask my wife or anyone who works for me. 🙂
July 24, 2007 — 12:56 pm