How to Own Your Calendar & Boost Productivity

Strategic planning and time blocking can often feel overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling the demands of a busy real estate business and personal life. But it doesn’t have to be! 

Today, I’m inviting you to plan a month with me. I’ll be sharing the strategies and tools I use to make sure my professional commitments and personal priorities coexist on my calendar—all while keeping my head above water.

Step 1: Prioritize Personal Obligations

First thing is first, get your personal obligations on the calendar. This includes personal obligations, date nights, family time and all the fun activities you have planned for the month. 

This is where you get to choose your priorities. For me, it’s picking up my kids from school every day, blocking off days when school is out, and scheduling any special events I’ve committed to at their schools. While these may not be income-producing activities, my family is my number one priority, so they go in first.

Step 2: Schedule Existing Appointments

Next, add all your existing appointments. This includes scheduled listing appointments and client-facing meetings. Don’t forget to include recurring events like team meetings, coaching calls, and group role plays. By adding these to your calendar early, you ensure that your workweek is balanced and nothing is missed.

Step 3: Incorporate Special Events and Holidays

Now, it’s time to add any special events, holidays or celebrations. For example, my October looks like this: an annual business planning offsite, a team client event, my wedding anniversary, BAM Mania, sponsoring a community event, and Halloween. This totals more than four full days of not doing my normal activities, so I know that I’ll need to juggle my schedule this month. 

Step 4: Add Listing Launches and Transactional Obligations

Next, make sure you block out time for upcoming listing launches and transactional obligations. Include all the listing launch prep activities such as photography, videography, marketing, circle dialing, and open house prep. Time blocking these activities ensures you’re not scrambling at the last minute. 

After that, add all your transactional obligations before your calendar gets too full. This will prevent you from having to skip prospecting to attend an inspection. Keep in mind that things don’t always go according to plan. Give yourself some breathing room around these tasks, so you’re not stressed if a shoot runs late or if there is last minute changes.

Side note: Now is a great time to take note of all the special events, holidays and listing activities you know you have going on this month. This will help you start building out your monthly content calendar.

Step 5: Allocate Time for Core Business Activities

Now it’s time to add the rest of your work obligations. These are the activities I know I need to complete every month to keep the business moving forward. I understand what tasks to prioritize by consistently monitoring my business plan. This breakdown helps me determine how many hours I need to dedicate each week to prospecting, marketing, and business development.

For me, marketing and business development activities (which include working on systems and in my tech stack) are typically scheduled in two-hour blocks. Prospecting is non-negotiable and gets at least a one-hour block. It’s essential to prioritize prospecting because, unlike marketing, you can’t call homeowners at 5 AM or 9 PM, but you can catch up on marketing efforts if the day is a whirlwind.

It’s essential to stay consistent, but also realistic. If your day doesn’t go as planned, don’t stress! Shift those marketing or tech sessions to another time. Remember, it’s about progress, not perfection.

Step 6: Set Time for New Appointments

The final step in plugging in your month’s activities is to set availability for new appointments. Since I run my business on a restricted schedule, I reserve five two-hour blocks each week for new appointments. Most of these blocks are in the afternoons when I’m with my kids, but I have childcare options available if needed. I also restrict my goals to three new business appointments a week, so I am still spending my time by design. Of course, this doesn’t always go as planned—there are times I’ve scrambled to make an appointment work while annoying my kids and asking too much of my spouse—but this process has significantly improved my time management.

Embrace Flexibility, Not Rigidity

Don’t worry if the perfect plan doesn’t always play out. Allow for some flexibility to accommodate last-minute changes. The goal is to have a structure that supports you, not one that confines you. By mapping out your month with intention, you’re not just filling your calendar—you’re setting yourself up for success (and sanity). 

The key is flexibility within structure: knowing what’s essential, what’s movable, and how to pivot when life inevitably throws you a curveball. With a clear plan, you’ll be able to show up fully for your clients, your business and most importantly, yourself and your family. 

I hope to see you at BAM Mania, and I’d love to chat about how we are building businesses and lives that we love—one intentional day at a time.