It’s time to take inventory of our life and work routines! How do we take the things we do repeatedly and make them easy routines that free up our brain power, creativity and time for everything else? In this episode Alissa and Katy share some of their favorite routines and how they have changed over time. We dive into everything from client communication to meal planning and mornings and everything in between. How can we get more efficient with our routines? What do our small routines look like? Exactly how much time do those routines take? Let’s chat about those questions and boost our productivity and overall well-being at the same time using the power of routines.
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The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.
Alissa 0:02
The normal real estate cycle is I’m so busy I’m stressed out and then it goes to I’m so slow I’m stressed out.
Katy 0:10
Something can be thought you’re gonna be like, that’s when I cry.
Alissa 0:12
That’s when I cry. happy tears of joy.
Katy 0:16
That’s what I cry
Alissa 0:19
for example, this was the most unproductive yet fun day and still I learned a little bit
Katy 0:27
all this mindset of what did you do to set yourself up to feel like I can accomplish things today?
Alissa 0:36
Hi, y’all, welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.
Katy 0:42
We work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business to stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hi, Alyssa. Katie. Are you ready for episode? 210? Yep. 210 and welcome to the news. The Hustle humbly news desk. This
Alissa 1:03
is our new recording setup. If you’re watching on YouTube, that’s right in here. We
Katy 1:07
don’t look so slouchy. I know we felt like those chairs. They were comfy. They’re very comfy. But they were very we looked very slouchy on the YouTube. And so now we look very official. Like we are bringing you the news.
Alissa 1:20
Welcome to HHP newsroom.
Katy 1:22
That’s right. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. Oh, do you miss the flipper
Alissa 1:26
for No,
Katy 1:27
not at all. Oh, I don’t like I don’t miss setting one bit. Read. Maybe we’ll bring real estate. Quick real estate news. Okay, now we’re not doing that today. You guys. Today we’re doing quick routines. Okay, for quick wins.
Alissa 1:42
I like this because I just like, the more I was analyzing myself this week, trying to figure out my quick little works and routine. Yeah. Like the word efficiency just kept coming to mind. Pretty sure that’s the point of most routines. Yeah. Right. It’s like all these little routines that you don’t even realize you do, right? And it kind of reminded me a lot of atomic habits. It made two we have an episode. If you want to go back and listen to the atomic habits episode, we’ll put it on our Instagram. So you can know where to go listen, if you like this episode, and just want to work on, you know, making tiny improvements or tiny things that are easy. Well, I
Katy 2:23
think I’ll read you I got a DM. Okay, I don’t have the exact DM. But basically, I did you know, sometimes I like to post my day in a life. And I had posted like what I did that day or what I was doing that day. And I got a DM from a listener who said, like, how do you get so much done in a day? And I’m like, all of these things were really quick. Yeah, like none of them were taking a lot of time. But it made me think I believe the problem is we get hung up thinking routines have to be very long. They’re very involved, that, you know, no one really gets to the end of their day and looks back and says well look at all have accomplished. But I think you should. Yeah, you should and then maybe pick apart like okay, well, what things am I repeating every day? How can I make those more efficient?
Alissa 3:06
Don’t you do it to done lists? Yes. I love that. That to done makes me feel so good. That’s just the list of everything.
Katy 3:12
I actually call it Shi T I got done today. Oh, good. But like, yes. Because then you can look back and be like, Okay, well, especially when I have a really full day, you know, your appointments all over here and there. And you have to get stuff done and put a listing and do this and do that. Like sometimes at the end of that when you’re feeling really drained. It’s just nice to look back and be like I can get a lot done. And it really helps you in the days when you’re doing nothing. Right? Like, well, I did a lot that real estate is not the same every day. No, some days you get a lot done. Some days, you get nothing done. And you have to give yourself grace for both. Because if you’re doing nothing, maybe your body just needs that reset from doing everything.
Alissa 3:52
I know sometimes I appreciate a slow day like I try not to stress. Yeah, the normal real estate cycle is I’m so busy. I’m stressed out and then it goes to I’m so slow, I’m stressed out. Right. So it’s like a stress either way, don’t do that. That’s no good.
Katy 4:06
I know, I really feel lately, I’ve been thinking a lot. And we’ll get back to routines. I’ve been thinking a lot about agents who maybe just got into the business in the last couple of years and how the market has just drastically changed this year. And I know that some people are probably stressing a little bit more and it is a little bit more uncomfortable. You know, I have a listing that’s just sitting, like designed to this is normal. This is a normal market. So they don’t all sell the first day with five offers or whatever, we’re back to pre 2020 market, like you might have to work a little and you might have to have some unpleasant conversations with your seller and you might have to feel a little like am nervous. But yeah, it’s all worth it. But you have to kind of like get through it. So we’re going to talk about our routines now. But yeah, it’s right now is different. Maybe you do have some slow days. Yeah, that’s okay. Okay, I did get a really interesting quote from a headspace article, headspace is one of the like meditation apps. Yeah. And it said, if you find what works for you, and then turn it into a process that requires zero thought you free your mind for more important things. So like if you’re repeating something over and over again, and you want to make that into like a thought out routine, and then you like, maybe make it a little bit more efficient than every time when you do it. You’re not like, how do I do this? Yes. And then you waste all your brainpower. Like, how do I make a buyer folder? How do I get ready for a listing appointment? How do I everything you do? Yeah. Okay. Do you want to just just jump into some of your favorite routines?
Alissa 5:39
I’m gonna let you start? Oh, okay, great.
