KGCI: Real Estate on Air - From Overwhelmed to Optimized Practical Hacks for Busy People

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

So with a busy life that we all live in, there's so many times that we do feel this overwhelming feel, this stress, this anxiety of how do we actually go through our day in the most productive manner? And this is something where I've had so many of my clients, they've been talking to me and saying, hey, Stuart, you know, I look at my diary, I look at what I've got to do in the week that lies ahead. And it's just so much. I'm actually getting feel overwhelmed by what I need to do. So I want to share with you five practical hacks that you can actually implement into your life to take away the busyness and replace it with a, call it, an optimized level of productivity. And by doing this, you're going to actually feel the levels of stress will start to reduce.

you'll feel like you're actually in control more often. So here's five hacks that I'm going to actually share with you. That's going to help you through this particular process. Now, the very first one is having a look at what we like to refer to as our to-do list. You see, every day, every week, we actually have this list. And this list just has so many items on it. We need to, but then we also have the business side where we need to get certain projects completed, deliver certain tasks to certain individuals.

And when we start looking at this to do list, it actually becomes overwhelming. So what we really need to do to start with is we need to tame that to do list. And by doing it, what I really mean is we need to prioritize those strategies. and I'm going to share with you a technique that will help you to take that to-do list of all those items and really structured in such a manner that you can actually go through it in a timely process. So the first one is when you start looking at your to-do list, what you really need to start looking at is which of those items actually drains your time. those particular tasks that when you start it can go on for hours.

And really, once you've completed it, you're exhausted. You actually don't have any energy to do anything else. And really, the very first part of looking at a to-do list and prioritizing is having a look at those time-draining activities. And on that, also looking at the activities that's going to move you closer to you achieving your goals. Once you start to actually identifying those type of activities, the activities that move into your goal and those activities that just drain you, what you'll actually be able to do is you'll actually then start to put them into a structure of what do you start with first.

What is the sequence of those particular items in your to-do list? And you can then follow this on with a method, and it's called the Eisenhower matrix, and it's very straightforward and simple. Once you've got your to do list and you've identified those particular tasks, it's going to move you closer to your goal, there's time draining ones. The Eisenhower matrix, really what it does, it takes those items and says, what is urgent or what is important? And really, you ask yourself the question, is it urgent? Yes.

Is it important? Yes. Well, that's going to go to the top of my list. and as you start going down that particular list, you're going to start identifying. Is it urgent? Well, it's not actually urgent. I could finish it next week. Is it important?

Well, it has a level of importance. So it's going to come somewhere in the middle. But then you're going to start getting to those ones which is it urgent. It's not urgent. Is it important? It's not important. Well, those are going to go to the bottom of your list. So using that Eisenhower matrix really helps to sort out that to-do list so that you actually

know where to start and how to actually prioritize as you're going through it. Now, there's going to be certain tasks that you're going to feel, hey, this is urgent and this is important. But is it related to you? Is it your responsibility? And so many times we do find, especially in the working world, there are items on our list that are put on our tables. That's actually not for us. But we just say yes to it. Yeah, of course I'll do it. Bring it to me. And that starts to stress and overload you. So really what you need to do is when you're going through those lists and you're prioritizing and putting into that order, you need to look at those items that are not yours. And you need to learn to start saying no. That's not for me. That is for somebody else. When you can start identifying it,

you might even find that 25% of those items on your to-do list, in fact, act was not originally for you to do. It was for somebody else and they've actually just shifted it onto yourself to get you to do it. So the very first one is taming that to do list so that you can at least get that structure where you can actually breathe. Now, the second hack that I want to share with you and this is something that we all experience. We get up in the mornings, we turn on our phone and that little icon for the emails. suddenly has a number, 86, 122. And now we start to almost get this overwhelming feeling.

Or throughout the day, as you're going through the day, you're actually just watching that icon or you're getting those notifications on your computer. Email just come in. Email come in. Email come in. Email come in. Email come in. And ultimately, emails become a distraction. And yes, they are important. We need to respond to. them. However, what we need to do is we need to conquer that inbox in such a manner that you have the power to be in control of it. So how do we do that? Well, the first thing is when your emails come through, don't just automatically say, hey, a notification, let me jump onto it. What you really need to do is you need to start what I refer to as batching them. Have a time in the morning, have a time in the afternoon, have a time in the afternoon, have a time in

