Go into a “cave”​ to manage procrastination

Go into a “cave”​ to manage procrastination

By Kevin Shirley, Associate Broker (DC), e-PRO, GRI, ASP

No, that’s not some sort of typo. This strategy’s moniker, coined by Caveday.org, will make a lot more sense once you learn just what this is all about. If you’re the type that loves to let unfinished projects sit until the very last minute or if you’re always in a crunch because you wait until the last possible minute to get started on a project, Caveday may be just what you’re seeking.

What is Caveday?

Caveday is the brainchild of three friends who struggled with productivity issues, including procrastination. They wanted a strategy to stop procrastinating and to hold each other accountable. Jeremy, one of the founding members of Caveday, had once described “going into the cave” to finish a screenplay he had been completing. With his script finished, the friends were awestruck about Jeremy’s amazingly productive strategy. They set out to learn why he could be so productive and see if they could reproduce that same level of productivity among themselves and a few other fellow procrastinators.

As a result, Caveday was formed!

The original Caveday “Cave” was essentially “an event series that’s sort of like a pop-up coworking space; rather than sign up for a weeks- or months-long membership, you register for a single day. The price of [$40] admission includes two meals, snacks, coffee, and a handful of work-related services doled out by a briskly energetic group of facilitators — whose sole job is (as the program’s website puts it) to help you ‘GET STUFF DONE’ with ‘NO DISTRACTIONS.’“

Remote Caves make it impossible to procrastinate

Caveday has helped one-person operations, coders, writers, designers, college students, and even comedians. Obviously, all of these people aren’t able to make it to an actual on-site Caveday “cave” so, instead, they participate in what are called Remote Caves.

During Remote Caves, fellow procrastinators come together for short bursts of work (less than an hour or so) called “sprints,” followed by a small break — all with their cell phones hidden and out of reach.

During Remote Caves, participants gather via a Zoom meeting led by a trained moderator who guides the introductions, sets the time for sprints, and demonstrates periodic stretches and other physical activities to keep participants focused and limber.

We can learn a lot from the wildly successful collaboration of procrastinators worldwide and apply it to scenarios that we all must face. Here are some of the reasons that these Remote Caves are so successful:

  • Bursts of focused work. It can seem like a tall task to say, “I need to sit down and do work for 8 hours straight.” But it’s much more digestible when you break it up into smaller chunks. Remote Caves have bursts of work that are between 40 and 52 minutes. They don’t tell you exactly how long because you are supposed to focus more on that task at hand.
  • Frequent breaks. Procrastinators often wait until the last minute and then try and cram in as much work as possible — this way of working leaves no room for breaks. Not taking breaks is unhealthy and can leave a poor taste in your mouth about working on future projects. Remote Caves have you take small breaks after every single burst of work.
  • Professional direction. Do you have a mentor that can guide you through challenging problems? It’s easy to procrastinate when you’re stuck looking for a solution to something. “Oh, no, that’s too hard, and I’m not sure how to solve this. I’ll come back to this problem later on.” But you never come back to it. Remote Caves are led by trained “Cave Guides” that have diverse professional backgrounds. Having someone to guide you along the workday makes solving problems much more manageable, just like having a mentor with whom to collaborate.
  • Accountability. Think about working a salaried or hourly-wage job. You’ve got your coworkers and bosses around you. It’s hard to procrastinate because they’re holding you accountable. When you’re working remotely or working for yourself, who is going to keep you accountable? Your spouse? Your dog? Remote Caves take place over a Zoom meeting where fellow procrastinators and your host can hold you accountable.
  • Limited distractions. This one probably goes hand in hand with accountability. If you’re sitting at home dreading your next task, it’s almost second nature for most of us to pick up our cell phones and mindlessly tune out to our responsibilities. Going to an in-person Caveday will require you to turn in your cellphone before the day starts. Remote Caves require that you hide your cell phone and put it out of reach. Would you like to know why they do this? Because it’s an effective way to get people to focus on their work.

Procrastination: Is it normal?

Procrastination is exceptionally common. Now, procrastinating is different from being a procrastinator. Everybody procrastinates with something at some point throughout the workweek. But for some of you reading this, and for many Caveday participants, chronic procrastination is prevalent in our lives. Just know that you are not alone, and we can use the Remote Caves strategy to learn how to tackle our problems better and focus on what’s in front of us.