Katy 5:41
I broke mine into two categories life and work. Great. Okay. Both happening simultaneously, but we’ll just start. I did want to mention, I didn’t get the episode numbers, but we have done a morning routine and an evening routine episode. Okay, so a lot of my little routines that I wanted to mention today are also part of my morning routines. But number one, I do my morning affirmations and my written goals. And that takes me three minutes. Okay, I timed it. Great. I hit though, off on my alarm. I grabbed my notebook on my bedside table with my pen. So you haven’t even gotten out of bed at this point? No. And I never go straight to my phone to the email or the social media or whatever. I always do this first. Okay, it takes three minutes. It is like I’m barely awake. But it is the way to set my brain on a positive trajectory. Right. And I do the same. It’s not like I’m thinking of three new goals every day. No, it’s like, overarching, you know. So every day, it’s the same thing. Okay. So it’s sort of an example. Like, I have one there that I want to record 52 episodes of the podcast, okay, and have 2 million downloads. And I wrote that every day. Great. So, yes, I would hope it’s a foregone conclusion, but it’s still a goal.
Alissa 7:01
And you know, it’s so funny. On the days that I don’t work out. I just sleep until Tate wakes me up. Yeah, because it’s early, right. And like the thought, like, we’re just in different seasons of life. Yeah. You’re like, you’re like, No kid wakes you up. Right? When you said that, that’s the first thing that came to my mind. I’m like, what? Wow, the thought of not waking up to like, like, I’m in my crib. You know, I
Katy 7:26
my kids are old enough now that we have to be like, wake up. Oh, wow. Yeah, I do have to wake up haven to get up. You’re right. So he’ll at some point, and they’ll both be like, I don’t want to get up. Yeah, don’t make me I want to stay in this crib forever. Like the
Alissa 7:43
thought of waking up grabbing my notebook having a few minutes of journaling. Delightful. To be fair, it was three minutes. That’s great. So I could really let I just turn the monitor off for three minutes and be like, I’ll be there a minute and cry buddy,
Katy 7:56
I’ll be there in a minute or get on the speaker. I’ll be there in a minute. Right? Or you can you can always shift routines for your lifestyle. Do you have to get him out of the crib and like get him in once he’s eating his breakfast maybe then you do your affirmation, whatever if you want to do them. Next on my morning routine is to make the bed okay, I know that you are not make the better. But it takes two minutes. I also timed it. Great. So now five minutes in I have been productive and I have set goals intentions affirmations for the day. Love it. There is research about people who make their bed and it is set you off on the right path. Look, I have already accomplished something. It was mindless. It looks good. I’ve been productive. Done. Great. Okay. Do you want to do you want to do one? Or do you want to keep going?
Alissa 8:46
Um, so in the morning, if I’m not working out, I’m usually just waking up. I don’t get up before the kids. I saw this thing that was like this is my morning routine before the kids wake up and I was like, This is gonna make me feel and what was it sleeping? It was like this girl like ugly sleeping in her bed. Yeah, I was like, Oh, good. Okay, great. One of my friends was like, I’m gonna start waking up before the kids so I can have my coffee and some time to myself. She’s like, don’t you know, day one. They woke up earlier when I didn’t get to do that. I
Katy 9:18
I’m so glad you’re mentioning this. I’ve seen this a few times recently, where they’re like we’re gonna get up before the kids or I do I have this miracle morning. I am a night person. So the time I have without my kids is before I go to bed. Right? It’s just a different time of day your time, right? I
Alissa 9:34
don’t want Yes, I agree. I
Katy 9:36
don’t want to wake up.
Alissa 9:37
I know I do get up early, but I’m really not a morning person. I’m not a morning. I just it’s hard for me. But that’s that’s kind of my thing is that it doesn’t matter if it’s 5am or 7am I getting out of bed is hard. Yeah, I want to stay. It’s very hard. But a few of our things I tell the kids that anything left out on the floor gets eaten by the robo van I love it. And so every morning before we leave the house, we pick up everything off the floor, put it where it goes. And I start Robo vac love it. And every day Robo vac is full. Well, you have a dog and it’s all this the house scenes clean. It’s not a very big reservoir right now. But I mean, if I took it and scattered it around my house, it will look like it would be disgusting. Yeah. Okay, so it’s just interesting. So I start Robo vac every day. That’s sort of like my morning. I do clean my bathroom while I brush my teeth. So I’m brushing my teeth. I’m while I’m brushing my teeth because I can’t just what I learned about myself through observation, okay, for this episode. I can’t sit still. Like I like to be productive unless I’m, you’re all on or off. Yes, yes. And so, like I’m brushing my teeth. So I’m thinking about my day. What do I have today? I have I’m picking up and clearing off my countertop, right? I’m straightening the covers, but not making the bed like I’m sick. Or like when I put the kids sausage biscuit in the microwave for a minute. I do the dishes for a minute. Yeah. While it’s microwaving. I can’t just like sit there. And wait.
Katy 11:11
No. I’m very like this, like multitasking. Yeah,
Alissa 11:14
I just keep it moving. Keep it moving. Right. And
Katy 11:16
once you’re on the path of moving, you’re not going to stop until it’s time to stop. Yes. Yeah. Agree. Yeah. Complete. I
Alissa 11:22
found that I was constantly having stack ocean. Yes. Habit stacking. Oh, this is in the microwave. Now it’s time to do the dishes or the kids are eating. I’m going to make the lunch. Yeah, during that time. So it’s like, I don’t know. I’m never just like wasting time thing is moving pretty quickly once we’re up and going. Yeah. And then I dropped the kids off. Right now it’s summer, so I dropped them off at eight when school starts I dropped them off at 740 but I usually have like an hour. Yeah, before my first appointment. Okay, whether it’s the Monday morning meeting at our office more my first appointment. Yeah, so I usually use that time sometimes after I dropped them off and I get back in the car. Depending on
Katy 12:08
something and beat though. You’re gonna be like, that’s when I cry.
Alissa 12:10
That’s when I cry. happy tears of joy.
Katy 12:13
That’s when I
Alissa 12:14
cry. Okay, no, no, but sometimes I’ll if I don’t have enough time to like go to a coffee shop or I’ll just clear out my email in my car right there. Right? Like one time I had this lady waiting on me to like she thought I got in my car to move spot. She
Katy 12:30
was trying to get on your car for like 30 minutes got stuff go. I
Alissa 12:33
had to do this before I like it’s just not enough time to go somewhere else. So I’ll just hear it out there.
