You might find it difficult to be productive every day, especially when you’re a Baltimore County landlord with tons of tasks that need to be completed. It’s often tempting to get distracted by a time-waster like social media and let that distraction take over your day. While taking occasional breaks is fine, getting distracted too frequently can take a huge toll on your rental property business. After all, if you aren’t working to rent out your properties, you aren’t going to earn any money from them! To avoid letting anything stand in the way of higher profits, let’s discuss seven productivity-boosting tips to help you stay on track.
7 Productivity-Boosting Tips for Overworked Landlords
Many landlords create their own work schedules. Depending on how many properties you own, your workload may be big or small each day. That said, being a self-starter or working from home can make it hard to be productive each day. So, if you don’t have a property management company in Washington, DC, and find yourself constantly behind on your daily tasks, consider these productivity-boosting tips.
- Plan Tasks Ahead of Time
- Avoid Too Much Multitasking
- Organize Your Workspace
- Get Enough Sleep
- Use the Pomodoro Technique
- Take a Break
- Turn on Background Noise
Plan Tasks Ahead of Time
One of our best productivity-boosting tips is to plan your work ahead of time. If you don’t know what to do on any given day, you’ll find it much more tempting to spend that day wasting time. Don’t let that happen. Instead, plan your week ahead of time, outlining the tasks you must accomplish each day. This will motivate you to work hard and mark tasks as complete, and it will also help you track your productivity and accomplishments.
Tip: Are you having trouble organizing your tasks and planning your time? Try a project management program like Basecamp to create a custom calendar and task list for your rental property business.
Avoid Too Much Multitasking
As a busy landlord, you might find yourself multitasking often, but you should avoid doing so whenever possible. After all, studies have shown that multitasking can reduce your productivity by a whopping 40%. Plus, it often leads to more errors in your work, and some studies show that it can even hurt your brain.
So, next time you’re juggling several tasks at once, stop for a moment to prioritize. Figure out which tasks require immediate attention and which can be handled later. After that, you should be able to attend to one task at a time.
Organize Your Workspace
A disorganized landlord is an unproductive landlord, and your office clutter could be making you more stressed than you realize. Chances are, cleaning it up won’t take up much of your time, and doing so could help improve your efficiency and profitability. So, take a minute to sort through that dreaded stack of papers on the corner of your desk and eliminate any other messes in your workspace. You’ll thank yourself later.
Get Enough Sleep
Nothing quite kills productivity, like not getting enough sleep. If you can’t seem to relax your mind and rest at night, try these anti-insomnia techniques:
- Put Away Your Phone – The blue light emitted from your phone can slow melatonin (the hormone that helps you sleep) production in your body, so it’s important to put your phone up when you’re trying to get some rest. Try reading a book if you need something to occupy your mind before you go to sleep.
- Avoid Working From Bed – Your bedroom should be a place for sleeping, so avoid the temptation to catch up on your business tasks on your laptop at night. That way, your brain will recognize the bed as a place for rest, not work.
- Cut Out Caffeine After Noon – If you need to drink coffee, do it in the morning. If you save it for later in the day, the caffeine could keep you awake at night.
If you find yourself exhausted from a lack of sleep, try to work in a quick nap. Even 15 minutes of sleep can leave you feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of your day!
Use the Pomodoro Technique
Are you drowning in a stack of boring administrative tasks for your Washington, DC, rental property business? Try the Pomodoro Technique. It’s a popular way to manage time effectively – even for an overworked landlord forced to handle unappealing tasks.
It works like this: Divide your time differently by working in 25-minute increments, each immediately followed by a 5-minute break. These work periods are called a “Pomodoro,” and you should spend them free of distraction, focusing solely on the task at hand.
After you’ve completed 4 “Pomodoros,” take a 20-minute break. And remember, you can always customize the time increments to meet your needs. If 25 minutes isn’t enough for you to accomplish something, work for longer time periods. However, take frequent breaks to give your brain time to recover.
Tip: If you struggle to keep track of your work intervals while using this technique, download a Pomodoro timer app.
Take a Break
While it doesn’t necessarily seem like a productivity-boosting tip, taking a break is sometimes necessary to keep you going. No, you shouldn’t take a break every time you feel unproductive. But you should take a break if you have felt overworked for some time, and your exhaustion is what keeps you from working efficiently. While this seems counterintuitive, it works because it gives your body and mind some time to recharge.
Additionally, if you can, take a vacation day or two. If that isn’t possible, simply head outside to take a walk or take a break at a local park – you’d be surprised how much you can benefit from a temporary change of scenery! Here are a few places you can try:
- Catonsville Community Park
- Bear Creek Park in Dundalk
- Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum
This seemingly small break can make a huge difference in how you feel about your day, equipping you with the mindset to work more productively when you head back to the office.
Turn on Background Noise
Studies have shown that ambient noise, as long as it is not excessive, can improve creativity. It can often help with focus and productivity, too. So, if you’re having trouble working efficiently throughout your day, try adding in some background noise.
Here are a few apps you can use to do that:
- Coffitivity – This app simulates the sounds you’d hear in a busy coffee shop or a bustling college campus food court.
- Spotify – This free music app allows you to search for rainforest sounds, thunderstorm sounds, or ambient music.
- Ambiance – This app allows you to choose from thousands of free sounds and create your own personal atmosphere.
- Apple Music – If you have Apple Music, you can search through hundreds of playlists with background noise, including white noise, brown noise, pink noise, and more.
Get Help From the Professionals
If you often procrastinate or avoid tasks because you’re overwhelmed, hopefully, these productivity-boosting tips will help you stay on track. But what if you’re handling too many tasks or tasks that you simply don’t want to take care of?
A trustworthy property management company, like Bay Property Management Group, can help! Our reliable property managers can help boost your rental property business by taking those responsibilities off your hands.
We handle various tasks, including maintenance, rent collection, and tenant screening. By letting us handle those tasks, you can minimize work-related stress and spend more time doing things you enjoy! If you’re interested in learning more, contact us today. We offer services throughout Baltimore, Philadelphia, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC.
