Bet you haven’t heard of the Zeigarnik Effect. We hadn’t either…until we started looking for better ways to get our real estate tasks done.
The Zeigarnik Effect happens when you are motivated to accomplish something, but you can’t get ‘er done. If you are interrupted in a task, or can’t complete a task, you will experience feelings of anxiety and be uncomfortable until you can complete the task. With too many of these tasks left undone, you might feel overwhelmed.
The worst thing you can do is choke up because then, not much gets done at all. Then you are on the road to becoming a motivated seller instead of a savvy buyer.
Real estate investing if FULL of tasks you have to get done:
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Wholesaling – Sending out letters, following up with phone calls, managing databases of prospects, writing contracts, building buyer’s lists…
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Flipping – Finding a property, raising funds, applying for loans, finding contractors, rehabbing schedules, budgets, inspections, marketing the property, closings…
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Renting – Locating properties, buying, rehabbing, advertising rentals, qualifying tenants, managing tenants, evictions, paperwork…
A real estate investor’s ‘To-Do’ list can become overwhelming, which can easily lead to acute-Zeigarnik. How should real estate investors mitigate these feelings and get organized?
Spacing Your Stuff out Avoids Becoming Spaced out
A big long list of stuff is scary. Reducing that list to tasks you need to accomplish right now is manageable.
Instead of trying to prioritize the list, why not space out the schedule of tasks in the future at a good time to get it done?
We found a great website that allows you to do just that with your email inbox. It works with any of the popular email services (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Hotmail, etc.) and will also integrate with your calendar.
Best of all, it is really easy to use, and is free. It’s called Followup.cc.
Once you sign up with your email address and confirm your subscription, you are ready to go. You can go to the website, sign in, and set up reminders for your tasks that go right to your Outlook, iCal or Google calendar.
Or you can just schedule a reminder directly, just as you would send out an email. All you have to do is put when you want to be reminded of a task, with an email, in the ‘CC’ or ‘BCC’ line of your email, and add ‘@followup.cc’. Take a look at this pic as an example…
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If you put the followup.cc email in the ‘CC’ address block, the follow-up email will be sent to all parties in the email.
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If you put the followup.cc in the ‘BCC’ block, the follow-up email will only go to you.
This way you can set your tasks in the future and forget them until you have the reminder.
No more looking at those long, overwhelming ‘To Do’ lists and trying to prioritize what to work on first. Think more of when to get it done, rather than how important it is to get it done.
Calendars and Other Features
If you can’t stand the suspense, you can also go to Followup.cc and take a look at your calendar to see what tasks are coming up. You can integrate your alerts with Google calendar, iCal, or Outlook. You can then use those calendar functions to create alerts for you.
Or, once they are scheduled, you can ignore your calendar and only see the tasks when they pop up. You can see the reminders on all your devices, so you should not miss any tasks.
The jury is still out on whether this next feature is good or bad…
When you receive a reminder email, followup.cc will allow you to effectively hit the ‘snooze’ button and reschedule the task for a different time.
You can choose a lot of standard snooze times or set up your own custom one. This is great if you don’t have time to get the task done, but it makes putting the task off a whole lot easier.
Zeigarnik Anyone?
Followup.cc is a great way to space out your To-Do list and knock tasks out in a timely manner. After all, getting things done is the name of the game in real estate investing…
Check out this cool introductory video for the Followup.cc service.
But it is ultimately up to the investor to make those tasks happen. That’s what really separates the successful investors from the wannabees.
We hope we can make it easier for you to join those successful ranks.
Holla at us
Have you used this service? Helpful or not so much? We wanna hear about it in the comments section below.
Research Techniques for Getting Stuff Done – There’s a lot of good articles and tips out there for accomplishing your To-Do list. Successful real estate investors are always learning, and you should too. See how the pros manage all their tasks and copy some of their habits.
Check out FollowUp.CC – It can really help you become organized and more efficient. If you are working with a team, it can help you lead them much more effectively.
Review Your To-Do List –It pays to keep reviewing how you are running your investing business and thinking of ways to improve it. Think about the tasks you can outsource, eliminate or just do differently that could save you time and money.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.