Katy 12:39
Oh, my that’s so funny. Yeah. Okay. And also in my morning, I’m doing the same thing. I like to make my lemon water. You know, I’ve been doing this for a whole year, almost not a whole year. But since the beginning of the year. I clean while it takes you know, a minute 30 seconds to make my water hot. I am cleaning the counter cleaning the kitchen, putting away the dishes like do whatever that and then I cleaned like my main living area. So like jazz up the living room so that the living room the kitchen, the dining room, the part that’s in the middle is clean. Everything is put away nice and tidy. It’s tidy, it looks good. I made my lemon water 10 minutes. So in 10 minutes now, when I come into my office, I’m not distracted by thinking there’s so much to be done out in the house like the main part is good. I’m not worried about what a kid room looks like my bed is made. So my room looks good. That’s it. I come in my office and then we’re in office time.
Alissa 13:34
So if you follow me on Instagram, you might know Dante, our large Mastiff. He is like my sweet baby puppy dog. I just love him so much. But he does have these jowls. And he can be slobbery at times he’s not allowed to drink water inside the house. Because it will just leave a trail he has to eat and drink outside. Anyway, I’m saying that to say when I come home from my workout, the kids are still asleep. And I usually I’m all sweaty and gross. So I usually take that time to water the outside plants. Okay. And I will just like get on the ground with dontoh grand. I’ll just like because I’m about to go shower. Yeah, so I’ll just like let him slobber all over me and I just like really like scratch him good. We throw the ball he he knows. Like he’s like, it’s like he can smell the sweat. He’s like, this means I’m gonna get some serious love. You know, I love that. Now when he’s inside at night, he’s he’s calm. He’s Yeah, he’s not. He’s not slobbering all the time. Right. I know that would be a problem. But he comes in and he lays and he gets his bone in his blanket and he watches shows with us and he’ll he’ll put his head in my lap and sleep you know, but in the morning he wants to play so I just have to be like, super grungy and accepting and then I just get in the shower and like, right get all clean. Good Smile. Art I know
Katy 15:00
love that for Dante. Dogs are great with routines dogs and kids love routine they do they crave route, they love a routine. You know you got to have your bedtime routine your morning routine. The dog knows all the routines like if you put on shoes and walk through the house and go get water in your cup and say to anyone Are you ready to go? I’m looking because he’s sleeping under our feet. He will go into his kennel.
Alissa 15:26
Oh, like oh, this is where I go now people are leaving. So he sent us can only yell at home when we’re
Katy 15:31
not home. That’s okay. He is he’s sleeping. But we’re we work from home both of us. So that’s a good point. It’s not often that everyone has gone but he knows when it’s time. Yeah. And he’s like willingly just popped right in there. But I have a good two out, you know, at the airing of this episode. We’re back into our school time routine. Yes. So I I’m picturing myself in the future and how happy I will be because it’s so hard to be out of routine and the summer. It’s hard for everyone just a shift I there’s just so much more mom guilt in the summer. I’m like you’re doing nothing. You’re on screens too long. I have to work still like
Alissa 16:10
Ainsley spent a great babysitter for Haven.
Katy 16:13
She has been I mean, I wish that she had some more babysitting gigs, just so she would have something else to do. But anyway, we’re back in the routine. Now. By the time my kids leave, I get like a full two hours before my workday starts. Wow, once they’re gone. Okay, so my whole day shifts up a lot in school time. Which is hard for me because I’m not any more a morning person. But I forced to be up. Yes. So then I get those two hours. So now that I have tidied the house and gotten my lemon water now I’m going to drink it kind of slow. Do my kids are gone? Yeah, do my stretch routine. Maybe listen to a podcast while I’m doing those things. And then I’ll get dressed. Okay. So if I’m going to exercise like all that has to fall into that time frame so that by nine, it should be worked on. I don’t know this year, I’d like to try and and try out some new i I’ve killed myself before and said I could work half day. I’m going to work half of it. No. If I am up and I have started working, the work will go until I physically make myself stop. And it is not going to be at noon. Like it’s just not going to happen. So I’m considering like a I’ve hear a lot of these people these days are liking like a four day work week and they don’t work on Fridays. I’m like that can work for me. Because if I never turn it on, well, we
Alissa 17:27
take days off.
Katy 17:28
I take lots of days off. Yeah, I just want two more days. Oh, I see. I just want to I’m just gonna I’m still I’m still hacking productivity. I think everyone is sure because you’re always changing seasons, things are always shifting in your schedule the market like
Alissa 17:44
routine, right? Yeah. Like
Katy 17:46
things have to change. I don’t know, this year might feel different, like what’s
Alissa 17:50
working, what’s not working? Right? What needs to go,
Katy 17:54
maybe your kid joins a different after school activity, all of a sudden your schedule changes. So I don’t know, it always has to be reviewed and shifted.
Alissa 18:03
We have a lot of new agents in our office right now that are going through all their training and one of the big trainings is phone duty. Okay. I love to phone duty. Right? You did so well with it. I did I but what I love about it is I didn’t at first, okay, when I first started found it, I was very rigid, like, oh, I need to ask these questions like, Are you pre approved with a lender and then they would get all scared at you, as I mentioned a scary word. And I remember kind of being like, just soften it like you’re doing the right thing, but you need to be more approachable. ease into it. Yeah, I’m like, okay, yeah. Okay. Like I was nervous. I didn’t know. Right. And so and I think that just takes practice, but Right, like, so have you talked to a lender about your budget yet? Do you know what your comfort zone is? And all of a sudden, I started getting good responses and people would agree to meet me in person and like, it’s like, I became addicted to learning what worked and what didn’t work so that I could you were tweaking, I was tweaking on stuff constantly for phone duty. I was learning how to talk to people. I had never sold a house before. Many of my first sales came from phone duty. But I hear a lot of complaints about I have phone duty robbed, blah, blah, because it’s like, it can be a two hour shift. It could be a three hour shift, right? But I loved it because I was like It forced me to get to the office. Yeah. I never wasted any time, right? I brought a stack of handwritten letters or I made it like okay, this is going to be my database day. I’m gonna go in and make sure I’m friends with you. I basically do a Facebook focus work. Yeah, during that time. And if the phone rang great, right, if it didn’t, great, great. I still got so much done that day. Yeah. And I feel the same way about open houses. Yeah, like people had an open house. No one came I got dressed for nothing. I’m like, did you take pictures in the house for yourself? Social media did you do a video like a house for social media? You can use that time to go through your database or whatever. Did you text
Katy 20:08
all of your past clients or sphere that live nearby? Yeah, I’m near you right now.