late afternoon. That's actually for emails. Now, for myself, I actually have a time in the morning where I spend probably about 20 to 30 minutes to go through those emails. And in that period, they will actually take care of probably 90% of the emails from the day before. And I can then respond to all of those emails. Emails that then come through the day, I have another batch slot, which is in the late afternoon for about 10 to 15 minutes. So I only check the emails twice a day. And by doing that, it gives me the time to focus on everything else. Because this is what happens when we respond to an email straight away. We get stuck and we go into the second email. Then there's the third email. Then suddenly we're going into the trash,

into the deleted side. And we're looking for an email. Then it's the sent I that then takes us to start doing research, which is now going into the internet. And ultimately, we down that rabbit hole. So first thing, take your emails, schedule times where you can batch to do all of your emails. The second thing that you can do with your emails is you can actually put in filters into your emails. And what I mean by filters is there's a little option in your emails when they come in that when an email comes in from a certain individual, it can automatically go into a certain folder. And by doing that, it actually starts to sort out your emails for you. Now, by doing that, it really gives you this advantage that you can be very specific.

If you've got emails from a certain client or maybe from a certain person, And if it goes into that email, you know it's a level of priority. So when you go into it, you can see, hey, there's two emails from it and you can go straight to it. Else, when you look at your mailbox and you've received 50, 60, 100 emails, you could overlook that one email. Plus, looking at 50 to 100 emails becomes overwhelming. So go through and set up those filters whereby when an email comes in, it can automatically sort it into those particular folders. and that gives you that opportunity to dive straight into that folder, respond to it, and you can move on with the rest of your day.

And the third one with regards to emails. And you're going to find this. Two, three years ago, you subscribed to a mail list, a newsletter. And that little newsletter then decided that they wanted to create three or four more newsletters under that same opt-in that you subscribed to two, three years ago. So instead of you just receiving one email a month from that particular supplier or person, you're now receiving for a week from this person. And ultimately, it starts becoming a little bit of spam. So my big recommendation, if an email from a certain individual has zero relevance to you at all, and you can

foresee there's never going to be any relevance in the future, unsubscribe. It is the quickest way. I actually do this pretty much once a month. I have a look at the emails that then come through and I unsubscribe. I actually just move them into a folder when they do come in. I just immediately move them into a certain folder. And once a month, I will go through them to see if there's any relevancy, if there's zero relevance, I unsubscribe.

And what you're going to find is those 50 to 80 emails. that you're getting in, normally a vast majority of them can actually be unsubscribed that reduces your mailbox. So use that as a particular technique to help you conquering those emails because I know those emails can feel very, very overwhelming, especially when you get them throughout the day. So batch them and work with them in a timeless manner. The third hack that I want to share with you is quite a powerful hack, because everything that we've spoken about really goes around time of when we're going to do things. Got a to-do list. When am I going to do this particular item? When am I to look at my emails?

So ultimately what we really need to start doing. And the third hack is we need to start mastering our diary. We need to master our calendars. And really, by mastering it, we want to make sure that we get the peak performance out of our calendar in the day. We have eight hours in a day. We have eight hours in a day. We want to make sure or working hours in a day. We want to make sure that we maximize those eight hours. We don't want it to extend to 12, 14, 16 hours in a day where it's just scattered. You, by being focused, can actually work less and achieve more by just having that structure. It all starts with your calendar. So the first one is time blocking. It's basically looking at your calendar and breaking it down to these little

blocks. Now, I would personally suggest sets up these blocks for no more than one hour at a time. And in one hour, you're going to just focus on one of those to-do list items or one of those particular activities. And the reason why I do an hour is our energy level really lasts for about 45 minutes. And after 45 minutes, what we find is we start getting a little bit fatigued. We start feeling either thirsty, hungry, so from a nutritional point of view, or we start feeling the aches and pains in our body because we've been sitting for such a long time and we need to do that movement. So scheduling these one hour blocks really allows you to focus on one activity and put all your time and energy into that one focused. Now, because we've really looked at our

to-do list, we know using the Eisenhower matrix, what we should be doing first, well, then it's becomes easy. Take those items and just put them into your time blocks starting from the morning and working your way through the day. Now between those time blocks, take a break. Get up, walk, get something to drink, refresh your energy. Do that between those particular break. So when you come back into the next, if you want to call a time block session, you've got that new energy that you can actually move forward with. Now, doing these time blocks, make sure that you do it in a realistic manner. We find that it's so easy for you to sit in front of your calendar and say, right, from seven till eight, I'm going to do this, eight till nine, I'm going to do this,

nine until ten. But realistically, what you actually forget about is, well, maybe you're actually traveling to the office and you're only getting to the office at maybe, let's say, 10 past seven. And when you get into the office and to your desk, it's only about half past seven, which means you can only really start, maybe quarter to eight. So we, we're going to get into the office. So we, you start doing these time blocks, make sure that it's realistic. I've done a suggestion to a lot of my clients that start the more intense time blocks from either 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock. Don't start them too early in the actual day.

