The One Thing You Must Master as an Entrepreneur

Have you ever had one of those days where you look at the clock, and it's already 6 pm?  Instead of closing your computer with another successful day behind you, you ask yourself 'where did the day just go, and what did I even get done?!'

I, unfortunately, was having way too many of those.  I've been investing in real estate for almost 17 years.  I bought my first house at 22, and have been learning how to rent and leverage ever since.  Overall, it's been a good experience, but between repairs, difficult tenants, and new city rules, etc, I realized it was taking up too much time.  Plus, after reading the book Essentialism (one I highly recommend), I realized two things.

1. Even the smallest of time and energy was going to something that wasn't serving me
2. .I was emotionally investing.

I won't get into the emotional part, but what I do want to talk about today is mastering your time.

Here's a perfect example of what happened this morning.  I have a tenant moving out of a house, and I have a fence getting installed at the same place.  The electricity cut off by the tenant and my reconnection was off by 2 days, and I have a crew there who needs it today.  In a scramble, I had to call the electric company to see what could be done.  Here are just a few things that had to be done today to make it all happen:

• I had to run to the house to pay the crew, talk about options, and find out exactly what they would need throughout the day (1 hour gone).
• I then had to get home and get on the phone with the electric company, be put on hold, and get things squared away (30 minutes gone).
• I had to forward an email, schedule a couple of more appointments, and sign a few more documents (1 hour gone)

Granted, 2 1/2 hours of an entire day isn't that big of a deal, but in the grand scheme of things, it is.  Even a 10-minute conversation takes away a lot more from my day.  It takes me away from focused work (which means more time ramping back to what you were doing). These 10-minute drop-ins here and there KILL the productivity of your day.

My question to you, and the one thing you must master is 'Are you in control of your own schedule?'  Are you mastering your time?  Or is time getting the best of you?

After another conversation with a property management company about an issue with a tenant, and then asking me what kind of contractor I should get out there, I had enough.  Of course my answer was, 'you tell me, you were the one who was just in my home,' and I knew this wasn't serving me.  These calls (even with assistants, handymen, and property management companies) were killing parts of my day, and they were taking away from my businesses.

Don't shrug off the quick phone calls, email checks, and social media check-ins.  Even at just a few minutes, if they're sporadic and not scheduled, they are hurting your productivity, big time.

Set aside parts of your days to call people back, handle emails, and do some social media replies. Don't do these specific items unless it's during those times.  As Jim Rohn says, 'Either you run the day, or the day runs you.'

If you can master your time management skills, you will far exceed most people.  In the world of more content than we could ever need and shiny objects all around us, it's easy to get distracted, blink, and discover 2 hours have just passed you by.

Don't be a victim of it, and get rid of those things that are robbing you of those small moments.