Alissa 20:13
Come by if you want birthday kids, I mean, the I just feel like there was never any wasted time. Yeah. And so those things never bothered me, right? Doing an open house or doing an agent tour. Like, nobody. If nobody comes. I’m not leaving their deflated. I’m leaving their feelings. So ahead, because my emails cleaned out accomplished. I got some good content for social media. Yeah, it’s never, it’s never a waste. One of my biggest pet peeves is like a waste of time. And that’s why I like setting up a new technology or making a flyer like things like that suck the life Atomy, right, cuz I’m like, I have spent all day doing this. And I just don’t feel productive at all right. But if I can find a way to be productive, even like our office secretary, we, you know, we just mailed out our LSU magnet, their kids, I’m like, here’s 20 bucks. Can you stuffed them all in envelopes? Yeah. Easy peasy. Like, if you know that it’s something like that, right? Just there’s cheap ways to delegate delegate doesn’t mean you have to hire like a full on assistant, right? It just means like, you just need to find and or like newer agents in your office, ask them, Hey, would you be willing to do this? I’ll pay you this. Or maybe if it’s something like putting out signs and lock boxes, they just want to do it for free for the experience. Yeah, I would hope it’s all about like efficiency, right? Be efficient. Okay. Well,
Katy 21:41
when you said practice, and the more you were doing your phone duty, like the better you got, and that routine kind of like solidified for you. I also read that the more you perform a routine, the better and more efficient you will get at it. So here’s, here’s an easy example for everyone. You take a shower every day, right? Maybe every other day, some point time to get yourself clean, you likely have a system that you go through in the shower, because you’ve done it so many times that that routine has been made more efficient. Yeah, right. Like you. I dry myself off exactly the same way in exactly the same order every single day. And that funny, because if I didn’t, then I would forget to dry off my back. Right? Or like, you would miss an arm? Yeah, but you’ve like made it efficient, right? And then you’re done. So just think that way. And then like, what if you got that good at your database, contacting a routine, or your you know, listing prep routine, or your you know, like, whatever it is, if you were the more that you do that thing, the more efficient you will get at it. So like the practice sort of makes the routine and then it becomes more mindless. And now you have that space in your brain to do something else. So the more you do it, I think the better it will get. And I thought that made perfect sense to me. Yeah. And that’s so productive, right. I just think that’s really helpful. My last life one was meal planning on Sunday. We do groceries on Monday, Jake, it’s the groceries on Monday. meal planning at this point takes us probably us like five minutes. Wow, maybe Tim before you know 1520 30 Sure if you’re having to like look up recipes are really thinking about it. But we have kind of like our Go twos now. And like we know, we haven’t had this in a while. And we know what the kids really like and will like we know what makes more and what will have leftovers what really changed for meal planning for us. Like way back in the spring. We did like a reset. And so we were planning lunches as well. That was next level. Yeah. Because like I knew and we never did better at like not wasting food. Because you knew everything. It wasn’t just like I nothing irks my nerves. Now that I’m a meal planner. Nothing irks my nerves more than when Jay says it’s alright. We’ll just have leftovers. I’m like of what? Right? We’ll just have whatever’s here. What is it? Yeah, like I need to know. Right? Well, leftovers. But you only made these two meals that we ate the whole thing. There’s only leftover chili. Yeah, like there’s nothing leftover. What? Yeah. Oh, I mean, I guess you could eat a sandwich or suit. I just need to know
Alissa 24:18
I’m also having another glimpse into a breath of fresh air that my future will be right. Because like, sometimes my kids love something. I’m like, I’m gonna make that again. And then I don’t like this. I’m like, you’ve loved it. Before dinner is such a struggle. Yeah, they’re so picky at this age. And like, one day they love something and then they don’t or green is now gross, because the kid at school said it’s gross.
Katy 24:46
Yeah. Once they get a little bit older I do they have their go twos now have we introduced new things? Sure. And are they fussy about it sometimes? Yeah. Yeah. But it’s just like, This is what the dinner is and then maybe the side is something I know you’re going to Eat right like so. You know, but the meal planning in itself is huge. You don’t waste groceries, you don’t waste time getting your groceries like the whole process is faster. And now that Jay does the groceries, I will say there’s a lot less extra fluff that comes because if I’m at the grocery store I’m like, yeah, like Well, yes. Yeah, no, no, no. Like it was just the list.
Alissa 25:25
One day we have Monday night dinner, okay. One of my summer routines was swim lessons is every Monday and then we go to Monday night dinner. Monday used to be swim at 430. And then I would get to my parents house, they would take a bath and we would go straight to Monday night dinner because my grandma lives across the street, right? So I would just walk over Yeah. And they’d be in their jammies. they’d eat their dinner. We go home, they go straight to bed. It’s pretty nice. During the summer, I moved swim lessons an hour early. Okay, so I picked them up at three o’clock. They went to swim lessons. We went to my mom’s they we swam for an hour. I get in the pool. Yeah, it was fun for them. And then we would shower go to Monday night dinner. So Mondays is like set. Tuesdays is usually leftovers from Monday night dinner, right? He makes us make a plate. I love that. So take it home. So Tuesdays is that I’d get HelloFresh on Wednesdays. Okay, it comes with two meals. Okay, so I will usually make that Wednesday and then maybe Sunday night okay. And then Friday me and Tanner just kind of like feed them chicken nuggets or something easy something that we have that we can just put together. It’s so funny because havens really into snack plate. Oh, and it’s like the plate with the dividers and yeah, writer has like two bites of something. I love it. It’s like a pickle. Kid charcuterie. Yes. Yes. A pickle chip. Some almonds. A string cheese shirt girl. She just loves it like leather too and full of Cheerios. Okay. And then me and Tanner like to pick up something on Friday night. Okay, but we skipped Thursday. Oh, what do you owe me? You? I don’t know. You’re challenging. HelloFresh HelloFresh got our leftover from the night before? HelloFresh. Okay, it’s just kind of
Katy 27:14
are the kids eating? HelloFresh by the way, this podcast is not sponsored by hell. No. It is not. It is not. Do they eat it?
