Mastering Time Management and Property Investment with Mark Fitzgerald

Why ? Well , because we only have so much time . We have busy lives , don't we ? Some of us have jobs I have a job , but I have my own businesses as well but some of us are working full time . Some of us have family commitments , we have social hobbies and all sorts .

So we have to make sure that we break down into chunks our time , but we stick to our schedule as effectively as we can . Now , a lot of the times you'll hear people saying well , you know , things happen in life and of course , they do .

As I say , we have busy lives , but it's about making sure that , even at the end of the week , you've given yourself some time slots to be able to slot in the things that will help consistently move you forward in whatever business , whatever lifestyle , whatever you desire in life . Myself , I've had to work on this very , very hard . This isn't easy .

This isn't just something you write down , you try it once and then it just flows and works to perfection . You have to really tweak it to suit your own circumstances . You have to work hard at this . So what are the five things ? Well , the first one is to prioritize your tasks .

It's very , very easy for us to set a little to-do list and start knocking off the things that are easy , that aren't really ever going to move us forward .

If you are looking at building your own property business maybe you're looking at building your own rent-to-rent business , whether that's with HMOs or serviced accommodation you've got to make sure that you are prioritizing the tasks that will actually get you the deals over the line , that will start to get you that revenue management , start to get you that income , that

cash flow coming through . Because if you're not , if you're just doing the niceties and enjoying yourself , you're never actually going to move yourself forward . You're going to think this doesn't work , I cannot actually move myself forward , nothing seems to be happening . But it's really just that you're doing the nice things that are easy to do .

You're not actually doing the tasks that you have to do to grow and build a successful property business . So some of your tasks want to be your marketing . You want to make sure that you are marketing consistently and persistently .

Of course , over the course of time , you're sending out letters , flyers , postcards , brochures , whatever it is that you want to be doing , but you're doing it on a consistent basis . You've got to be ringing agents up . You've got to be inquiring about empty properties , properties on their books that they potentially need help with .

You want to be out there , of course , networking with people , scheduling in when can you actually make those networking events ? And scheduling in the time afterwards to follow up with people that you've met at networking events as well .

No point going and spending all your time going to these events , making connections , but then never following up with people , maybe never to be seen again . You've got to make sure that you're following up with people on a basis that is easy for you to manage but also is set into your diary , is set into an allocated slot for you to be doing these things .

Of course , email marketing , replying to emails and setting up viewings and things also needs to be in your priority list . So if you do end up finding that you have a to-do list , put a line down your middle of your paper and have , on one side , priorities these are the things that are going to move my business forward and these are non-negotiables .

And then have your little to-do list , if you have to have your to-do list . I don't believe in to-do lists because I think we make these massive lists , we take a handful of things off and we never end up going through all anyway , or we get overwhelmed , we get demoralized because we're not taking enough things off , and that's no good for anybody either .

So make sure you have some sort of calendar set up . I use Google Calendar for mine , but make sure you're planning out your chunks of time and you're allocating those tasks to that time . And maybe you give yourself 30 minutes to do a phone call and maybe you only do need 15 . Then you've got 15 minutes spare . Do a phone call , and maybe you only need 15 .

Then you've got 15 minutes spare . You can move on to another task or you can just have that time to yourself . Give yourself little rewards , but also set time into your calendar and into your schedule . That is a priority for you .

A lot of the time we can fill it up with everything with family life , with work , with building a property business with education , with building a property business with education , with all of those things , and we never actually put any time in there for ourselves . So put down , like I do , fun time . This is time for you .

This isn't even family time I put family time in there and everything but I have a little bit of time for me just to do whatever , whatever I want to do for a couple of hours , if I can do . You know you might be thinking well , at the weekend I'll do that anyway , but schedule it in so that you know that you've done it . Set specific goals .

At number two , you've got to make sure you're setting specific goals and targets . You've got to have a destination . You've got to know where you're trying to get to . How many deals do you want to get in the next month or two or three months ? I like to work in 90-day slots , in basically three months conformity .

And if you've never read the book the 12-Week Year , I highly recommend that you read it or listen to it on Audible , but that you take the actual nuggets from that book and start incorporating them into your life .

It really will help you break down the next three months and make you more successful , potentially , if you take these actions in three months than a lot of people are over the course of 12 months . So it's really , really important that any goals that you have , you break them down into smaller , manageable Okay . So really look at your end goal .

I want to have 10 deals in a year . Potentially , let's have some big targets here , and if I only get five , I'd still be a very , very happy person . But how are you going to do that ? Well , I need to roll that back because at the moment , I need funding . I need , obviously , leads . I need to make sure that I know what I'm doing .

So those are the three things that I need right here , right now . So , firstly , let's work on I need to know what I'm doing . Are you educated in whatever strategy that it is that you're trying to do ? If you are , fine , great stuff . Take that one off . You don't need to worry about that .

Just make sure you always keep yourself up to date with the latest regulations , the latest changes and what's going on out there . Never think you know everything . I don't know everything . I'm always looking and striving and learning and pivoting with the times .

But make sure that you know what you're doing , first and foremost because you can lose so much money by not knowing so . If you're building a rent-to-rent business and you have no idea what to do , you've just read a couple of books , listened to some podcasts , watched some YouTube videos and you think it's a good idea .

First stop is to get yourself educated in whatever strategy that it is you're trying to do . If you need help with HMOs , serviced accommodation , rent to rent deal sourcing , head over to thepropertyunleashedcom , my website . Go to the free resources tab , click on that and we've got some masterclass trainings . We've got some free PDF guides that you can download .

