We all have the same 24 hours in a day, yet some agents are better at managing their time to maximize opportunities into listings, sales and more income. Follow these proven methods to modify your behaviors to manage your time more effectively, and obtain higher performance and results.

1. Plan your action items early for daily and weekly results.
If you don’t know what you are doing each day, you will not be doing the things that matter most. Having a written plan with action items as priorities will result in more clients and appointments, listings and sales. Start each day with a written agenda of what your important tasks are, and then review what you accomplished each evening. This will be an act of self-accountability that will keep you on track with better daily habits.

2. Time-block your activities as an appointment.
Place your “follow-up” and “new business” prospecting on your calendar specifically as an appointment on your phone. When you schedule your prospecting time out physically on your calendar, you increase your success rate of it happening. Time-blocking is for personal and professional/work activities. All areas of your life should be time-blocked to make sure that the most important priorities you have are staying the most important. If you don’t do this, you will be reacting to everyone else, and perhaps getting majorly distracted with unimportant things that don’t matter to you, and end up wasting hours that don’t produce results. Time is money. How you spend your time will determine how well you achieve your goals.

3. Focus relentlessly on obtaining appointments and filling your calendar.
If you are not face-to-face with potential buyers and sellers, you won’t be writing listing agreements or purchase agreements. You must focus on making sure your calendar is full of appointments. If you want to sell four homes a month, determine how many appointments you have to go on to close four sales. This takes laser focus on making sure your calendar is full every week.

4. Get up early and go long.
The early bird gets the worm. The most important part of your day is how it starts. Getting a jumpstart on your day helps create successes and momentum early in your day so you are running the day, instead of the crisis of the moment ruining it. Make the most of your day and use the 5:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. time slot to be proactive, calm, quiet, work out, meditate and cross a few things off your to-do list before the day starts. You will be so happy with the decision to use this powerful three- to four-hour timeframe to ensure your big, important activities are getting accomplished. You will feel so good about yourself and create optimal results before 9 a.m.

5. Double your income by doubling your appointments.
Schedule twice as many appointments each week than you did last year. It makes sense that if you go on twice as many listing and showing appointments, you will close more listings and sales, resulting in twice as much income. If you can truly master this behavior, the results are wildly dramatic and profitable for you!

Making sure you are utilizing your 24 hours and five days each week to their fullest will have you operating at peak performance. You will be creating successful outcomes each day and week. Plan your work and then work your plan. You will have control over your day and time and see increases in your results. Manage your time and reap the rewards of maximizing each day and hour.

To receive a free copy of my exclusive Time-Blocking and Weekly Activity Worksheet, click here.

Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 20 years of experience in real estate, Johnson offers coaching, consulting and keynotes, and is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour and the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. Sign up for a free 30-minute coaching strategy session or visit www.sherrijohnson.com for more information.