Alissa 27:22
It’s what’s for dinner.
Katy 27:23
It’s what’s free. I love that. It’s
Alissa 27:25
sometimes they eat it. Sometimes I don’t. I’m like if you were really hungry, you would eat it and take it’s okay. If you miss a meal. You’re fine. You’re sort of you have plenty of storage. So I’m not worried about you missing a meal. To bed. Right? Okay, yeah. So anyway, I feel like but meals do stress me out. Okay, but
Katy 27:44
then what happens Saturday because you’ve given us all the other day. So now I want to know them all.
Alissa 27:48
It just depends. That’s okay. You know, sometimes we’ll cook sometimes we’ll go out like sometimes that’s our date night. Yeah, we’ll just order a pizza for the babysitter, right? It just depends. When Sunday’s Tanner cooks for himself for the whole week. Oh, Tanner’s. This isn’t anything new. His whole life. He has been very disciplined and regimented on what he eats. Is he cooking his lunch? Yeah. Okay, or everything? Like, he cares. Not that he eats the same thing every day. I can’t do it. Right. So I tell them when you make like ground beef and fish and shrimp just make enough to feed tait as well. Okay. And so sometimes like he just keeps like a huge thing of ground beef or ground turkey or whatever in his in the fridge. And I can use it. I was just eating
Katy 28:35
grown beef. What does he do is he’s just happy eating just eating it plain.
Alissa 28:40
Yes. But like, he’ll have a vegetable with it. Oh, sure. But still, that’s my he’s perfectly happy that like making a taco never complains about it. Whatever. Every time he eats it. He’s like, this is so good. And I’m like, I can’t do it. But it’s great because I can make tacos with ground beef. Sure, but the kids lately they just want ground beef with cheese on it and they just eat it with a spoon. I’m like, I what I’m you know, like I made this whole gourmet thing. And I you know, right. Okay. So anyways,
Katy 29:10
I love that. Okay, do you have any other life routines? That wasn’t in my life list?
Alissa 29:17
I do fall asleep. Let’s say when I get in bed at night, I’ll put the audio book timer on for 10 minutes. Okay. I usually don’t remember it going off. Okay, so I fall asleep. Once I listened to it the next day. I like to see how far back I have to rewind. Yeah, until I remember to see how quickly I fell off. Do
Katy 29:36
you find that? That is Is it five minutes? All right. That’s cool. What about your picture clean out I wanted to make sure you mentioned that so the kids go to bed at seven.
Alissa 29:44
Okay Haven is having trouble falling asleep probably because seven is too early for her. It is it is too early. That is but that’s her time that she has to go in her room and she can read books in color but like the lights have to be down On and she has to be okay quiet to sleep. Once they’re in their rooms and she just goes to sleep when she’s tired. She does Yeah, she’ll she’ll just amaze out asleep. So after they go to bed, I usually get in the tub. And I clean out my pictures from that day I upload things to Shutterfly so I can delete them off my camera. I usually post like the kid pictures and like, right when you’re going through that, yeah, um, it’s just kind of like my fun time. During the day. I don’t I like if I’m working. I try not to like scroll, scroll, scroll. Yeah, but I do like to scroll right? Sure. Everybody does. Right. So once the kids are asleep, I’m like, I’m just gonna be mindless for a minute. Like my face care and get my makeup on? Yeah, okay, just my time and maintainer. Usually, whenever the kids go to bed, I usually go straight to the bathtub and Tanner usually goes straight to his sauna. Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, he likes his sauna. So the secret sauce, the secret sauna that I didn’t know about. While I was in Australia. And got all set up while I was out of the country like showed up at his workshop in sauna he kept coming in so sweaty. He’s like really working out hard to be got snow sitting still, in fact, no, right? Yeah. And so finally, I’m like, I need to go. What is going on in the workshop? I’m like, There’s a freakin sauna in here. I’m like, did that get here?
Katy 31:30
Do you get in it? No, you don’t like it? No. Hmm. Interesting. Okay, so he’s doing that you’re in the bath. Then you
Alissa 31:38
then we meet together for dinner and our show or a documentary or something cute. We just like eat dinner together and watch something of that. And then I usually go straight to bed by 830 or nine.
Katy 31:49
I’m so tired while you’re getting up early.
Alissa 31:52
I am getting up early. So he’ll stay up a little later. But I don’t like he’ll stay up till like 10. Okay. But that’s our evening routine Web. Okay.
Katy 32:03
Are you ready to hear some work routines? Yeah. I you know, because I wanted people to understand. I didn’t want to just say the routine but I wanted to tell the time it actually took so I have literally stopwatch these things. That’s awesome that I’m giving you time for I’m not guessing like I timed it. Listing binder prep. So every listing that I take, I created a listing binder. It’s got all kinds of stuff in it that helps the buyers when they’re there in a showing I include everything that’s in my binder in agent systems, but the time it takes for me to do this is 17 minutes. Awesome. That includes making the flyer for the cover and putting all the things in the binder because you’re gonna have the your flyer template you’re carrying out the photo. Yes, I already have the template. I already know what I’m putting in there. I already know what to print up. I have a checklist I check off done. 17 minutes. Great. Yeah. Okay, then I have to post my listing like right when I’m done with the listing appointment. So I get home, I have the folder, I have all the junk that I brought with them. I send the staging email, if I know I’m gonna get the listing. Remember, that’s the one holdout I have if they’re like interviewing, I would wait maybe on this but I would always send the staging email so the list of things I wrote while we were there, and that’s when I write my handwritten notes. So before I can put away that folder before I can clean them off my desk if I got back from the listing appointment, they got a staging email with like next steps and then a handwritten note and this is about 10 minutes. Okay, okay. Yeah. Do you have any that you want to?