And also, have a look at the environment that you're actually in. If it's something where you're going to start a time block session at 8 o'clock in the morning, but everybody's coming into the office and there's a lot of noise and there's a lot of buzz and there's a lot of distractions that happens at that time. That could actually hinder you focusing on that particular activity. So look at that environment and make sure that you're realistic in that scheduling so that you can be absolutely focused in that time period. Now, it's easy to put things into a time calendar and then say, right, there's my time block.

I've got everything throughout the day and you're going to feel great about it. But then we need to start implementing it. And that can become a challenge, especially when we're not always having our calendar sitting in front of us. We might have multiple screens. We might be busy on the road. So use technology. I've suggested using things like Google Calendar or your app calendars on Apple and so forth.

Sync it to your phone with notifications that just pings it and says, hey, by the way, you've actually got this particular task to do it in this particular time block session. Leverage technology to help you. What will happen over the next probably two to three months of doing that, it's going to start becoming a habit. And you'll find that you'll be doing certain priority tasks at certain times of the day and the week and it becomes habit for you. And you will get to a point where you'll be able to restrict those notifications and reduce them down. And you'll be able to carry on feeling that level of, I'm in control of my particular calendar. So, third hack, make sure that you can master your calendar.

It's so, so important. The fourth hack is this workflow process. And really, when we start looking at those priorities that are coming in, we know what's urgent, We know what needs to be done today. However, there are times that there are certain tasks that needs to be done in sequence in order for it to have the greatest output. And if we are jumping all over the place with different tasks from different departments or stuff like that, it can actually also overwhelm us. So when we are putting things in together into our actual calendars,

just make sure that you've got a level of workflow. I actually find that have your workflow where the most intense items that are collective in a certain category are done early in the week. And let them slowly start flowing down towards Thursday, Friday, because you're going to feel a little bit exhausted by the end of the week because you've put on all that time and energy and use that gray matter, the brain. And it does become a little bit exhausted. So go through that particular process of workflow, but actually recognize what you're doing. And here it's something whereby I actually have this on a Monday, I'll have a certain level of tasks, and I actually tick them off so that I can actually see what has been done in this flow going forward. You see, having a workflow that has a systematic approach to achieve a certain outcome,

really gives you this focus of this road that you're, or this journey that you're actually going on ahead of you. So make sure that you're doing that with this particular workflow. There's also certain things whereby when a certain task is initiated. So let's use emails because we've used that in the previous hack. If an email comes in, you could actually set up auto responders. Hey, thank you for your email. I will respond to you in the next. say eight to 10 hours or later in the day or I don't have direct access to my emails.

I will respond as soon as possible. Just by giving that automated response, it actually gives a flow where someone goes, hey, fine, someone has seen it and it gives you that time. You see, this is streamlining your workflow as you're going through your particular day. You can set up triggers. And those particular triggers can just automatically start to have. happen and go into play. And that does help you through this process because there are certain tasks that can be automated. And when you're looking at your workflow in your particular day,

you know, I've said to you, there are going to be tasks that's going to land in your to-do list that really isn't for you. And there's also tasks that yes, they're for you. However, you could delegate it to somebody else. you could actually say to somebody else because it is part of their job description, they can do maybe 80% of it and then hand it back to you, which then alleviates it. So when you're looking at your tasks, you don't have to do them 100%. It might be that you could leverage somebody to fill in their portion of it. So get that delegation and going out.

So look at that workflow. When you're looking at your calendar, the time block of what you're doing in the day, make sure that there is a sequence, that they are flowing to a certain direction, identifying that if there is something, maybe it could be automatically triggered. So the response goes through without you having to get involved with it. Or look to see if maybe it could be leveraged and handed over to somebody else. It's so easy as that. So look at that workflow.

Now, the fifth hack is probably one of the most importance. You see, as a coach, I used to coach people and really push and drive them to achieve their particular goals. And one of the key elements that I got to realize is we're human beings. Our body needs energy. We also have a personal life. And sometimes the stress of our personal life comes into our professional life. And there can be this imbalance between a work and a life. And that can have a negative impact in overloading and making you feel overwhelmed in your particular day.