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KEVIN REID SHIRLEY is a real estate professional with almost twenty-five years of experience. He is an Associate Broker with Long & Foster Real Estate in Washington, DC. He is also an Accredited Staging Professional and a Graduate of the REALTOR Institute. He graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Classical Civilization and Art History. Find his author page on Facebook; e-mail him at kevin@realastute.com; call/text him on 202.320.6634.

5 Ways Salespeople Can Combat Procrastination

5 Ways Salespeople Can Combat Procrastination

Procrastination is an integral part of our modern-day lived experience, and we all procrastinate from time to time. But if this habit leads to some losses — financial or otherwise — you should work to rid yourself of it fast.

If you are a sales professional, you may have to achieve monthly or weekly sales targets for your business. But the negative emotions associated with procrastination behavior can affect your sales performance. Hence, it is essential to follow some trusted methods to combat procrastination.

First of all, sales managers need to understand the exact difference between workload imbalances and actual procrastination. Many times, some administrative activities eat up all your valuable selling time. In that case, you should make efforts to balance your efforts between selling activities and administrative responsibilities. However, if you lose many deals just because of procrastination, here are few trusted tips to help you recover fast.

Pay attention

Procrastination is more like other human behaviors. Thus, if you want to change them, it is imperative to pay attention to them. When you notice yourself procrastinating, you can make some efforts to refocus yourself. Similarly, learning about this behavior may guide you better to understand the exact sequence of tasks that trigger your procrastination behavior. This clarity about your personal tendencies may help you to find ways to avoid procrastination.

Eliminate distractions

Your productivity levels also depend upon the environment and surrounding conditions where you work. If you have many things around to distract you, your productivity may be negatively impacted. Other than this, the email notifications, social media updates, and the text messages on your phone may also keep on distracting you. To improve focus, you should first try to eliminate these external distractions.

Make a prioritized to-do list

If you have a good list of tasks you need to do, you can organize your time more effectively. When you write down things that you have to execute to achieve your sales target, you cannot make an excuse to miss them (no matter how reasonable-sounding the excuse!). The more tasks on your list, the more vital strong organization becomes. It is crucial to prepare and review this list daily to stay focused on your goals.

Handle difficult tasks first

We all have some challenging tasks on the bucket list, and often doing them brings you more returns in the long run. Many of us have a terrible habit of procrastinating tough things and setting priorities for the easier ones. And you may not ultimately have enough energy and time to do that challenging task later, which could take away a potential deal. As a result, productivity experts advise doing tough tasks firsts and then move on to the easier ones.

Once you start following these simple tips and tricks to organize your routines, it will be easier to quickly achieve your sales targets. When you succeed, don’t forget to reward yourself to stay inspired and motivated for the new goals.

The Pros and Cons of Being an INTJ Entrepreneur

The Pros and Cons of Being an INTJ Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is a career path that comes with risks and challenges. When it comes to becoming an entrepreneur, people think that entrepreneurship is for extroverts and people who enjoy social interaction. But this isn’t true.

INTJ individuals can also become a successful entrepreneur. INTJ stands for Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. As INTJs don’t enjoy social interactions and are not so outgoing, people underestimate their abilities. Here are some of their pros and cons to better understand INTJ entrepreneurs.

Benefits that INTJ entrepreneurs enjoy

  1. INTJs are fast and effective learners. One of the best things about INTJ entrepreneurs is that they love to learn … anything! In this ever-changing time, every entrepreneur needs to be a great learner. Without focusing on learning, the entrepreneur won’t improve and update his/her skills and knowledge.
  2. INTJs have complete confidence in their idea. INTJ entrepreneurs are very confident regarding their concept and knowledge. INTJ entrepreneurs put a great deal of effort into analyzing information and building new knowledge. This makes them optimistic about their idea.
  3. INTJs are focused. INTJ entrepreneurs are not lazy or prone to distraction. Rather, they are focused and hardworking. When they decide on a particular task, they keep working hard until they get it done.
  4. INTJs are good at listening. INTJs have a reputation (perhaps unearned) as not being good at interacting with others, but they are excellent listeners. They engage by asking open-ended questions and really listening to the answers. This is one of the great qualifies every entrepreneur needs to have. With this quality, the entrepreneur will focus more on understanding what others say about a particular idea.