Alissa 33:36
Well, I noticed that whenever I have a new client, my brain automatically does these things. The first thing I do is I open Trello and type their name perfect. I usually start taking notes somewhere that I will later put into Trello if I’m not doing it directly in Trello Okay, when you say somewhere like on a piece of paper where depending where I am when they call Okay, sometimes if I’m not driving I can put them on speaker and type it in note Okay, um, to when I get to a stopping point I can make their Trello card but I just I have got to write it down somewhere me too. I will forget that I even spoke to you. Yeah, so I have like a buyer or seller intake form and I keep a few of them around because I need a place to write this stuff down and so that I don’t forget to ask the questions and I don’t forget to get the information you’re telling me right and then I instantly send them the first email that they need perfect whether it’s the pre approval needed template, the pre listing template that is like hey, so glad we got to talk. Here’s the things I need you to do. How does the state look to me? And then I usually see see myself this is new already. I can’t wait. I have been seeing myself Okay, so that I can snooze the email so that it will pop back into your reminder. Yeah, because your email is your to do list because I need to make sure like that because sometimes this is what would happen especially the last three years of market madness. Yeah. where things were just like I would my goal was always like, I need to put the ball in your court and then, but you weren’t going back to make sure they got the ball. I was so busy. I’m like, I don’t have time to babysit. Yeah, like, Did
Katy 35:10
you receive the past? Right?
Alissa 35:12
So you’re either a motivated person that’s going to respond and do your homework. And if you’re not, I don’t have time to work with you right now. But now that things have slowed down, I need to make sure that like, just because I sent them their homework. I can’t just forget about
Katy 35:27
right. There has to be follow up. So it is more important now.
Alissa 35:30
Yes, yes. And I kind of like when the email pops back up, because I can respond to it and be like, Hey, just wanted to follow up on the email below. Do you have any questions about the disclosure,
Katy 35:42
right? Like, hey, yes, it’s also good to figure out are they ever gonna email you back? Like, do I need to text people not email or like, what’s the story? Do I have the wrong email address?
Alissa 35:52
Right? And so then I’ll snooze it again. Okay. Now if for how long did you snooze it the first time, like two days, okay. Like I’ve given you. We talked, I sent you all the info. I’ll give you two days, and then I’ll check in and be like, Okay, questions. How’s it going? How
Katy 36:04
long do you snooze the next that one, two days.
Alissa 36:07
So two days, usually, by the second someone has responded, they’ve responded with an update to which I’ll just put that date on my calendar. Okay. They may say, Oh, I’m so sorry. The kids are going back to school next week. I’m going to work on it when they get back in school. Got it. So I can either snooze the email till that date or whether you need it. Okay, so I’ve really enjoyed snoozing.
Katy 36:28
Using emails before or this snoozing an email is
Alissa 36:31
all new. I have been playing with it for a while. But I’m hesitant to like, when I teach the email class in my office, just to get like an empty inbox, people were snoozing their emails, just all just go away and then come back in a day, right? Well, this is just then you’re making it tomorrow’s problem. Exactly. Okay. So I was hesitant to teach that to teach the snooze option because it should be used properly there. You’re actually snoozing.
Katy 36:59
The email you sent, though, to come back into your inbox?
Alissa 37:04
Yes. Unless they responded like if she responds and says the kids go back to school, August 9. Maybe I’ll snooze it till August 10. Get her email. Right. So August 10. I’m reminded that she last told me her kids are going back to school.
Katy 37:19
I have used the snooze method in the last year, like when I was on vacation. Yeah. which I loved. Yeah, if I was trying to keep it clean, and just make sure that I knew what I absolutely needed to know. While I wasn’t working. Yes, I would snooze them for when I was coming back. Right, which was really nice. I do that on vacation as well. So that’s a very useful tool. Yeah, I’ve
Alissa 37:42
really enjoyed this news feature. Love it. And you can schedule it for like, six months out
Katy 37:49
at my house. I’m sure yours does, too. Using and Gmail like it has dropped me. They’d be like Monday at 8am. Yeah, I’m like,
Alissa 37:56
Yeah, click Great.
Katy 37:57
Thank you. It goes great suggest like if it’s over the weekend, Monday a datum? Yeah, we’ll get to this. Okay. You mentioned email. We’re just now sending any email template to me is a routine. And sending any email template is going to take you less than five minutes, instead of creating the email about whatever that is, which is probably 15 or more minutes,
Alissa 38:18
especially when I get a new contract. Yeah, okay. Something is now pending. It’s like an, I have an email that has to go to the buyer with their next steps, an email that has to go to the other agent and email, it has to go to the lender and email that has has to go. So it’s like, because of the templates. This is done so fast. So fast, and it looks good. Yeah.
Katy 38:42
And you’re putting the ball into everyone else’s court. Yeah, like not in mind. I can just like, move on to something else. Yes. Okay. So I did have email templates as a routine. Oh, yeah. If you do not have email templates yet, dear sweet listener, you need them. You don’t have to have ours, but we do have them. But you need them. Yes. It’s the easiest thing you can do in your business to speed up. After you find
Alissa 39:07
yourself writing the same email over and over and over again. Save it,
Katy 39:12
send it to yourself. Yes, that is your template. Yes. It’s just that easy. Okay, listing appointment prep. That’s my next routine I’m going to tell you about. I do this in under 30 minutes, including a CMA grid, unless it’s a really tricky property. But I have my set of steps. I follow them every time I pull out my folder, I get out my net sheet like I do all the steps. I can get a phone call from a new seller and be literally at their house if I wanted to be 30 minutes plus travel time. Yeah, because I have it all routine out like it is the same every time and I love that I don’t ever forget anything. And even every time I do it, it gets a little bit more efficient. And it gets like this. Your confidence just goes up like exponent every time you do. You’re like yep, I’m good. I know everything I need to No, and I’m ready to go. Yeah, so that’s one of my favorite ones. easier and easier. It gets easier every time every time. That’s like a whole section of agent systems. Okay, my favorite one. Yeah, yeah, from first call to listing appointment in under 30 minutes. That’s pretty, like, that’s gonna give all the extra time you have to reach out to your database. Yeah. Okay. Tell me about your post closing routine.