Now, how do we overcome this? Well, when we're at work and in our professional life, what we really need to do is we need to be cognate that we are a human being. And that's one of the reasons why when I look at the calendar and I do those time blocks, I say block them for an hour. Have a break, walk away, go get something to drink, and then get into the next hour. Have these multiple small breaks. I'm not saying take a two-hour break, but take these small little breathing breaks that you can just get your eyes to refocus on nature that's around you, listening to what's happening, but not falling into the distractions of the people around you. Take these regular breaks throughout the day. and what's so important is make sure that you're actually scheduling them not late in the evenings.

Make sure that you are having them between all of those time blocks. And when you do schedule those breaks, don't just use it where you stand up, stretch, sit down and carry on. It needs to be a separation from the environment that you're currently in. Now, on top of this, because you're. you're going throughout the day and you're putting in 40, 50 hours in a week sometimes, our body needs energy. We need that energy that's going to help us to maintain those 40, 50 hours in the week. And how do we do that? Well, that actually comes from having healthy habits.

Healthy habits like sleeping, making sure that you're getting enough sleep in your body because when you sleep, it actually starts to almost repair the body. You're resting in that state and it repairs the body. Getting exercise so that you can get that blood flow through your body. In fact, it's actually proven that when you're doing exercise and you're getting that heart rate beating, it actually adds more oxygenated blood to your brain, which sounds obvious because there's more blood going through your body, but getting more oxygenated blood through to your brain helps you to start thinking clearer. So get those exercise in. And obviously, make sure that you're eating, but not just having the fast foods and the quick snacks, high sugar levels and stuff, make sure that you're eating a nutritional

diet. So breakfast, whether it's a lunch and a dinner, small snack, something of that basis. I'm not a nutritional expert, but I do know. that if I eat incorrectly, man, it has a negative impact. I can feel so lethargic in the day and I don't want to work. So make sure that you've got those in place so that you can actually give your body the best amount of energy to actually start going forward because when you start feeling fatigued,

well, everything starts to feel overwhelmed. So make sure that you've got those healthy habits in place when you're actually going through. Make sure that you say, thank you. just review it first. Give yourself the opportunity to think before you respond. Because ultimately what can happen is you can take on so much workload that it actually then overloads you. It stresses you out. You take that into your personal life where you're not sleeping. You'll start having bad eating habits. You're not going to be doing any exercises and that is going to start making the circle

back into your professional life and then it becomes, well, almost uncontrollable. Have a look at any task, any item, any commitment that is loaded onto you. Make sure that you just say, hey, let me just review this quickly. You can set out loud or you can just internalize it and look to see how is this going to affect your self-care. Making sure that it does not affect it. If it does affect it, respectfully tell the person. person, hey, by doing this, I just don't have the time in the day. Or I need to make sure that I

complete this particular project. I can't work straight through the nights and get this completed. Have that particular discussion and set those boundaries. Because by doing that, you're going to find your self-care is going to improve and you're going to help yourself throughout this particular process. So as a quick little recap, the very first thing is make sure that you're going to improve. You're going to sure that you're taming your to-do list, making sure that you're in control of it and you know what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing. The second, Wells is inboxes. It always comes up the inbox. Make sure that you can put it in such a structure in a manner that you can work through it and you can overcome that overwhelming feeling of having two, three, four hundred

emails that haven't been answered. The third, master your calendar. Make sure that you've got the strength to work through that particular calendar in such a manner that works. works for you. And remember the time blocks inside of it. The fourth streamline that workflow. Make sure that there's a sequence of those workflows that work together. See if there's anything autonomous that can automatically be triggered. Maybe you can even hand something and leverage to somebody else. But remember, you don't want to affect them in their self-care. And the fifth hack, which is obviously so important. You are a human being. Take care of yourself. Remember, your self-care is important.

What will you be able to do if you didn't have your body, if you didn't have your mind, and if you didn't have the energy to do anything? That will create those levels of stress and you're going to feel overwhelmed. So that is quick and simple to show you how, if you're feeling overwhelmed, how you can overcome it so that you can have an optimized day, week and month that goes ahead. Now there you have it. The key hacks to move from overwhelmed to optimized. Remember, taking control of your time is the first step to feeling calmer and more productive. Implement these strategies and watch your stress levels melt away. Stay tuned for more time management tips on The Simple Truth with Stewart.