Challenges that INTJ entrepreneurs face

  1. INTJs can be overly analytical and judgemental. Though it is good to be critical as an entrepreneur, INTJ entrepreneurs can be too analytical and judgemental. This may not be good for the business.
  2. INTJs are perfectionists. Becoming perfectionistic has its own pros and cons. That said, INTJ entrepreneurs tend to be perfectionistic in all the tasks they perform. When they have any idea, instead of implementing immediately, they often try to complete all related activities perfectly. Sometimes, in business, becoming perfectionistic leads to loss of opportunity.
  3. INTJs can be exhausted by social interaction. In business, interaction with people plays a significant role. As a leader, entrepreneurs must stay in touch with their teams and keep motivating their team members. As INTJ entrepreneurs are introverted and tend to enjoy working alone, too much social interaction can be exhausting.

Final Thoughts

Being an Introvert, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging (INTJ) entrepreneur has its own pros and cons. INTJ entrepreneurs may not be good at social interactions, but they are quick learners, focused on high-quality work.

5 Strategies REALTORS Can Use to Overcome Procrastination

5 Strategies REALTORS Can Use to Overcome Procrastination

Procrastination behavior leads to stress and discombobulation in life. If you are a REALTOR, procrastination could be your biggest enemy. In fact, when you say that you don’t have the energy or the time or the emotional bandwidth to do something right now, you are likely to pay a heavy price for it later.

No matter your profession, it is always important to take a proactive approach in handling your routine tasks. Don’t waste time on things that are not your priority; rather, set up a healthy schedule for your day and be focused on your work. Studies reveal that completing your tasks gets more complicated when you keep putting things off time and again. Moreover, it also increases the cost of achieving that particular long-delayed goal.

Here are five trusted strategies from experts to help real estate agents overcome the bad habit of putting things on hold:

Increase your awareness about procrastination

The first most thing you need to do is analyze your behavior. Judge when you decide to postpone tasks and how you feel while putting things on hold. Make a list of tasks that you prefer to complete on time, as well as those you keep on avoiding over and over. This analysis will help you to understand your procrastination behavior more clearly.

Step beyond your beliefs

We human beings have a terrible habit of getting trapped in our own beliefs. Things we believe often help us to decide what to do and what to ignore. But sometimes, the same belief engages us with unnecessary tasks, while the important ones remain pending. For instance, you may think of baking cake at home but put off actually baking it — when buying a perfectly good cake from the market could save more time and get the job done.

Learn to prioritize things

Many people put off doing simple things with a thought that they will handle the hardest first. But this strategy may add more stress and struggle to your life while making it challenging to complete difficult tasks on time. Experts advise starting your to-do list by tackling simple things first and then move to the difficult ones. When you are into the real estate business, you need to prioritize your property listings and meetings with clients accordingly.

Decide time limits for tasks

When you have loads of things to manage, completing them all on time may be challenging. But many tasks in the list can be assigned a specific time limit to avoid the burden in the long run. For instance, if you cannot read this month’s REALTOR magazine issue, you can postpone it to the next month. But if you fail to read that next month as well, it is better to discard it. When you put time limits on tasks, you can control your pile from growing too high.

Focus on important tasks

Many tasks in business require timely attention, and you may have to achieve set deadlines for them. Never ever procrastinate such essential tasks. Analyze outcomes associated with every task and then set priorities for them. When you start working, pay full attention to that, and you will naturally get the best results in lesser time. It will help you spare more time, and you can handle multiple things in sequence.

 

 

 

 

The Importance of Creativity for Entrepreneurs

Photo by Rachael Gorjestani on Unsplash

The Importance of Creativity for Entrepreneurs

By necessity, entrepreneurs must embody many different positive qualities. Among them, creativity plays a vital role. Successful entrepreneurs have to tap into their creative sides. In a competitive world, survival is possible only for those businesses that have something innovative and creative about them.