Alissa 40:25
So once I have a closing, I have a little email template for myself of things that I have to make sure I do. Okay, or the office. documents are uploaded, all the compliance documents are good. I like to post it on Instagram. I have a checklist that then happens for my personal stuff, like make sure they’re added to the database, make sure they get their requests for reviews, handwritten letters to the other agent out, you know, all the blacklist things.
Katy 40:55
What do you do in the car? Do you have like a, you have like your series of things you do when you left closing? And you got my car? I feel like you’ve mentioned it before. Maybe we’ll use our AI to find it. Yeah,
Alissa 41:04
I don’t remember I don’t It’s not ringing a
Katy 41:07
bell. Because I usually just forward to you post like you post your like, like your social media from that closing. When do you do that?
Alissa 41:17
It kind of depends. Lately, it’s been weird. Like, I’ll my closings will all be on one day. Yeah. And then it’s like you don’t want to it’s hard to get spread them out. I just kind of spread them out. Oh, I
Katy 41:28
see. I see. So you’re not doing three posts in a row? Right. Got it. Got it. Wow, what a great problem to have a wonderful problem now. My post closing checklist is probably about 15 minutes. Okay, you know, yeah, sending What do you gotta send to the office document wise, making sure everything is like uploaded and dotloop, which is where we have it, you know, sending any, like, the follow up emails to clients, putting them in the database, like changing their address all that stuff? Yeah, I would say about 15 minutes. Okay. I have another routine that I do every week. Okay. And it is my answer to the paper planner. I don’t have a paper planner. I have never had a paper planner. I’m not ever going to probably have a paper plan. I wish that I love a paper planner I love like color coding, but it wasn’t actually efficient. It was just for fun for fun and time consuming and no thanks. So I have a weekly activity sheet. It has a single piece of paper that I created in like on an actual Google spreadsheet, and it’s got the week on it. And it’s got the current clients I’m following up with like, who are the warmish leads, right? And then it’ll have what’s pending? And then it’ll have what are the listings? How do you know what to put under? Like? It’s like, paper version of your Trello. Okay,
Alissa 42:49
but when you have a new blank one, you have to remember who to write down. Well, they I typed them in. Last you were last week they were typed in, as they came up, they were added to this list. I see. Yeah, see, or I’ll have like
Katy 43:02
the piece of paper because I keep it on my desk, or next to my desk, because it’s got my week like what are the appointments and I just jot them in. And then here are the people Oh, I got a new call from Suzy. I’ll just write Suzy under the buyer column. Yes, I have the stuff that I knew. That’s where you’re putting them as they are. And then when I go to make that’s part of the routine. Now on my office day of this week, I take out this week’s paper and I’m like, Oh, these are the people I need to add. And I make the switch I change the dates the top and I put Suzy in and I oh well this pin in closed or this listing is pending. I move it all around, and then I printed for the next week. Okay. Okay, favorite day to do that is Friday. But whatever the office day is, is when I do it. I like to include it in my Friday shutdown, but I don’t have to do and it is kind of a nice way to check in on all of the prospects like not necessarily the people who are transacting right now. Like who’s also just kind of on the fringe has maybe raised their hand but is looking or whatever.
Alissa 44:01
When I was preparing for this episode, it really made me think back to how much time I wasted before I had kids, because I had the luxury of right, okay, your work expands to fill the time I could do whatever I wanted to write like Tanner worked crazy hours. I didn’t have to be home at a certain time. Like, during the week, I would be like, Hey, I’m going to have drinks with the title company. I’ll see after it. He’s like, okay, you know, it’s like, for example, this was the most unproductive yet fun day and still I learned a little bit. But on Wednesdays, we would go to sales meeting. Okay. After sales meeting, we have tour, okay, you tour the new lift rains, and we would make it fun. We would all load into each other’s cars. You had the route that the Office gave you, right? You toured the listings, you left feedback and then we all went to lunch, and then it was like 230 It’s like a playdate. is a playdate? Yeah. Okay. But like, those are some of my favorite memories. Sure. Because now Was I being very productive? No, and I probably wasn’t, this was, you know, 2011 2012 2013, I probably wasn’t posting anything on social media you could have, that would have been great content, it would have been very productive, very productive. I wasn’t doing any of that. And then I would just like, clean out my email, I probably didn’t have a lot of business because I wasn’t working much at that time, you know, but it’s like, I was just so all of this to say, if you don’t have something forcing a timeframe on you, whether it be a spouse, or kids or like, oh, I have to pick up the kids at three o’clock. So like, now I have to work and be very efficient. Do you know, and lunch with friends only happens when my email is tidy? Yeah. And I have to make sure that I have time for that. Because i Nothing is worse than me pulling up to get the kids and thinking about all the things that are left that are left that are time sensitive. And that stresses me out. And then I’m not a great mother, right? Because I’m distracted. And I’m stressed out. But I see a lot of the agents that may be their kids are older and gone, or like they just don’t have they don’t have kids or they don’t they’re not married or whatever it is. They’re so free. Yeah. But that’s when you really have to watch it. Because the you have to give yourself some structure, right? Or the day just gets away from you. And you don’t even know what you did. And you didn’t work on your database. It’s
Katy 46:39
like you either worked all the time, or you didn’t work any of the time. Correct. There’s like no, in between.
