What is Your Time Worth?

Do you feel like you need 30 hours in the day just to catch up? Many agents find themselves stretched thin with responsibilities, without seeing the financial payoff for their efforts. Dirk Zeller shares steps to making your time worthwhile in his article in Broker Agent News:

"The first step to time mastery is knowing what you are worth per hour. By knowing what you actually get paid per hour, you will be able to make wise decisions about your activities. To figure out what you make per hour, take your gross commission (that's before company split) and divide it by the number of hours worked. To find hours worked, take the number of hours you work in a day, multiply by the days you work in a week and the number of weeks you work per year, and then divide that into your gross commission.

If we know our value per hour then we will be able to evaluate what we do on a basis of "Does it really pay me that amount per hour?" Let's say you make $50 an hour. There are only certain activities in selling real estate that will pay you that $50 per hour. The rule is if you would not pay someone $50 to do it, neither will anyone else—which means that you will not be earning your $50 an hour doing those specific activities. For example, making flyers, inputting listings into magazines, putting together bulk mail, and typing letters are all activities that I think would not pay anyone $50 an hour. We all know these have to be done. The question is do you have to do them? The second question is can I spend less time doing them?

We are all squeezed by time. We all can feel there are not enough hours in the day. We all feel the tug of our family and business and the battle for abundance in both areas. If you truly want to find a few hours daily, do this next action plan.

We call this exercise "Task Analysis". What you are doing is taking a look at what you clearly do each day. Not guessing what you are doing but knowing what is happening. Take an old day timer page and make a few copies. Then every 15-30 minutes, write down what you are doing. Track this process for 2 weeks. This process will enable you to know with certainty where you are investing your time. You will be amazed as to the allocation of your time. For most Agents who have completed this task, they find 10-20 hours weekly that can be better spent. That's anywhere from 25%-50% increased efficiency when fully implemented. To know what that really means to you in dollars, multiply your gross commission by 25%. That is what you can earn in addition this year without more expenses and without the latest marketing gimmicks. The best part is that you are in total control of that number. The market, your broker, the buyers and sellers have no effect on your ability to increase your income by the amount you wrote down.

Work diligently on the task analysis process. Really track the activities and the time invested in each. Then, at the end of each week, add up the time spent in each activity. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I getting paid ____ per hour for each activity?
2. How can I reduce the time I am spending in each activity that pays less than ___?
3. Do I really need to do this activity?
4. Can I get someone else to do this activity?

Knowing what you are worth per hour and what you are investing your work time in are the first two steps to time-mastery. Once you have started down the road to time-mastery, you are moving toward sales mastery and then life mastery. Know that your time is the most valuable resource you have. Start the process to reclaim more of it today."