That'll start getting you educated for free . Okay , now , I put these out there for free , but just think , at the end of the day , these are actually worth money . I just put them out there because I like to try and help people build on those stepping stones to create the lives that they desire .

So head over to the propertyunleashedcom , click on the free resources tabs and help yourself to anything that you want there . Okay , it's there to help and support you and , if you do that , schedule in some time to be able then to go through what it is that you're downloading , what it is that you're keeping for yourself the masterclasses , make notes and things .

Go over them , read the books , the PDFs and everything and really start to educate yourselves in those sectors . If it's not any of those things , it's something else . Look elsewhere , see where you need to be to really hone and really learn what it is

that you want . The next thing , of course , is finding deals . A lot of people like to just scour the portals . Oh , I just look online and that's all they ever do . You're never going to get a deal sat on your behind . You've got to get out there and you've got to be talking to people . You've got to be looking at properties .

You've got to be negotiating on deals and things . As the old saying goes , the more hands you shake , the more money you can make . It's all about building up those relationships and getting out there , so start scheduling in that time to get out there .

If you have no money , you need to Start making sure that you are posting about your property investment business that you're building , that you're talking to everybody about the opportunities not trying to sell to anybody , but you're talking about the opportunities that are out there to be able to help people get better returns on their money .

Of course , start saving yourself . Sacrifice some stuff right here , right now , some subscriptions and things , short-term paying for long-term gain . When I started in my property business , we did as a family . We cut the fat off of everything that we could possibly do .

We got rid of subscriptions , we really went down to the basics and I always will thank my family as well for supporting me on this because we needed to do so .

We didn't have a large chunk of money to get out there and do things , which is why I always help and show people now how to get out there and build a property business with little to no money . But you will need some money , even if it's just to get educated or just to have a coach or just to have that support . But you will need it .

For marketing , you will need to get out there . Some people say I'm not going to start until I got 10 grand . Well , depending on the strategy that you're doing , you don't always need 10 grand . 900 pounds was all I needed to do .

One rent to rent deal that started cash flowing 550 pounds a month and that was a 900 pounds for a couple of carpets and a bit of painting , and that is the most I've ever spent on a rent to rent deal , people are spending tens and thousands of pounds . You don't need to do that Now .

In some cases you might do , but there's lots of different ways and I show my students how to do this Lots of different ways that you can fund deals that you don't actually have to put your hand in your own pocket . But make sure again , that you've taken the time to sort that out .

You've penciled in who you're going to be meeting , how you're going to be talking to people and how you're going to be positioning yourself out there . Okay , so once you've done those three things , you've broken them down into bite-sized chunks . You can then schedule them in week on week , day on day , so to speak , month on month .

Over the next three months , you should be able to get yourself out there and get yourself a deal . It really is as simple as that . So we've touched on this already . But at number four , it is about using time blocks . So set out chunks of time that you know that you can stick to to put in the tasks that you need to be doing .

So if you're educating yourself , what sort of timeframe , what's the best time for you ? Is it worth getting up early ? Setting out the first hour or half an hour of the day to start educating yourself before the day takes over and sweeps you away .

If you have lunch breaks , can you set a chunk out of that lunch break to maybe sit and have your lunch whilst making phone calls , whilst looking for property deals , whilst also posting and things like that . Set out time slots , allocated time slots , and give yourself some buffers around those . And , of course , don't try and cram everything into all week .

Try and cram things into Monday , tuesday , wednesday . Give yourself some buffer , some time slots on the Thursday and the Friday , if you can , maybe even the Saturday and Sunday , just in case you don't manage to do what you had set out Monday , tuesday , wednesday because life got in the way .

It's a great technique to use and it'll make you feel like you're making great progress , moving forward in your property investing . And , of course , finally , at number five , it is all about taking 10 to 15 minutes each week to review and adjust what it is that you're doing .

If you do not take time to review and see what's working , what's not working , what could be better , to review and see what's working , what's not working , what could be better , then this will all fall apart very , very quickly . I call it my general's tent .

Now , a general's tent was what they used to have on the battlefields , which is where they did all the planning . If you didn't have a general's tent , you'd have all of your soldiers , all of your armies , running around like headless chicken .

No , they had a general's tent where they would plan , they would review what's just happened and they would plan what they're going to do going forward . Have your own general's tent . Okay , take that time . It can take about 15 minutes Initially . It might take you 20 minutes or something .

But really have a journal or whatever it is that you keep your schedule in and just review what has worked well this week . Well , that worked well . What could I tweak next week ?

Because maybe I struggled to fit that in , maybe I couldn't go and make those phone calls I wanted to make , or I couldn't spend that time educating myself because stuff got in the way at that very moment . Okay , so next week , if that's going to happen again , I need to move these time slots . Make sure that you're always adjusting and always reviewing

. Don't just set a calendar out and say , well , I'm going to go to the gym three times a week from this time , this time , this time , by the end of the week you haven't even gone once . Why ? Because it's just not a time that works for you .

Okay , you make sure that it works for your schedule , that it works for you , and of course , that will help you get the results that you want . Help you get the results that you want . If you need any further help or assistance with that , then do feel free to reach out to us .

Visit thepropertyunleashedcom and see all the tools , resources , training and coaching that we offer there . I hope this episode's helped you and I tell you now it's absolutely changed my life and helped me to create the life that I desire . I want the same for you , so get out there and put it into practice and , of course , let me know how it works for you .

Take care . I'll see you all very soon . Bye for now .