Alissa 46:44
And on the flip side, Wednesday’s, were definitely the day full of fluff. There were days where I just would be on my computer until 1030. At night. Yeah. Because I just loved like, I just couldn’t turn it off. Right, you know, so it’s like, I had no one to tell me to turn it off. I had no one to tell me to turn it on. I was just winging it. And it really wasn’t efficient at
Katy 47:08
Oh, so having the routines now and sort of being forced into some of those routines because you have a schedule and children made a difference. Yeah. And
Alissa 47:17
leading up to having Haven, all I could think was like, I’m not going to be able to do this. How am I going to have time, right. And once I implement with Haven came boundaries and routine, and my business like tripled? Yeah. Because all of a sudden, I was like, I had a purpose. I had a deadline you had to cut off Liferay Yeah, yeah. And like I saw my friends, but like, you have to work. Yeah, you know, 100%
Katy 47:43
Do you have any other routines that you want to share with us? Um, I have one more under my work list. Okay. The Friday shutdown. So Anna kornek. From the podcast. It’s about time as her podcast has great episodes on shutdown routine startup routine for your work, okay, I do a Friday shutdown routine that I have done intuitively and create it like it just is what I got in the habit of doing for years, because I know that I am probably going to have to work on one or both days of the weekend. But I don’t have to be chained to my desk. I just have to complete showings or open houses or like actual appointments. Right? So I sort of made it a rule where it was like on Friday, I checked all the files, I made sure that everything that was admin is done or can be can be held off until Monday I would prep if I’m doing open house, I would prep the sign in sheet I would put like, everything’s ready to go in the box. Like for the open house. Or if I had showings, scheduled the appointment, get the folder ready, like print up the MLS sheet if I needed all that’s done on the Friday shutdown so that on the weekend, it is just do the appointment, get back into like life. And like I would leave literally I would just throw folders on my desk would be a mess by Monday. But at the point was I’m not allowed to sit at the desk and clean this and do piddly work type stuff like I have to live in the mindset that the only work I can do on the weekend is required appointments out of my home. Yes, I’m not. I’m not doing admin. So my Friday shutdown routine just prepped me so that I wasn’t doing prep also. Sure. Before that appointment. Yeah. And that’s my last little routine I wanted to share. And that took about an hour probably. Yeah, I
Alissa 49:36
feel like the more I thought about it, I realized, wow, I’m way more systematic than I thought I was. Yeah, there’s so many things that I do over and over. Kind of like when people talk about real estate scripts and I get that like icky feeling. I’m like, Oh, I don’t do scripts and like Yeah, I do. Yeah, there are things that I say over and over and over again that just pour out of me so naturally because you That’s my script. That’s what I say, over and over and over. You
Katy 50:03
came to it over time as you build those routines
Alissa 50:06
like like email templates, I have these things in my head that I just say, because Sure, that’s the common thing.
Katy 50:12
I like that. Yeah,
Alissa 50:14
that’s interesting observing, observing myself.
Katy 50:17
I think that is a great point, though. For anyone who’s listening to this because that was the initial DM I got it was like she said, I know I have routines, but I usually overthink them. And I don’t know what they are. Just take a couple of days or a week and kind of look at it through that lens. You
Alissa 50:32
do the time audit.
Katy 50:33
I love the time audit was great. That one was wild. It was a three day you can find these on like Google or whatever. It was a three day in every 15 minutes that you were awake. You wrote down what you did. I mean, talk about an audit. Yeah. Wow. And you know, we talked about this on a recent episode. I think it’s like when you’re recording what you’re eating? Yeah. Like, well, do I really want this Hershey Kiss? I’m gonna put it on the list. Like, do I really want to scroll Instagram for another 15 minutes? That’s gonna be pretty embarrassing when I look back at this, but it was kind of nice to like, make you realize, okay, I’m doing this a lot. Yeah. Or this process takes a lot longer than I thought. Right? You know what I learned the most from that time audit. Mike, I didn’t realize how much time I spent traveling from appointment to appointment. I just pictured it all being like, one day, right? And I’m like, there’s a lot of drive time here. Yeah, so time audit is great. But go back and like, audit your own routines. Yeah. Is there a place where you’re feeling good add one or maybe you have when you didn’t even realize you had and you want to make it more efficient or you love it, like celebrate that you have them. Okay, the last little tip or point I wanted to make is that having routines not only boosts your productivity, it also boosts your well being your sense of accomplishment. And you can get that done in a short amount of time. That is the the actual make your bed situation is Yeah, I feel accomplished. I feel like I’ve been productive. I have a good sense of well being and then I move into my date all of that mindset. Yeah. Like what did you do to set yourself up to feel like I can accomplish things today? Okay, you’re good. Yeah. I love it. I love talking about routines. I love celebrate. They’re all so small for me. Yeah,
Alissa 52:22
they’re also small things. It doesn’t have to be this big overhaul.
Katy 52:25
No and then doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Several you have tons you definitely have tons. Okay, let’s do a toast today. Our toast is from Amy Anderson. To Jackie Roberto and they are in Destin, Florida.
Alissa 52:38
Oh, that’s fine. I
Katy 52:39
know. I love that. Amy says my toast goes to my broker in Florida at Realty One Group Emerald Coast. She is She is the meaning of hustle humbly. She has been the one person that really has helped me through my career and what awaits she helped me understand what a realtor should be. She taught me the importance of transactions. It’s not about the transaction. It’s about the people buying or selling their home and and to get personable with them. The way that she cares for all of her agents is what makes this brokerage the one to be with we’re family. She said we love you so they love Oh, I just love that. So Jackie sounds lovely. Yeah. Okay, so cheers to Jackie. And thank you to Amy. And you all go out there and just Yeah, live your routine. Yeah, enjoy those routine. Notice your routine notice though, I think it’d be awesome. Okay, goodbye.
Alissa 53:33
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast.
Katy 53:36
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to rate this podcast.com/hustle humbly and leave us a review or drop a comment if you’re listening on Spotify.
Alissa 53:44
If you have an episode topic or someone you’d like to toast on the show, please email us at team at hustle humbly podcast.com
Katy 53:51
Find us on social media at hustle humbly podcast. Don’t forget to find all the free resources at hustle humbly podcast.com/resources See you next week.
Alissa 54:01
This is the goodbye