Unlock your creative side as an entrepreneur by consistently thinking “analog,” meditating, journaling, networking with other creative thinkers, and taking mental breaks. Here are some benefits of entrepreneurial creativity:

  1. Creativity brings unconventional and fresh ideas. All the businesses out there are doing the same thing. This increases the competition, and in the end, the business owner has to suffer from its profit margin. However, it is possible to stand apart from the rest of the crowd and build something unique. Doing something innovative in business is possible only when the entrepreneur gets unique ideas. It is possible through creativity. Creativity in entrepreneurs helps to get unconventional and creative ideas. The entrepreneur needs to think differently and creatively, and also challenge the standard procedures.
  2. Creativity helps you find the same patterns in different areas. Creativity forces the entrepreneur to think differently in other areas. The success or failure of any business is highly based on its idea. Through imagination, the entrepreneur can link unrelated subjects and make unique entrepreneurial ideas. Creative entrepreneurs merge different fields and create intersections that create new niches. This way, you will find something unique, and you may create a monopoly in the market.
  3. Creativity offers a competitive advantage. One of the best things about creativity in entrepreneurship is a competitive advantage. We can see that majority of businesses nowadays are relying on the same conventional ideas. Following traditional ideas means you have to face the competition. As an entrepreneur, when you generate innovative & creative ideas and implement them in your business, competition in the market will not affect you.
  4. Creativity helps you develop new niches. A creative thinking entrepreneur can develop and introduce a unique niche in the market. Instead of following the rules of traditional business, the entrepreneur explores various aspects of it. Studying and exploring different aspects of conventional businesses helps to know the issues and hurdles involved in it. And when there’s a problem, the importance of entrepreneurship comes into play. For example, it could be the business’s manufacturing process, supply chain (delivery of product/service), distribution channel, or any other.
  5. Creativity boosts productivity. Last but not least, creativity in entrepreneurs also increases productivity. The business may have certain roadblocks that are the root cause behind low productivity. Creative thinking can help entrepreneurs identify those issues and fix them. Improvement in productivity in business saves time, money, and resources.

If you are an entrepreneur, there are different ways you can become creative, like meditating, keeping a journal, surrounding with creative people, etc. Creativity in your business would help you bring something new on the table, and competition won’t be an issue for you.

5 surprisingly actionable time-management tips for real estate professionals

Want to hone your time-management skills? Let’s skip the fluff and go straight to the actionable quick tips that you can implement immediately.

Real estate agents lead hectic lives. Whether you are at the top of your career or are just starting out, you have to make every moment count. After all, time management is the secret to success. However, if you are new on this entrepreneurial journey, you might be looking for some expert tips to make your journey worthwhile. Well, here are five unconventional time-management hacks for all real estate professionals. I hope they help ease your journey towards success.

  1. Keep track of your time: You can never get back the time that you’ve already spent. Hence, it is essential to be careful about how you spend it. A successful business owner knows how to be accountable for his or her time. You can start by simply writing your daily routines in a notebook to keep track of how you are spending your time. There are tons of time-management apps out there to help with this task for those who are more technically minded.
  2. Plan ahead of time: Studies reveal that when you start work with proper planning, it can help you save more time on execution. Instead of beginning your week on Monday, start preparing for it on Sunday. The idea is to grab a paper and pen and start writing your goals for the week. Spare some time to organize things in all seven days to create and maintain a flow. Prior planning can help you enjoy better returns for entrepreneurship and personal life as well.
  3. Batch like tasks together: Instead of doing every task independently, batch related items to save time. All your emails, say, can be scheduled in one go; client meetings can be utilized better with pre-defined agenda; the fundraising activities must be handled simultaneously. This type of management may help you to keep your brain fully active all day long.
  4. Skip social media: Social media has revolutionized our lifestyle in a considerably short amount of time. Conversely, though, it has harmed our productivity routines as well. Studies show that most people spend almost three to four hours scrolling their social media feeds daily. This time leads to zero productivity. If you want to be more focused on your business, it is better to skip social media. You can specify a time for social media, emails, and other phone activities once in the day. In this way, you can use most of your routine time on business, which will naturally improve your productivity.
  5. Take frequent brakes: Breaks are not always a waste of time. Well-organized schedules include some breaks, which can help you restore your energy and focus on working more effectively. It is the best way to eliminate all the frustration and stress while ensuring high productivity every day.

There you go: Five surprisingly actionable quick tips to improve your time-management skills. Once you start following these time-management tips and tricks, it will be easier to ensure uninterrupted business growth. Now, go forth and implement!

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KEVIN SHIRLEY is a real estate professional with almost twenty-five years of experience. He is an Associate Broker with Long & Foster Real Estate in Washington, DC. He is also an Accredited Staging Professional and a Graduate of the REALTOR Institute. He graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Classical Civilization and Art History. Find his author page on Facebook; e-mail him at kevin@realastute.com; call/text him on 202.320.6634.