Danette O'Neal, PhD

5 Things for your “Not To-Do” List
1. Don’t send emails first thing in the morning or right before bed.
Sending out emails first thing in the morning is a gateway that will lead you to continually disrupt your schedule, and sending out emails before bed will ultimately cause your mind to run and negatively affect your ability to sleep.

2. Don’t agree to meetings that don’t have a set agenda and clear ending time.
Believe it or not, people love the sound of their own voices and have an uncanny ability to turn 10 minute meetings in to 45 minute marathons. Just because someone else is not managing their time correctly doesn’t mean that it has to affect your schedule.

3. Stop greeting people with open ended questions.
In an effort to be friendly, many of us greet people with an opening like, “Hey! How’s it going?” This can lead to a 10 minute discussion what is going on in their life or what the weather is like. Learn to greet people in a friendly manner and remember to GET TO THE POINT!

4. Stop being a slave to email
Too many of us spend our day sitting in front of our computer waiting for the next email so we can get our marching orders. We find ourselves hitting the refresh button on our phone throughout the day so we can feel good about the fact that someone is sending us something. Instead, pick times throughout the day and batch your emails. Start small and check every hour at first, but eventually you should make it your goal to only check emails 3-4 times a day.

5. Don’t leave your social media page open all day
Social media is an awesome tool, but just like email we have to batch our responses or we will find that our time has been hijacked by our desire to always be the quickest to respond.
-RISMedia’s Real Estate, November 2012