To produce significant long-term results, every real estate manager must learn to outsmart the urgent tasks that attempt to steal away their time and energy.
Years ago, Peter Drucker offered a formula to help managers become effective in this regard.
The first two components consist of controlling where your time goes and making measurable contributions.
The next component of his formula suggested establishing and focusing on a small set of priorities.
Once the priorities are established (and documented), it sets you free to:
Do first things first. This is the secret of not letting the short-term and urgent tasks rule your life. Schedule time for your priorities; tenaciously follow-through on the commitments to yourself.
Do one thing at a time. This is the secret of not letting distractions wreck your effectiveness. When you’re focused on one of your priorities, everything else must be tuned out.
A decision must be made as to which tasks deserve priority.
The only question is who will make that decision–you or the people vying for your attention.
It’s surprising that Drucker provided this advice more that 50 years ago—long before the explosion of modern-day distractions.
This tells us two things: Humans have always struggled with this issue, and we need to follow his advice more than ever.
